I have a Wildwood trailer and use an Equil-i-zer hitch. On my current F150 and a previous Ram 1500 the pressure on the bars not equal. When I go to hookup, the street side bar takes very little raising of the jack to engage. When the street side bar is engaged, the curb side bar is still an inch below the perch.Both bars are straight and there doesn’t appear to be any frame issues.Has any body set the L brackets at a different height so that the pressure on each is equal?

I have a gmc 2500 and my set up does the same thing. I have not changed anything. Be interesting to hear what others have to say.

My Equal-i-zer did the same. The hitch shaft in your receiver has some slop in it. It's just enough that it causes the head to rock a little. The first side you put on will pull the hitch down, making it fairly easy to put the bar on that side. It's now under tension and pulling downward. The other side is now higher. But the bar on the other side has to be lifted higher and with more force to get on. Once on and the fact is raised, both sides are the same.Tip...raise the tongue attached to the toe vehicle higher up, to where there is no tension at all on either side. The higher up the tongue, the easier the bars lift up. No need for the cheater at all.I raised mine high enough I would lift the bars on the L bracket with the toe of my foot Again, it may seem like it is unequal tension, that's because of the rocking due to slop in the receiver shaft.Keep the L brackets the same length or you will have only one bar bearing the entire load.

A secondary aspect you alluded to is that there may be a downslope, from the road "crowning", from the the center of the road down to the curb. The TT & TV setting cross slope has been a bother for me several times when attaching and removing the load bars.

DutchmenSport wrote:My Equal-i-zer did the same. The hitch shaft in your receiver has some slop in it. It's just enough that it causes the head to rock a little. As an anti rattle device, I drilled and tapped a 1/2” bolt through the bottom of the receiver/shank. I tighten the grade 8 bolt to about 90 FP. The shank is pulled down tight to the receiver and absolutely will not rock. It doesn’t matter which side I hook up first, the curb side is always lower

My receiver has a fair amount of slop, so I would never notice something like this. It would just center itself. Is it possible that your 2" opening is not totally square to the back of the truck? And by locking the receiver into the hitch you are forcing it to be at a bit of an angle? Or there could be a degree of error in the actual receiver shank/hitch attachment.I've not heard of anyone having the L brackets at different heights side to side, might be interesting to shoot Equal-i-zer an email and ask, I'd be interested in their response.

Offset L brackets | Good Sam Community

13 Replies

delwhjr
Explorer
Nov 15, 2018
Why not email equal-i-zer support. They are very good at responding to questions.
opnspaces
Navigator III
Nov 15, 2018
I wonder if the tongue jack maybe under pressure of lifting the rear of the Tow Vehicle (TV)is causing some twisting. Here's something maybe interesting to check when you get back home. Try backing the TV up until the bars can reach the L brackets but before the tongue hits the ball. Now with the trailer not touching the hitch are the bars level? Try dropping the tongue jack of the trailer until you can just barely swing one bar on. Does the other bar go on easily as well? What if you loosen your added set bolt, can you get either bar to slide on first and difficulty with the second bar?
opnspaces
Navigator III
Nov 15, 2018
One of the bars on my Equal-i-zer is always lower than the other. I think in my case it's the drivers side (left) that seems to sag. I've never given it much thought as to cause though. I always assumed it just mattered which bar I lifted on first.
JIMNLIN
Explorer III
Nov 11, 2018
I would ask the mod to move you over to the travel trailer (towing) forum for a lot more input. Or PM Barney (towing forum moderator) or contributors JBarca or Ron Gratz. Lots of WD knowledge over there.

I have a new WD hitch (2 trips) and can load a bar on one side or the other first and the other is always a inch + or so short. The pry bar tool does its jobs and flips the bar in place.
joshuajim
Explorer II
Nov 10, 2018
OP here. Please reread the part about the 1/2” bolt that locks the shank tight into the receiver. NO slop there. Bars are straight and swapping doesnt help. With bars in place both measure the exact same distance from the ground at the ends. Both L brackets are within 1/4” of each other to the ground at the camp site I’m in. Didn’t have to do any side to side leveling.

I’m out camping for the next week so I’ll put the rotary laser level (+/- 1/32”} on everything when I get back onto my dead level pad.

Strange.
harley4275
Explorer
Nov 09, 2018
That is normal as the hitch receiver and hitch are not exact fits...a bit of room so there is a bit of twist room.
camperdave
Explorer
Nov 08, 2018
joshuajim wrote:
camperdave wrote:
My receiver has a fair amount of slop, so I would never notice something like this. It would just center itself. Is it possible that your 2" opening is not totally square to the back of the truck? And by locking the receiver into the hitch you are forcing it to be at a bit of an angle? Or there could be a degree of error in the actual receiver shank/hitch attachment.

I've not heard of anyone having the L brackets at different heights side to side, might be interesting to shoot Equal-i-zer an email and ask, I'd be interested in their response.

I put a digital level on the receiver when the truck was level. Only a few tenths of a degree off. Not enough to cause the problem.

I also noticed that after a trip Ijust made, the street side L bracket still has some rust on the friction surface and the curb side is scrubbed clean with some scouring.

I believe that the curb side bar is doing the majority of the work.

I would try to figure out what's up. Where is the misalignment? Have you flipped the bars? does one side of the trailer sit low? Something is not straight. There's only a few places the misalignment can be, seems like it would be something you could isolate.

I guess the obvious place to look is the square holes the bars slide into. If one is worn or has more slop, it's going to hold the bar at a different angle than the other. I know I cracked one of those holes years ago, they hold a tremendous about of force!

I'd think shimming the square holes or raising an L bracket would provide the same functional result, but fixing it at the holes would be more aesthetically pleasing to me.
joshuajim
Explorer II
Nov 08, 2018
camperdave wrote:
My receiver has a fair amount of slop, so I would never notice something like this. It would just center itself. Is it possible that your 2" opening is not totally square to the back of the truck? And by locking the receiver into the hitch you are forcing it to be at a bit of an angle? Or there could be a degree of error in the actual receiver shank/hitch attachment.

I've not heard of anyone having the L brackets at different heights side to side, might be interesting to shoot Equal-i-zer an email and ask, I'd be interested in their response.

I put a digital level on the receiver when the truck was level. Only a few tenths of a degree off. Not enough to cause the problem.

I also noticed that after a trip Ijust made, the street side L bracket still has some rust on the friction surface and the curb side is scrubbed clean with some scouring.

I believe that the curb side bar is doing the majority of the work.
camperdave
Explorer
Nov 08, 2018
My receiver has a fair amount of slop, so I would never notice something like this. It would just center itself. Is it possible that your 2" opening is not totally square to the back of the truck? And by locking the receiver into the hitch you are forcing it to be at a bit of an angle? Or there could be a degree of error in the actual receiver shank/hitch attachment.

I've not heard of anyone having the L brackets at different heights side to side, might be interesting to shoot Equal-i-zer an email and ask, I'd be interested in their response.
joshuajim
Explorer II
Nov 08, 2018
DutchmenSport wrote:
My Equal-i-zer did the same. The hitch shaft in your receiver has some slop in it. It's just enough that it causes the head to rock a little.

As an anti rattle device, I drilled and tapped a 1/2” bolt through the bottom of the receiver/shank. I tighten the grade 8 bolt to about 90 FP. The shank is pulled down tight to the receiver and absolutely will not rock. It doesn’t matter which side I hook up first, the curb side is always lower