What do ya call it ?
Clamp thing that keeps your hitch from rattling and wobbling . I looked several places but I do not know what name I am searching for .
Forum Discussion
- I once took some small pieces of metal and welded them to the sides, top and bottom, of the shank that the ball is bolted (mounted) too. That took a lot of the slop out.
I think some receivers and shanks are made cheaper and have more slop in them. - It works for me ! In the course of a week I might change ball mounts 4 or 5 times , different size balls or mostly different "drops " , one size does not fit all .
- 11 Bucks for 2 bolts and 2 pieces of metal. They saw you coming.It's called a 5th wheel. They don't clunk.
Huntindog wrote:
LarryJM wrote:
BTW I tighten my hitch vise before installing my bars since the movement that I'm really interested in is the side to side (cause of what I call freeway tail wiggle) and in and out (what I and others have described as the "clunking" during start/stop) and not the up and down so the WDH bars have little effect in those two planes of movement.
That being the case, I believe it would make nore sense to tighten the vise AFTER the bars are tensioned, and the up/down slop removed. Why make the job you are trying to accomplish harder by making the vise work against the the bars.
Again I'm not interested that much in the up/down which with the WDH bars engaged the "Hitch Vice" has little to no effect (i.e. the least effectiveness in that plane of possible movement) and that movement is not what is causing either the "freeway wiggle" or the "Clunk" when stopping/starting. Also, I install the "Hitch Vise" when I install my drawbar and simply make securing it part of my hitch head/drawbar installation routine.
In the end IMO the "Hitch Vise" is the one effective alternative over the many, many potential alternative solutions to the issue such as welding nuts to the receiver and using bolts tightened against the drawbar, running additional beading around the receiver opening to reduce the drawbar to receiver clearance and such things as the "J" pins that go into an extra hole in the receiver and IMO it sure beats what I did in the 20+ years before which was to pound some angle iron wedges ground down to an edge that went into two sides of the receiver/drawbar interface secured with duct tape so they would not fall out if they loosened up over time. What I actually used previously was a couple of bed frame spring to end board angle iron pieces since they were long on one side and about the right size width wise and didn't have too large of an angled section along with the fact I has some laying around so it was free.
LarryLarryJM wrote:
BTW I tighten my hitch vise before installing my bars since the movement that I'm really interested in is the side to side (cause of what I call freeway tail wiggle) and in and out (what I and others have described as the "clunking" during start/stop) and not the up and down so the WDH bars have little effect in those two planes of movement.
That being the case, I believe it would make nore sense to tighten the vise AFTER the bars are tensioned, and the up/down slop removed. Why make the job you are trying to accomplish harder by making the vise work against the the bars.- Again I'm not trying to convince these few arm chair "naysayers" since IMO they are unhelpful and only want to make up un-substantiated contrary opinions. The below three threads are just a few examples discussing this slop and the clunk that more than just me and a couple of others have experience even with WDH systems so IMO it shows it CAN BE AN ISSUE even with WDH systems. So I will leave it to the reader to believe those couple here who have never used something like the Hitch Vise and say this is not really an issue over those who posted in the below threads that have had experiences like I have reported. I have shown those the water and have even led you to it, but it's up to you if you will drink it.
CLICKY
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BTW many things have thru users experiences have been proven to be effective even if their use was not exactly as what the ultimate user used them for and I explained why I didn't think the "Hitch-Vise" was made initially for WDH systems. BTW I tighten my hitch vise before installing my bars since the movement that I'm really interested in is the side to side (cause of what I call freeway tail wiggle) and in and out (what I and others have described as the "clunking" during start/stop) and not the up and down so the WDH bars have little effect in those two planes of movement.
Larry LarryJM wrote:
Since you do not think the manufacturer/distributer know what they are talking about.... I will not belabor the "TRUMP" point.
For all these naysayers I'm sorry you are not able to understand the reasons on why and what something like the "Hitch Vice" does for you as I tried an explain as best I could. If you have no "rattle" or "wiggle" good for you and not sure why you are even posting here, but if you do and want to solve your issue then I will still recommend the "Hitch Vice" as the best method to solve this issue. One reason IMO that the "Hitch Vice" was not meant for WDH systems is that originally it had a 5K trailer wt rating, but it has worked well on my almost 8K GVWR trailer since I started using it back in 2008. It will obviously have a greater postive impact when used in non WDH trailer applications and things like bike/storage hitch mounted accessories and my PERSONAL HANDS ON EXPERIENCE has proven it for me to be effective also on my Equal-i-zer WDH system.
Larry
I am curious though. Do you tighten the hitch vise before, or after tensioning the EQUALIZER hitch bars.
And whatever your answer is.... WHY?- For all these naysayers I'm sorry you are not able to understand the reasons on why and what something like the "Hitch Vice" does for you as I tried an explain as best I could. If you have no "rattle" or "wiggle" good for you and not sure why you are even posting here, but if you do and want to solve your issue then I will still recommend the "Hitch Vice" as the best method to solve this issue. One reason IMO that the "Hitch Vice" was not meant for WDH systems is that originally it had a 5K trailer wt rating, but it has worked well on my almost 8K GVWR trailer since I started using it back in 2008. It will obviously have a greater postive impact when used in non WDH trailer applications and things like bike/storage hitch mounted accessories and my PERSONAL HANDS ON EXPERIENCE has proven it for me to be effective also on my Equal-i-zer WDH system.
Larry - I just made a short run with the eleven dollar one from Amazon , works as advertised , took the slop out !
