solutions for sloppy hitch?
Hi, cheapskate here - I got what I paid for. Bought a $200 adjustable class V drop hitch, rather than one of those fancy $600-1000 machined ones. Of course, being cheap, the fitment is total carp. ...
Forum Discussion
So, I have a "fancy" chinese made pricey hitch shank, and have had the same problem!!! I first welded the top of the shank at the front of the receiver, and at the rear bottom and ground down to a fairly solid fit that could still be installed and removed. With the high hitch weight our newer trailer has, it soon "egg" shaped the top of the receiver and slop returned. All that tongue weight and force of the hitch bars is increased in that small welded area!!
I replaced the OEM receiver with an aftermarket, ground the shank back to normal measurements, and now use a flat 2" wide thin metal spacer on the top surface. It is as long as the shank length inside the receiver. So far, in a year of towing, it has helped a bunch. Still a small bit of vertical slop, but not very much, and no apparent distortion to the receiver box. I do have to replace the "shim" every so often, due the the forces applied to it tends to "squash" it out on the edges that touch the inner edges of the receiver box.
Should be easy enough to get a rough measurement of necc thickness for a shim in your case, then find the right metal to do it. Your trailer probably does not have as much tongue weight as ours, and also a lighter set of hitch bars, and you may not need to replace that shim very often.
I replaced the OEM receiver with an aftermarket, ground the shank back to normal measurements, and now use a flat 2" wide thin metal spacer on the top surface. It is as long as the shank length inside the receiver. So far, in a year of towing, it has helped a bunch. Still a small bit of vertical slop, but not very much, and no apparent distortion to the receiver box. I do have to replace the "shim" every so often, due the the forces applied to it tends to "squash" it out on the edges that touch the inner edges of the receiver box.
Should be easy enough to get a rough measurement of necc thickness for a shim in your case, then find the right metal to do it. Your trailer probably does not have as much tongue weight as ours, and also a lighter set of hitch bars, and you may not need to replace that shim very often.
