My lady wants to know: Effort Hooking up WD bars

Be aware that a manual jack is going to crank much harder when you're lifting the rear of the vehicle along with the tongue of the trailer. It's a workout. Hopefully both of her shoulders aren't bad.

SoundGuy wrote:

RTFMOK wrote:
My lady wants to know how much effort is involved in hooking up WD bars.

I do know they are easier to apply if the tongue jack is raised fully first.

Regardless of the type of WD system you're using, regardless of whether you use a power tongue jack or crank manually, the amount of effort required to mount the WD spring bars will always be much easier the longer the mounting tool is. I happen to run a Reese trunnion bar system with 800 lb spring bars and the snap up handle supplied with it was just 18" long, which is fairly typical ... I've extended it to 30" using a length of PVC tubing so the increased leverage makes the task of lifting those spring bars into place MUCH easier. :B

SoundGuy,

You do know if you raise the tongue jack high enough (while hitched up to the tow vehicle), you never have to use a cheater bar at all to lift those snap up handles. The higher it's jacked up, the less effort it takes to snap them up. When I had my old Reese system with those same snap-ups, I never had to use any extra bars. I cranked the tongue up high enough, I could just lift them by hand.

Same with my (now) Equal-i-zer. I never use the bar that came with the system. Simply crank the the tongue up and those bars set right in those L-brackets.

Unless your tongue jack is in the bottom of dip, you really never need to use the cheater bar (pipe). Just crank the tongue up higher.

RTFMOK wrote:
My lady wants to know how much effort is involved in hooking up WD bars.

I do know they are easier to apply if the tongue jack is raised fully first.

Regardless of the type of WD system you're using, regardless of whether you use a power tongue jack or crank manually, the amount of effort required to mount the WD spring bars will always be much easier the longer the mounting tool is. I happen to run a Reese trunnion bar system with 800 lb spring bars and the snap up handle supplied with it was just 18" long, which is fairly typical ... I've extended it to 30" using a length of PVC tubing so the increased leverage makes the task of lifting those spring bars into place MUCH easier. :B

BarneyS wrote:
1. Couple the trailer to the truck and latch the coupler.

2. Insert the WD bars into the hitch head but do not try to chain them up yet to the snap-up brackets.

3. Raise the tongue of the trailer with the jack until the rear of the truck is raised several inches above normal.

4. Try to chain up the WD bars to the snap-ups. If the effort is too high, raise the tongue some more with the jack. Keep this up until you can tighten the chains with the snap-ups easily.

5. When the chains are tightened, lower the tongue(raise the jack foot) all the way up and hook up the emergency cord, chains, and light cord.

6. You should be ready to go. Very little effort required except turning the jack handle. This is why many use an electric tongue jack on our trailers. I would also try raising the back of the truck a short bit again to make sure the coupler is securely fastened.
Barney

x2 all of this is what i do.

especially #6 to make sure coupler is fastened. sometimes looks can be deceiving

Power tongue jack for the win. I would never be without one. It makes the process so much easier, especially on a hot day.

After locking the trailer coupler on the hitch ball, I use the (4000# rated) tongue jack to raised the tongue/rear of truck about 6 or 8 inches. I can then put the WD bars on with one hand. Easy Peasy. Without raising the rear of the truck enough, I have to have a cheater bar to do it.

I'm almost 59. Shoulders and back not so good because I was a self employed doing roofing and siding most of my life. Anyway, Our TT didn't come with a electric jack and I told my wife I don't need one. Well I never had a TT that needed a WDH and just got this camper in December. After I installed my WDH and have taken the bars off and on cranking the jack got old fast. As I was installing my new electric jack my wife came outside and said (I thought you didn't need that)..My wife is older than I and forgets things at times but its funny she didn't forget this.

I was looking at electric tongue jacks yesterday (just a quick peek). On amazon, they range from about $80 to over $200.

I did see that at least some include a manual ability presumably against motor failure or dead batteries.

I agree they are nice, and will have to look closer at quality versus cost.

But a competing priority came up while getting ready for the test tow yesterday. The TT tires are 8 years old... Will start another thread on that.

And I will be back to this thread later today, got some measurements of the combined setup and have a few more questions on WD setups.

I'm in mostly good shape for my 58 years, but do have beat up shoulders. Electric tongue Jack is a necessity. They're cheap enough compared to the potential physical pain and damage from cranking on the jack or the bars. They make hitching and unhitching much faster too.

Thanks for all the replies!

I agree on the electric tongue jack, but since we can both still operate it, it is a luxury.

My lady has more RV experience than I do, though I probably have more general towing experience. It's wonderful to have a partner that can back a trailer at least as well as I can.

For her, weight distribution is a new thing. She has a new-to-her tow rig and and the combo with her trailer is right on the edge for weight distribution (I have another thread on that).

But the separate question on her hooking up and disconnecting the bars was this separate topic. Sending her a link to this thread so she can read it for herself.

I did especially like the insight on the head possibly being harder than the bars. This was also something I was looking at with the Blue Ox. It looks like the heaviest of the products I'm looking at. I'll note that in my hitch selection thread, along with some other details.

She is going to do a short test tow this afternoon to a nearby flat lot; we will get some measurements. No WD, a couple miles no faster than 35. The TT is just barely above dry weight at the moment.