WDH too much tension and how would you know?

JBarca wrote:

1L243 wrote:

So, not happy with this , in my driveway so I dont' have weights for this only measurements, I added one extra washer on the WDH to drop the bars a little so I could get more tension and still have level bars.

Doing this transferred more weight the front, front wheel well measurement dropped and the rear came up. But I had to really lift the truck and trailer with the Jack and it was a bear to get the springs set.But I had to really lift the truck and trailer with the Jack and it was a bear to get the springs set. So, I was wondering just how much force can I put on those WDH bars!

A good qty of good advice has already been shared. And when you dump the air in the bags down to 5 psi things are working but just not enough yet.

I sense you still may be dealing with a hitching problem which is why you are asking about can the bars be too tight and it is a bear to hook up.

First off, I agree those 1,000# WD bars are not enough for that trailer with the weight you have. Getting larger bars is a good start to getting the WD set right on the truck.

Now the hitching issue, I am using 1,700# bars on a 1,600# loaded tongue weight. There is no way I can lift that kind of spring bar safely using a pipe. You have to unload the WD bar when hitching and you can flip up the snap up by hand if you want.

The key is, you first hitch the trailer to the ball coupler and lock the ball coupler. Then you lift both the trailer and the back of the truck up high enough until you can swing the snap ups with 2 fingers (by hand, and yes 2 fingers will work when high enough. Most trailer jacks do not go high enough to allow this to happen. So you need a 6" block of wood or other material to put under the tongue jack and then you can get the height. Yes, it looks like the back of the truck is sky high, but that is what it takes.

Once the snap up's are latched up, then let the jack down and it will load up the WD bars safely and easy. When unhitching, do the same thing. Get the trailer and truck up high enough to unload the WD bars, and USE the pipe to make sure the snap up will not fly down. I always tap the chains to make sure they are not banjo tight still before I ever attempt to unlatch.

When you get your 1,500# bars this will become a mandate to get the trailer and truck up high enough. Do like I do, get a friendly 6" block of wood and keep it in the camper all the time for the tongue jack. It is your friend for dealing with large WD bars.

Hope this helps

John

The process you describe is the method I am using but I don't think I am going as high with the truck and trailer as you are. I thought I might be putting too much load on the 3500# jack. I am only lifting the truck and trailer 2" higher than the stock truck height. I will experiment tying to lift a little higher.

When I get my heavier bars I will redo all the measurements and reweigh...