Bent Trailer Hitch Ball

Ralph Cramden wrote:

proxim2020 wrote:
I would definitely look into a more heavy duty hitch. I would load up the trailer and run it across a scale to see exactly how heavy it is. Chances are you're already at or over capacity of your current hitch since it appears to be slightly bent. A safe bet would be to calculate your tongue weight at GVWR of the trailer and purchase a hitch that has at least that capacity. This would be the heaviest tongue weight the hitch would ever carry. Look at what's stamped on the coupler, but chances are you should be using a 2 5/16 ball.

The hitch he has is rated for up to a 10K lb trailer. The 800 lb bars he has (which is all that saved him a ton of grief by holding the entire mess together) may, or may not be heavy enough, but as in my earlier post 1000lb bars for that model Curt hitch are only $130 or less. The 2" ball let loose, and the head flange bent as well, because the trailer was banging back and forth into it. I would bet more than the farm his trailer has a 2-5/16" coupler. Probably good he had the Curt as the head is plate steel. If it would of been cast like the Reese it may have cracked right in half at the ball.

Why does he need a more heavy duty hitch? Nothing wrong at all with a conventional round bar WDH. There are literally millions of them in use.

The specs online said the hitch had a 800 lbs tongue capacity. I took that to mean well that the hitch had a 800 lbs tongue capacity. The picture of the OPs label makes more sense.

Glad you got it all figured out. Ide go with a Reese Dual Cam system in an 800 lb rating. That will be more than enough for your current trailer.

Sizing weight transfer bars too high can damage the vehicles and create harsh rides.

My 27-foot trailer has a sticker on it warning against bars heavier than 1000 pounds. It has a 900 pound hitch weight and I use 800 pound bars. Perfect for me.

Some trailers have been damaged by bars too heavy, with cracked frames, popped rivets and wrinkled bodies not to mention the buck-wagon ride.

I've been told that most properly sized weight transfer bars are designed to be used with the "bend" in them. This provides a spring action that is good for the ride.

Yep, too much medicine is not what the doctor ordered.

About the ball size: this is the most elementary mistake that can be made. Where are the "professionals" getting such "help?"

Wow. This is the 2nd time I've seen where CW allowed someone tow a trailer out of their parking lot in an unsafe condition. Same thing on both 2" ball. The 1st time I saw it was a neighbor of mine. Not even a WD hitch in that case. I was going for a walk and he and another neighbor were staring at the truck/trailer combination hooked up and wondering what they could do to level the trailer and truck - it was a significant "V" shape with the rear of the trailer very high and the front of the truck very high. He had just got back from his first 200 mile camping trip. It was so bad, he was loading the rear of the trailer with weight. He was talking about air bags - I informed of WD hitches. I had a used (two year old) WD hitch I was no longer using with 1200 and 1000 lb bars. I sold him the setup - same as the OP, with the 100 lb bars then helped him install it. That's when I found he had a 2" ball.

I spent the afternoon helping him setup the WD hitch. Had him test drive it. Talked about weight distribution in the trailer, safe speed, swaying, level of trailer, etc. How full tanks could change the dynamics, as you use water it moves from the water tank to the gray/black tanks - possibly upsetting the weights in the trailer. By the end of the afternoon he was happy with how much better it drove.

Spring bars at or below tongue weight? That is an opinion and mine is the polar opposite based on actual experience.

Speaking for nothing larger than 1/2 tons, I have found on repeated occasions having WD bars at or below the ton weight results in poor weight distribution and a soft rear end. This gets people looking at bags and helper springs and does not help handling.

I run 1400 bars with a Hensley and 900+ (max weighed was 960lbs) tongue on my SUV and could not be happier.

My camping buddy was running 1000lbs bars with his F-150 with exact same tongue weight (high 900's) and complained he was tensioning the bars too much (was upto 7 washers and was hard to connect) to get weight back on the front wheels. A new WDH with 1400lbs fixed it and the rig drives as he expects now.

Many years ago I towed with a Honda Pilot and it too was near max. I ran 600lbs bars with a 400+ tongue weight and it did ok. Then I bumped to 1000lb bars for cheap and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

It's poor advice to assume the WD bars should be at or below tongue weight for every tow vehicle.

IMO, 1/2 tons and less, always round up to the next size bar. There's actually no reason not to. Rounding up just one size will not result in a harsh ride, doubling what you need would! Handling will be what it should be and you wont need to think about air bags and helper springs because the WDH is doing what its designed to do.

Lynnmor wrote:

jjlhampton wrote:
Just went out to the trailer and you'd think they'd stamp the info other then up underneath the coupler area.
It does need a "2 5/16 ball, Not to Exceed 14K gross, tongue weight not to exceed 2100lbs."
The hitch is an EZ lift from C.W.
The GVWR of the Trailer is 7000lbs. Unloaded it is 5425 and last weekend when heading out, w/ our normal gear packed, the scale read 5950.
Picked up a new 2 5/16 ball, with a 1/14 shank diamter, 2 3/4 shank length, with a 12K capacity.
Now looking at CURT Replacement MV Round Bar Weight Distribution Head #17075 and CURT Replacement MV Round Bar Weight Distribution Spring Bar #17074. W/ both rated to 14K trailer wgt. and 1400lb tongue weight.
And again thank you all so much!

The spring bars should be in the range of your tongue weight. I believe that you currently have 800 pound bars and they should be fine. You should weigh the tongue to be sure. You do not want higher rated bars than necessary because they need to flex. You certainly do not want 1400 pound bars.

I agree, weigh the trailer tongue fully loaded first. Then figure out what size WD bars you need.

The 1,400# WD bars, odds are high they are too heavy. Odds are also your truck does not have a receiver rating that high to allow using them. This is not a good setup to have 1,400# WD bars on a potential 900 to 1,000# hitch weight and a truck receiver that cannot handle the full WD bar loads.

While the hitch may be rated to 1,400# WD bars, that does not mean you need to use the strongest bars there is. It allows you to get the right bar for the job but not too big. The best riding setup is if the loaded tongue weight and the WD bars are the same. It does not always work that way so you need to get the size closest but not under the loaded tongue weight. There is also a concern to the A frame damage of the camper using 1,400# WD bars that big over a smaller rated trailer. I'm sure a call to Jayco will clear that one up in a hurry.

Since you are getting a new hitch head and potentially new WD bars, I agree with the other poster, a trunnion bar hitch head setup on a bottom slung coupler trailer can be better fit then the round bar. When you get the correct WD bars you may start to see ground clearance issues. The WD bars will not be bending up like they are now. The Trunnion bar hitch will give you some more ground clearance if that is a problem for you. Just an option to look at.

Hope this helps and good luck with your setup.

John

Rough estimate = 7,000 GVWR @ 13 percent is a tongue weight of 912#

Just a thought. With your underslung coupler, a trunnion style spring bar hitch would line things up better. The round bar hitches line up well with top mounted couplers.

jjlhampton wrote:
Just went out to the trailer and you'd think they'd stamp the info other then up underneath the coupler area.
It does need a "2 5/16 ball, Not to Exceed 14K gross, tongue weight not to exceed 2100lbs."
The hitch is an EZ lift from C.W.
The GVWR of the Trailer is 7000lbs. Unloaded it is 5425 and last weekend when heading out, w/ our normal gear packed, the scale read 5950.
Picked up a new 2 5/16 ball, with a 1/14 shank diamter, 2 3/4 shank length, with a 12K capacity.
Now looking at CURT Replacement MV Round Bar Weight Distribution Head #17075 and CURT Replacement MV Round Bar Weight Distribution Spring Bar #17074. W/ both rated to 14K trailer wgt. and 1400lb tongue weight.
And again thank you all so much!

The spring bars should be in the range of your tongue weight. I believe that you currently have 800 pound bars and they should be fine. You should weigh the tongue to be sure. You do not want higher rated bars than necessary because they need to flex. You certainly do not want 1400 pound bars.

jjlhampton wrote:
Picked up a new 2 5/16 ball, with a 1/14 shank diamter, 2 3/4 shank length, with a 12K capacity.

If you're planning on DIY, you'll need the tools to torque that to 450 ft-lb. I used a 24" "Crescent" wrench to hold the ball (it had flats on the base) and a 40" 3/4" breaker bar to tighten the nut. Then 2 adults, it still takes one weighing at least 150 lbs standing on the end of the breaker bar to get it tight enough.