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littlesonny's avatar
littlesonny
Explorer
May 23, 2017

WD Set Up Advice Please

I recently purchased an AirSafe and needed to set up my Equalizer hitch with it. After a few tries I managed to get WD with the tow vehicle pretty much perfect but the trailer was a bit nose down. I raised the ball as suggested in the manual which helped somewhat but the trailer was still slightly nose down. The adjustments were not made any easier by the head being ever so slightly too narrow in one spot to slide over the shaft easily. One **** heavy hammer solved the problem. Crude but effective.

I was running out of time and had enough so I left it as is. We took a four hour trip with some patches of rough road. The AirSafe worked as advertised and the truck drove pretty nice. However, I noticed that the tension bars were not parallel with the tongue. I would assume the set up still isn't correct, though as I said the rig drives fine but I'm not sure where to go from here.

When going over RR tracks and such the truck is a bit bumpy but I noticed there was nothing feeding back when the trailer went over the same patch. I have a towing package with stiffer suspension and thought maybe that was just the nature of the beast.

Any thoughts or advice please.

2015 Sierra SLT with Max Towing Package
2015 Jayco Whitehawk 27ROBK
Equal-i-zer Hitch with AirSafe Class V.
Tow Vehicles
  • nohurry's avatar
    nohurry
    Explorer
    May 23, 2017
    Trailer should be slightly nose down, so that sounds right. The bars may be a little off parallel, as long as it's not a lot. You did the truck fender measurement set up right? Easy to find, but here it is quickly; measure trucks front fender from the ground unhitched, then hitch up, and adjust the bars until the front is 1" higher than when unhitched. NEVER lower than the unhitched distance. That should get you close. I'm sure others can add advise as well. Good luck. It sounds like you're on the right track. I would expect it to feel bumpy I've RR tracks.
  • littlesonny's avatar
    littlesonny
    Explorer
    May 24, 2017
    Thanks nohurry. Yes the truck measurements were correct. If a little nose down, a couple of inches, the slightly off parallel are not issues, and the handling is fine I guess I should follow the "If it ain't broke don't fix it principle." I could raise the L brackets a notch to make the bars more parallel. I can't remember how that affects the WD. I'll look it up and maybe try that if it seems sensible. Moving the L brackets is a whole lot easier than dealing with the head.
  • brulaz's avatar
    brulaz
    Explorer
    May 25, 2017
    littlesonny wrote:
    Thanks nohurry. Yes the truck measurements were correct. If a little nose down, a couple of inches, the slightly off parallel are not issues, and the handling is fine I guess I should follow the "If it ain't broke don't fix it principle." I could raise the L brackets a notch to make the bars more parallel. I can't remember how that affects the WD. I'll look it up and maybe try that if it seems sensible. Moving the L brackets is a whole lot easier than dealing with the head.


    If you raise the L brackets, you will have to lift the bars more to get them on the brackets. That means more tension on the bars, and you'll push the nose of the truck down further. Hopefully you will not push it down further than it normally is when the trailer is unattached. 50 to 100% lift reduction is the advice I've seen.

    Also if the bars are not exactly parallel to the frame, the L brackets can be tilted slightly so the bottom of the bars lie flat on the brackets. That will ensure the max resistance to sway. You can look at the bottom of the bars to see the wear pattern and whether they are lying flat on the L brackets.

    My trailer is 1 to 1.5" nose down, and agree that adjusting the head is a pain.

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