Straight from B&W

Ok---a little bit puzzled here ???how did this topic appear out of the blue????:h

Anyways the drawdown bolt with 40 PSI on it-(LBS torque) the main purpose of it is to stabilize and because you're pulling up on that pin that holds the bar in--- OK and then you put 60 or 80 LBS TORQUE on the U-Bolts.(dont remember which)

The bar is transferring the load or torsion down to your frame Mount --and like he said the plates part is just kind of stabilized and everything.

If you look at it 40 pounds of torque is not very much at all.

40 LBS TORQUE PRESSURE, Spread out over thr LENGTH& WIDTH of the Companion"Base"..... Really is negligible-- hardly any pressure at all when you spread it out over that square footage.

The TUBE is transfering the Weight,Tension,etc---- to the Turnover mount,which transfers it to THE FAME.:W

My neighbor across the street just put a turnover ball and Companion in his 12 GM. I don't know why, he has no use for a ball! He came over and asked me , and I said in his case, he'd be better off with rails and Patriot, but he spent twice as much and went with the ball. That set up has sold well over the years, for people that needed a ball, and FW hitch. I am thinking that the U-bolts are gone from the newer Companion?

The later model truck beds are getting thinner, making this less than ideal IMO. The plastic bed inserts will help, but they installed them wrong on my neighbors truck. The puck system will be the future, even GM finally got on board. It sure took them a while.

Jerry

Actually it's called the "Draw Down Bolt", not "Hold Down Bolt". And basically it just takes the slack out of the system between the ball and the pin that holds the ball in the base.

I guess if I got out my dial gauge and mag base I could measure the amount of deflection present when I put my toyhauler on the hitch, but I'd have to use that because I sure can't see anything.

laknox wrote:
OK, guys. Here's the straight scoop from a B&W engineer. As I contended in another thread, he said that the Turnover Ball base and Companion FW hitch =system=, carries the vast majority of the pin load through the hold-down receiver and into the TO Ball base and to the truck frame. The feet of the Companion =stabilize= the lateral forces to the bed and carry very little of the pin weight. He called them "outriggers, in effect". Doesn't matter that there's a certain amount of tension on the draw-down bolt, or not; you have to look at the entire =system= to see where the forces are acting.

Again, this was direct from a B&W engineer and not something I pulled from the same place that RV dealers pull MSRP numbers.

Lyle

:h :h :h

Must be a heck of a lot of deflection in the bed floor then!!

The "Hold Down Bolt" is tightened to 40 ft. Lb. as the the hitch is installed. so the whole assembly is now pressing down into the bed on the base, not the ball base.
Now the "U" bolts are tightened around the RV post to 80 ft. lbs.
So to put weight on the RV post you will need to deflect the bed a bit.

good info. Just made a stop/overnight with my Patriot 18k....solid as a rock :)