As TomG2 said above, eliminating the hassle with dragging out the heavy hitch, putting the bars on, and up and down to tension the bars would save most of the time and effort.
I'll give it a try using the heavy hitch but not bothering with the bars, if that pulls fine I'll start looking for a simpler dead hitch and make the hitching process very simple.
Next question, could I get a ~15" or so ball mount which would allow the tailgate to drop without hitting the electric tongue lift? Or would that be too much leverage working against me with a 9K trailer and 1K tongue?