Hitch and WDH upgrade really improved towing experience

[hawkeye-08]

I just wanted to share that when we upgraded our trailer to Arctic Fox 27T from our Terry, we experienced less than desirable "movement". We had 1200-1300lb TW with 1000lb round bars on WDH and noticed some flex in the factory receiver on our 2011 GMC Sierra 2500HD.

To solve the problem, we did several upgrades (all ordered from etrailer.com, fair price, fast shipping).

1) replaced factory hitch on truck with Torklift SuperHitch Magnum
2) replaced shank with torklift adjustable (with dual stinger)
3) replaced WDH with Reese Trunnion bar 15000/1500lb

Installed and set it up and had a wonderful towing experience. I have to be careful to remember the trailer is back there it is so smooth now. We have found the sweetspot for our setup is 59mph, gives us the best mpg, is within tire limits and gets us there with less stress.

Thanks to this forum for the folks sharing their experiences.

[marcsbigfoot20b]

Need-A-Vacation wrote:

Georgia on my mind wrote:
Hello everybody. I have a chevy dually I plan to upgrade the hitch on this spring. Anybody know what brand is best? Tork lift is waaaaay out of my budget

I replaced our '10 Chevy hitch with a Curt square tube Class V. Was a huge difference between the tin can and "real" hitch!

Just replaced the factory Ford receiver that had about 100,000 miles of towing a 7000 lb TT.

The square hole where the hitch goes in was worn out on the bottom and the pin holes on both sides were mushroomed badly.

I noticed it was a class 3 rated at only 5000/500 or 10,000/1000 with WD bars.
The Curt class IV was 10,000/1000 and 12,000/1200 with WD bars.
Best price on Amazon $166 free shipping with prime. 😉

[Need-A-Vacation]

Georgia on my mind wrote:
Hello everybody. I have a chevy dually I plan to upgrade the hitch on this spring. Anybody know what brand is best? Tork lift is waaaaay out of my budget

I replaced our '10 Chevy hitch with a Curt square tube Class V. Was a huge difference between the tin can and "real" hitch!

[hawkeye-08]

Georgia on my mind wrote:
Hello everybody. I have a chevy dually I plan to upgrade the hitch on this spring. Anybody know what brand is best? Tork lift is waaaaay out of my budget

I think my Dad put a Reese Titan on his 2008 and is happy with it. Just go to etrailer.com and put your truck details in and see what hitches they have. A good starting point....

[Georgia_on_my_m]

Hello everybody. I have a chevy dually I plan to upgrade the hitch on this spring. Anybody know what brand is best? Tork lift is waaaaay out of my budget

[jerem0621]

Hi John,

I'm not sure if you are talking about my post but I was referencing a podcast with Andy Thompson from Can-Am RV. He talks a lot about the history of WD and how they fabricate hitches.

He talks about some of the dynamics of WD and he talks about receivers and why they can fail. The podcast does cost $1.00 for this episode but the content is great and it's about an hour long.

Here is a direct Link to the podcast.

And I am not associated in any way shape or form with this podcast.

Andy talks about the SAE testing of receivers which lead me to find that the rating for hitching is SAE J684 for up to class 4 trailering.

Admittedly SAE J684 is updated regularly and it cost about $70.00 for a copy of the current version... However, previous versions are available For free and give us some insight into the criteria.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[JBarca]

hawkeye-08 wrote:


If you watch when hooking up, you can see when the play is all out (due to clearances in receiver and shank) and watch it continue to flex as you hookup the WDH bars.

Hi guys,

I'm always up for a good hitch post, did I miss a link to a video?

I hear about it in the responses, but I missed seeing a link.

Glad you have your rig sorted out.

John

[mosseater]

My F-150 had terrible windup with the OEM receiver. About an 1/8" movement between the shank flange and bumper when snapped up. I upgraded to a Drawtite Ultra frame and you'd now need a dial indicator to see any movement.

[jerem0621]

hawkeye-08 wrote:

myredracer wrote:
Sure is substantial looking and sounds interesting.

I didn't know that OEM receivers can have excessive movement. Do they have more play in vertical or lateral direction or both? It would be interesting to mount a camcorder under our truck and see what is happening.

There is a lot of lateral play between our Reese shank and OEM Ford receiver. I installed a Blue Ox Immobilizer. I've only towed it once at the end of the season on a short trip and it *seems* to be helping a lot but won't know for sure until next season. That Torklift would be a nice upgrade as far as movement goes but at around $1K would be a tough sell with DW. I like that you can you an add the 48" extender with it and have 1200 lbs TW. I can see a use for that ourselves.

If you watch when hooking up, you can see when the play is all out (due to clearances in receiver and shank) and watch it continue to flex as you hookup the WDH bars. Some folks have experienced elongated holes and bent pins in the receiver from shanks moving around. The hitch on our 2008 Yukon XL had even more flex but no after market hitches available for that.

Yep, the only option for these integrated hitches is manual fabrication for reinforcement.

[hawkeye-08]

myredracer wrote:
Sure is substantial looking and sounds interesting.

I didn't know that OEM receivers can have excessive movement. Do they have more play in vertical or lateral direction or both? It would be interesting to mount a camcorder under our truck and see what is happening.

There is a lot of lateral play between our Reese shank and OEM Ford receiver. I installed a Blue Ox Immobilizer. I've only towed it once at the end of the season on a short trip and it *seems* to be helping a lot but won't know for sure until next season. That Torklift would be a nice upgrade as far as movement goes but at around $1K would be a tough sell with DW. I like that you can you an add the 48" extender with it and have 1200 lbs TW. I can see a use for that ourselves.

If you watch when hooking up, you can see when the play is all out (due to clearances in receiver and shank) and watch it continue to flex as you hookup the WDH bars. Some folks have experienced elongated holes and bent pins in the receiver from shanks moving around. The hitch on our 2008 Yukon XL had even more flex but no after market hitches available for that.

[jerem0621]

Think about this...

The receiver has to stand up for FIVE seconds under load to pass the SAE J684 test. Five seconds with a maximum deflection of no more than five degrees!

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[Bedlam]

Andy also has written some articles:

http://www.canamrv.ca/hitch-hints/

Check out the rest of site to see Jaguars and VW's towing...

[jerem0621]

Google VAP (vintage airstream podcast) and listen to podcast # 196...it cost .99 or so to buy this podcast but it should be REQUIRED listening. You may have to search the site because this episode was in 2013...

It's about an hour long and features Can-Am RV's Andy Thompson. While his tow vehicle combos are controversial there is hardly a better source for real world info on hitches and how to build them.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

[myredracer]

Sure is substantial looking and sounds interesting.

I didn't know that OEM receivers can have excessive movement. Do they have more play in vertical or lateral direction or both? It would be interesting to mount a camcorder under our truck and see what is happening.

There is a lot of lateral play between our Reese shank and OEM Ford receiver. I installed a Blue Ox Immobilizer. I've only towed it once at the end of the season on a short trip and it *seems* to be helping a lot but won't know for sure until next season. That Torklift would be a nice upgrade as far as movement goes but at around $1K would be a tough sell with DW. I like that you can you an add the 48" extender with it and have 1200 lbs TW. I can see a use for that ourselves.

[hawkeye-08]

jerem0621 wrote:
Yep, you did a great job on your hitching system!

Receiver flex is a real, often ignored, problem and the reason some can't seem to get the WD dialed in right.

Congrats and enjoy the tow

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Agree, I knew that when I upgraded the WDH to the proper size that the flex on the receiver would get worse. I had some rust starting on one of the welds on the factory hitch and decided it was likely flexing too much at that location. It could have been just a lousy prep/paint job but no reason to take a chance.

We asked ourselves, what do we need to solve the problem and not have to worry about it. I searched for solutions, found a few, but the Superhitch was the only one that did not require drilling in my truck frame.