W/D tow setup

[bigrailer19]

First let me say I'm new to the forums and new to USING a W/D hitch.

I have a 29' toy hauler and my tow vehicle is a 2002 GMC 2500hd. I got the trailer recently and I came with the WD hitch and coincidentally the previous trailer owner had the same truck.

Forward to now and me setting it up correctly (rather trying), with the trailer and truck level I can't get the ball within 2 inches (either up or down) of the trailer coupling. Now this is mainly because I don't have enough adjustment either direction with the shank inverted or otherwise. I'm trying to get the ball to be 1/2" lower than the top of the coupling buy my issue is: at the highest point while the shank is pointing down I'm 2"+ to low and with the shank inverted and ball at the lowest point I'm 2"+ to high. I'm not confident I can set the truck and trailer up properly without first addressing this as I towed it home with the back of the TV sagging noticeably. Not fun!

So without taking up to much more space I'd really like to know what solutions anyone has to offer. The most obvious is probably getting a different shank however if there's others I'm open to listening to anything. Has anyone used a ball with a 1" or 2" rise before? I've seen them and they still handle the same amount of load but maybe there is a downside to them?

Thank you all in advance. I come here quite frequently to seek answers. Just never needed to ask anything until now!

EDIT: I do have air bags as well. I'm setting the trailer up with the minimum Amount of air required by the manufacturer.

[lawrosa]

Also from what I read if you have a lot of sag to begin with then the set up is usually to raise the ball higher.

As you see my pic in my sig, that was my first attempt at mine and you see the truck and trailer are high in the middle.. I had to lower mine ..

Remember try to restore front to original height..

Lat thing so you can have piece of mind is take it to a cat scale when your done and follow the steps here.. This will tell you if you are good..

Post pics and what your final outcome is... Its nice to have happy ending to hear that it all worked out for you...

cat scale weight calculator


Also post the #'s from your trucks door tags. front and rear gross axle weights. And post your tire max psi and lbs they can carry at this pressure. Then we can compare to your scale weight and see how your payload is doing...

[bigrailer19]

lawrosa wrote:

bigrailer19 wrote:
If I would have paid a little more attention to what it was saying, that makes total sense. Thanks.

What do you mean? The video?

No the numbers on the hitch.

The video was great help. Its more informative than what I've previously seen. This is all relatively simple stuff. But I want to make sure I'm doing things properly. Thanks for all the info.

[lawrosa]

bigrailer19 wrote:
If I would have paid a little more attention to what it was saying, that makes total sense. Thanks.

What do you mean? The video?

[bigrailer19]

If I would have paid a little more attention to what it was saying, that makes total sense. Thanks.

[lawrosa]

Watch this video. This shows proper set up. Make sure to measure wheel wells before and after. ( This is how I set mine up and was right on the money when I got the front to the same mesurement as truck alone)

Note you need 5 links of the chain min... Also at the 5 min mark it shows the bars angle up. This is wrong and they correct it in the video. Either add a washer or two or move angle a notch..

Your WD hitch is similair and they all work similar. So adjustment is the same with the chain type...

Post back any questions.

WD set up..

[lawrosa]

bigrailer19 wrote:

The WD hitch I have is: eazlift e-lite:
Hitch Type: MGTWR MVHC
Weight Distributing: 14,000 1,400
Weight Carrying: 6,000 600

I imagine the numbers you are looking for are the Weight Distributing numbers, correct? What does the weight carrying refer to? Its not mentioned by eaz lift anywhere other than on the hitch itself.

If you used the hitch without the WD bars then max TW is 600 and max trailer weight is 6000 lbs...

[bigrailer19]

lawrosa wrote:

bigrailer19 wrote:

The trailer does drop my truck quite a bit, there's a noticeable sag in the rear of the TV, even when trailer is unloaded. I did not try and set the trailer up with the ball in the higher position because most people are saying to start with the ball about 1/2" below or above the coupler respectively. But to validate your idea of this I have also heard 1-3" higher than the coupler to account for the sag. This would mean that I can invert the shank and set the ball on the lowest position and be within that range. I just have not tried that.

Well try that. If the trailer and truck are not level and sagging at the hitch then you should be good with that height.

The ball currently is set to tilt back. By low at the ball I assume you mean from unloaded measurement compared to loaded (hooked up) measurement?

I mean the trailer hooked up to the truck with no WD activated. The ball of course is going to tilt back, but by how much is the question.

You can put up to 8 washers to tilt. This is all relevant to try to keep the bars even with the trailer frame. They should never arc higher. Either parralel or slightly down pointing.

At that point the WD bars should lift up the truck and distribute the weight. Got it. I think I'm focusing too much on the starting height? Is the end result not affected much by the starting height?


The end result regardless of how much weight you get off the rear is to get the front axle back to stock height and weight of the truck alone with no trailer connected.

Example if your fron axle is 3500 lbs truck alone and 3200 lbs with trailer connected, you want to restore the front truck axle to 3500 lbs without going over. The rear will take care of itself if you can do this properly.

I appreciate everyone's advice. Again I'm relatively new to using WD setups but I'm determined to figure everything out, I need to.

Please tell us what weight dist hitch you have so we can guide you further?

Perfect, thank you for outlining those topics.

I decided to take some steps on my own - as I should - and looked into the manufacturers recommendation. They say that the ball should be 1/16" higher for every 100lbs of tongue weight. Tongue weight is roughly 1000lbs so 10*1/16 is roughly 5/8" higher. Im a little over that but I'm starting to get more comfortable with the idea of this.

The WD hitch I have is: eazlift e-lite:
Hitch Type: MGTWR MVHC
Weight Distributing: 14,000 1,400
Weight Carrying: 6,000 600

I imagine the numbers you are looking for are the Weight Distributing numbers, correct? What does the weight carrying refer to? Its not mentioned by eaz lift anywhere other than on the hitch itself.

[lawrosa]

bigrailer19 wrote:

The trailer does drop my truck quite a bit, there's a noticeable sag in the rear of the TV, even when trailer is unloaded. I did not try and set the trailer up with the ball in the higher position because most people are saying to start with the ball about 1/2" below or above the coupler respectively. But to validate your idea of this I have also heard 1-3" higher than the coupler to account for the sag. This would mean that I can invert the shank and set the ball on the lowest position and be within that range. I just have not tried that.

Well try that. If the trailer and truck are not level and sagging at the hitch then you should be good with that height.

The ball currently is set to tilt back. By low at the ball I assume you mean from unloaded measurement compared to loaded (hooked up) measurement?

I mean the trailer hooked up to the truck with no WD activated. The ball of course is going to tilt back, but by how much is the question.

You can put up to 8 washers to tilt. This is all relevant to try to keep the bars even with the trailer frame. They should never arc higher. Either parralel or slightly down pointing.

At that point the WD bars should lift up the truck and distribute the weight. Got it. I think I'm focusing too much on the starting height? Is the end result not affected much by the starting height?


The end result regardless of how much weight you get off the rear is to get the front axle back to stock height and weight of the truck alone with no trailer connected.

Example if your fron axle is 3500 lbs truck alone and 3200 lbs with trailer connected, you want to restore the front truck axle to 3500 lbs without going over. The rear will take care of itself if you can do this properly.

I appreciate everyone's advice. Again I'm relatively new to using WD setups but I'm determined to figure everything out, I need to.

Please tell us what weight dist hitch you have so we can guide you further?

[bigrailer19]

lawrosa wrote:
How much weight is the tongue? I assume that trailer will drop the truck a significant amount that you would want the ball higher.

With ball in the higher position and trailer connected how is the level of truck and trailer??

After it drops without the bars set you then have to set the ball angle properly. If you are still low at the ball then the WD bars will lift the truck ... This adjustment is what takes time and after you think you have it set correctly you should hit the cat scales...

The trailer does drop my truck quite a bit, there's a noticeable sag in the rear of the TV, even when trailer is unloaded. I did not try and set the trailer up with the ball in the higher position because most people are saying to start with the ball about 1/2" below or above the coupler respectively. But to validate your idea of this I have also heard 1-3" higher than the coupler to account for the sag. This would mean that I can invert the shank and set the ball on the lowest position and be within that range. I just have not tried that.

The ball currently is set to tilt back. By low at the ball I assume you mean from unloaded measurement compared to loaded (hooked up) measurement? At that point the WD bars should lift up the truck and distribute the weight. Got it. I think I'm focusing too much on the starting height? Is the end result not affected much by the starting height?

I appreciate everyone's advice. Again I'm relatively new to using WD setups but I'm determined to figure everything out, I need to.

[humblerb]

It's been awhile since I have had to set up, but the one thing I became well aware of is the initial setting of the ball height is just to get you in the proximity. Most likely, you will need to adjust both the height and the angle at least once after you finish attempt to set up.
If you will follow the Sticky post on this forum for set up and start with the ball at the closest point you can, you might find out that the set up is good at that position.

[lawrosa]

How much weight is the tongue? I assume that trailer will drop the truck a significant amount that you would want the ball higher.

With ball in the higher position and trailer connected how is the level of truck and trailer??

After it drops without the bars set you then have to set the ball angle properly. If you are still low at the ball then the WD bars will lift the truck ... This adjustment is what takes time and after you think you have it set correctly you should hit the cat scales...

[bigrailer19]

Yeah the problem with my shank is there is not enough adjustment to go the direction I need it to. Most shanks I see have holes all the way up and down, where the hole locations on mine stops prior to the 90 back into the hitch. If there was 1 more hole at that point all would be good. I thought about drilling through myself (I have the tools) but I can only imagine the manufacturer did it this way for a reason.

Here is a picture (albeit not good quality) of this ball positioned at the top. I am 2" lower than the trailer coupling at this location.

Edit: Well I apologize I cannot get the picture to load properly.

[Terryallan]

I believe you would be best off to get the proper shank, and get the whole thing level with the bars. Towing nose down is best, but not too much. If you start out 2 inches down, then lose another inch and a half after hooking up. The TT will be down so much you will be riding mostly on the front tires. Not good.

Some hitches have holes to adjust height, and some have groves. The ones with the groves give a finer adjustment.

[old_guy]

you are better off lower than higher at the ball.