Hitch extension

Have you considered, maybe a longer shank?

I think a longer shank as handye9 has suggested would be the way to go. It would be a 2" solid solid steel shank where a hitch extension would just be a tube. I would think the tube extension would be more prone to bending/breaking than the shank would be.

roaminaround wrote:
I just got a new truck and trailer. The tailgate hits the power tongue jack if I try to lower it while hooked up to the trailer. On my old set-up I turned the power jack and that gave me enough clearance. This set-up needs more clearance than that would give me. I have a 2 1\2 inch receiver hitch with a 2inch insert. I'm thinking of buying a short 2 1\2 to 2 hitch extender. How would that affect my driveability and safety. I'm thinking it might give me the ability to turn an back up at sharper angles.

Any time you move the load farther away from the rear axle. You change the dynamics. It will move the tongue weight back away from the rear axle, and could cause sway.
The reason 5ers tow so well is that their pin / tongue weight is over, or forward of the rear axle. And if you will notice. Most trucks are putting their rear axles closer to the back than they once did, to create a shorter overhang. A short over hang is much better for towing. Extending the hitch will in effect create a longer rear overhang.

I added a 6" longer shank to mine several years ago. I did notice the handling characteristics changed, but it still tows just fine.

you could get a longer shank. Be aware that usually extending the shank usually reduces the max Dead weight and weight carrying rating on the reciever. If it's short, probably not much.

IMHO I would NOT use a 2 1/2 to 2" hitch extender! If it is what I think you are refering to you will end up with a hollow tube in the reciever. NOT what you want. They are usually for a bicycle carrier or something similar.

:) Hi, My hitch came with a 12" shank and it worked great with my Navigator; But it was too short for my F-150 to lower my tail gate. A 16" shank would be great, but I could not find a good match. I bought an 18" shank and had a hole drilled in it 2"s back making it fit as a 16" shank. No difference in handling what-so-ever.

Terryallan wrote:

Any time you move the load farther away from the rear axle. You change the dynamics. It will move the tongue weight back away from the rear axle, and could cause sway.
The reason 5ers tow so well is that their pin / tongue weight is over, or forward of the rear axle. And if you will notice. Most trucks are putting their rear axles closer to the back than they once did, to create a shorter overhang. A short over hang is much better for towing. Extending the hitch will in effect create a longer rear overhang.

Agree. What I did to keep the ball as close to the rear axle as possible was fabricate brackets that let me move the hitch jack a few inches rearward. All it took was a couple of flat steel plates.

According to Reese (who might know a little about hitches), hitch extensions greatly reduce the receiver capacity.

TomG2 wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

Any time you move the load farther away from the rear axle. You change the dynamics. It will move the tongue weight back away from the rear axle, and could cause sway.
The reason 5ers tow so well is that their pin / tongue weight is over, or forward of the rear axle. And if you will notice. Most trucks are putting their rear axles closer to the back than they once did, to create a shorter overhang. A short over hang is much better for towing. Extending the hitch will in effect create a longer rear overhang.

Agree. What I did to keep the ball as close to the rear axle as possible was fabricate brackets that let me move the hitch jack a few inches rearward. All it took was a couple of flat steel plates.

According to Reese (who might know a little about hitches), hitch extensions greatly reduce the receiver capacity.

Since you didn't post a link I sure would like to know how they define "greatly". The physics of making the shank 2-inches longer on a lever that is already about 3-feet long just ain't there. And considering you can change that physics yet again with a WDH, makes their statement borderline absurd. I can in effect put a longer shank on and lessen the force on the receiver with an adjustment to the WDH. Their lawyer must of overruled their engineer = CYA "greatly".

troubledwaters wrote:

TomG2 wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

Any time you move the load farther away from the rear axle. You change the dynamics. It will move the tongue weight back away from the rear axle, and could cause sway.
The reason 5ers tow so well is that their pin / tongue weight is over, or forward of the rear axle. And if you will notice. Most trucks are putting their rear axles closer to the back than they once did, to create a shorter overhang. A short over hang is much better for towing. Extending the hitch will in effect create a longer rear overhang.

Agree. What I did to keep the ball as close to the rear axle as possible was fabricate brackets that let me move the hitch jack a few inches rearward. All it took was a couple of flat steel plates.

According to Reese (who might know a little about hitches), hitch extensions greatly reduce the receiver capacity.

Since you didn't post a link I sure would like to know how they define "greatly". The physics of making the shank 2-inches longer on a lever that is already about 3-feet long just ain't there. And considering you can change that physics yet again with a WDH, makes their statement borderline absurd. I can in effect put a longer shank on and lessen the force on the receiver with an adjustment to the WDH. Their lawyer must of overruled their engineer = CYA "greatly".

I agree and we have to be careful in what we mean by "hitch extension" which I take to mean the hollow tube receiver extension that does in fact effect the overall hitch ratings. However, using any of the commercially available "shanks" will not effect any ratings and while they will "slightly" increase the "lever" in a WC configuration I don't believe they will have any effect in a WD configuration and if one can actually feel any effect of a just using a longer shank I submit that their towing configuration was too close to the limits to begin with. In I think our resident Mechanical GURU did some calculations that indicated that using a longer shank actually lessened the "net forces" on the receiver because of the way a WDH system works. I've been using an extended (18") shank since 1981 (thats almost 40 YEARS) with no issues and I typically run close (within 50 to 100lbs) of the max ratings on my receiver and for over 25 years on my WDH system!

Larry

TC owners frequently use hitch extensions, sometimes as long as 48” so they can tow a boat, snowmobile, or even a large enclosed cargo trailer.

What usually gets left out of the discussions about the physics of using a hitch extension is what’s on the truck end of the lever. There will be a huge difference in the handling characteristics of a pickup using a hitch extension with an empty bed and one that has 3-5K lbs of weight in the bed.

I know that’s extreme compared to what you are doing, but the physical effects are linear. If you extend your hitch a few inches to provide clearance for your tailgate and notice a change in the handling, try putting some of your heaviest gear in the pickup bed to change the weight on each end of the lever.

:):)