Equal-I-zer Hitch issues

[Woodswalker]

After doing of research on Weight Distribution hitches to replace my older Eaz Lift one and decided to go with the Equal-I-zer 4 point sway control hitch. I pull a Rockwood Mini Lite 2109s weight roughly 5200 pounds loaded. Had the hitch installed by a dealer who carries the brand. It tows Beautifully compared to my last hitch, but I am having trouble getting the spring bars away from the L brackets without a lot of effort, to the point of pulling a muscle. I have raised/lowered jack zumpteen times trying to find a balance to ease the tension sometimes to no avail. Now, I am a women and Have always had a lot of arm strength,but these bars are beyond my ability to pull or push in or out, even using the adapter bar. Today I was able to move one out to remove it after a lot of tugging and brute strength, the other one refused to budge no matter how I adjusted the jack height. Was ready to take a sledgehammer to it, but unhitched my truck and pulled it forward and off. I’ve returned to the dealer who finds no problem on their level surface but campgrounds aren’r Smooth as we know. I have around 400 miles on the hitch now. Is it possible it was torqued too tight. I know they have to be tight, but, and yes it’s lubed. Anybody else have this issue. I might be hitch hunting again.

[Woodswalker]

Thanks everyone. Took the hitch to my local dealer, not the one who installed it, They redid the hitch head and reset it. We hooked trailer up and it’s now set to where I think I can manage it. Going to play with it at home here and practice with the bars.

[HTElectrical]

You are supposed to grease the bars at that swivel point. Read your manual.

How To Hitch and Unhitch Your Equal-i-zer Hitch

Re-reading your post, if it is too hard to remove the bars, you need to raise the tongue higher. I personally raise mine, until I can easily move BOTH bars back and forth on the L-Brackets. I am running the 14,000 LB bars, with Max washers.

Moderator edit to re-size picture to forum recommended limit of 640px maximum width.

[owenssailor]

I have found that over time the bars will swing more easily. Mine swing with no problem at all but that is after around 60 0000 miles. They are torqued to the max amount.

[Hannibal]

Not telling anyone else what to do but if I didn’t have a torque wrench but a 12 point 15/16” box end wrench were handy or available at Lowe’s, I would back off on the socket bolts underneath until the bars moved easily, then re tighten until the bars felt equal and as stiff as I could make them while still being able to move them without pulling a muscle. The goal would be the same whether the actual torque reading was available or not.

[Dick_B]

If you are at a campground drive/walk around to find someone with the same hitch. They might have more tools or maybe even the CG maintenance guy.

[camper1013]

As mentioned it sounds like the bolts for the bar sockets might be too tight. They aren't easy to move, but shouldn't be as tight as yours sound like they are. If you don't have a torque wrench to re do them yourself might be easier to take it to an auto shop rather than drive to the RV dealer.

I had to re-torque mine every so often so it might be beneficial to get a wrench yourself. Lets you check trailer tires also.

[Woodswalker]

Yes, that is the issue. The bars do not swing on the brackets. You can't Pull or push in either direction without a lot of effort, short of using a sledge hammer, LOL, which I am not going to do. I can raise the jack to lift the bars off the L brackets, no issue there. There is another dealer whom I have done business with before only an hour away from me and I will take my trailer over there and have them check the system since installing dealer isn’t giving me any satisfaction. Had I known thry carried same hitch, would have had them install it.

[opnspaces]

Using the tongue jack has no effect on how hard the bars are to swing back and forth, that is entirely a result of the bolt torque. What the tongue jack WILL do for you is make it to where you do not need a pry bar to lift the bars onto the L brackets on the trailer tongue. On my trailer I can jack up the whole unit and just push the bars sideways onto the L brackets with little to no lifting.

I know you said it's greased, but is it greased correctly? Are the square sockets on the hitch head greased top and bottom or are the bars that go into the sockets greased? The grease has to be on the top and bottom of the square brackets and not on the bars themselves.

If they are already greased I would find someone with a torque wrench that can loosen the bolts and then re-torque to 45-65 lb ft. In fact I would loosen the bolts and swing the bars back and forth a few times to spread the grease out, and then torque to specs. After that they should be a lot easier to swing.

If re-torqueing has no effect then you will have to take the head apart, clean the grease and look for scoring on the sliding surfaces.

[owenssailor]

I understand from you post that you are having trouble getting the bars off the L bracket. Once they are off can you move them back and forth in the head unit? Is that where it is too tight or is the problem that you can't pull the bars off the L bracket. If it is just he latter you need to jack the trailer tongue up very high When it is high enough if you kick the bar it will move above the L bracket. For me this means lifting the back end of the truck quite a bit until the bars are free. How high do you raise the tongue when trying to unhook?

[ken56]

The dealer tightened the bolts on the bar receivers too tight for you. Do you have some wrenches with you? If not can you borrow some or get someone to loosen them for you? Look in the manual for the recommended torque range for those bolts and set it to the lower end. You aren't doing anything wrong, just looking in the wrong place for the problem.

Loosening the bolts at the bar receiver will not affect the sway damping ability of the hitch. Equal i zer is a great hitch so don't give up on it, just get it adjusted correctly.

[Hannibal]

When I set up my Equalizer 4 pt, I tightened the sockets to the recommended 65ft/lbs. The bars were pretty hard to move I'll agree. I had towed our 32' travel trailer for a year with our F250 with no sway control so I knew I didn't need much if any. I backed the socket bolts off to 45ft/lbs and while still stiff, they're much easier to move for hitching and unhitching. Depending on how squirrely your setup is, you might be able to back off on the socket bolts a little.