Towing

bridma · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 6:41 pm Post subject: Towing

I changed my truck to a bigger model. When I hooked up the trailer and the boat (fully loaded), the front of the trailer, just before the hitch, was one and a half inches lower to the ground than the rear of the trailer.
I thought of getting a new hitch ball one inch higher than the present one. That should make the trailer somewhat level thinks me. A friend said I should get a new hitch two inches higher as tongue weight will still push down on the hitch.
Should I (a) Get a one inch higher hitch. (b) Get a two inch higher hitch. (c) Do nothing, leave as is.
What are your thoughts.

Martin.

hardee · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 6:57 pm Post subject:

HI Martin,

Congrats on the new truck. You have a tandem axle trailer so you need to have it level if possible. Without knowing anything more, I'd say go with the 2" change, which would give you 2" of lift, allowing for some increased weight in the truck bed or boat, forward of the axle.

I'm pretty sure you have brakes o your trailer. Are both axles braked, or only one, and which one. The 2" lift will put a bit more weight on the rear axle, and if that is where the brakes are, those hubs are going to run hotter. If the front axle is braked, I's stay with the 2" lift. If the rear axle is the only one braked, then I would be OK with the 1" and let the front carry a bit more of the load, evening out the hub heat.

If you are within 1/2 inch of level, I don't think that is a huge difference, and might be adjusted with load ballast, (fuel tanks empty or full, same with water, and food stores etc.)

All of that is worth about $0.02 but since your a good Brat, I'll give it to you for free Laughing

Harvey
SleepyC Moon

journey on · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 7:19 pm Post subject:

Geometry is geometry.

If the difference between front and rear is 2", raising the front 1" will lower the rear 1". That assumes the trailer wheels are about in the centre. If not, a different ratio applies.

Why don't you use a jack and see how much you need? Just set up the trailer and truck, jack the hitch up until the trailer is level and measure the change. If the trailer/hitch goes up the rear of the trailer goes down.

I understand that that's the situation when the boat/trailer is loaded and hitched to the truck.

Boris

Kushtaka · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 7:28 pm Post subject:

This type of thing can get a bit deceptive. Your trailer won't pivot in the exact center, thus 1" at the tongue won't quite be 1" at the transom. If you can figure out the distance from the pivot point to the front and rear points being compared, and know how many degrees it needs to be adjusted, then some high-school trigonometry will get you your answer fairly exactly.

That said, your trailer wheels (pivot) are probably a bit to the rear of center, so you will have to add more adjustment to the front to get less adjustment to the rear. I'm going with 2" They make adjustable hitches too. I use one frequently. It's pretty good!

Sunbeam · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:02 pm Post subject:

I like to have my tandem as close to level as possible. Sure, nothing's perfect, but to my mind all the more reason to start out as level as you can reasonably be. When I switched vehicles I had the same issue. I had it all worked out just right on my previous rig, but the ball height was not exactly the same on the new rig, plus there was the variable of how much the tongue weight would push the hitch ball down (and to top it off, more distance from rear axle to hitch ball thus more leverage).

What I did was set it up with the old gear. This showed the ball to be around 1" low from where it would need to be to have the trailer frame level to the ground. I then had two choices. One was to use a drawbar with an additional 1" rise; the other was to use the same drawbar but with a ball that had a one inch rise built into the base. Since I already had two drawbars, I was able to just buy the ball with the 1" rise and have a few different combinations to choose from.

The winner turned out to be the lower drawbar with the 1" rise ball. Either would have worked though (but there were other factors that made the ball riser slightly better). I think when you are only talking one or two inches, the tongue weight (and hence the "press down" of your tow rig) is not going to change that much, so you can probably just add what you need. Of course if it doesn't turn out just right, then adjust.

To set it all up I parked in a Home Depot parking lot (in the back forty) that was level and had good pavement - so I could measure pretty well.

Ultimately, I "re-tested" by checking my four hubs with an infrared thermometer, looking to see them all similar (to me if one axle had been running hotter, then likely that axle would have been getting more weight). It all turned out fine, and almost took longer to write about than to do.

I can't see changing the actual hitch. You may haul a variety of trailers, or something might change, and that is commonly accommodated by varying drawbars and/or hitch balls.

hardee · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:34 pm Post subject:

Sunbeam is right. The draw bar or ball would be the place to make the change, not the whole hitch.

Hitch = the part bolted to the frame of your tow rig -> truck.
Draw bar = the 2x2 tube insert that has the drop for the ball to mount onto.
Ball = Laughing

well, you get it.

Harvey
SleepyC Moon

Aurelia · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 9:00 pm Post subject:

We use an adjustable unit and it really has been good for us to adjust the load level on various trailers. There are many styles and we only paid about 60 bucks for ours.

some examples.

https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Ball_Mounts-sf-Adjustable_Ball_Mount.aspx

Greg

rogerbum · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 9:09 pm Post subject:

I also bought an adjustable hitch. Not only is it nice for the boat on my truck, it can be adjusted to take other trailers or to use on someone else's truck if for some reason mine has problems. If you're getting a lot of drop on the truck when you hook up the trailer, assuming the tongue weight is in the desired range, you might also consider beefing up the truck's rear end with air springs or another option.

Marco Flamingo · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:02 am Post subject:

I would first make sure that it's not a tongue weight issue. I like the idea of an adjustable hitch, depending on the tow vehicle. I towed with a pickup for years. When I put the same gear on my SUV, the rattling of the stinger, hitch on the ball, etc. was transmitted into the vehicle, so I bought some anti-rattle pins. These are more time consuming to attach, and I'm not sure whether the adjustable hitch could be stabilized enough to eliminate noise in my tow vehicle.

Mark