Hi fellow enthusiasts!
This is my very first post on this forum along with our first summer with our newly purchased Dutchmen Aerolite 174E. So far, we are quite pleased with the little guy.
My question here today is not about the unit itself but more about something that happened the day we decided to pull the trigger on the HTT, which was the same day I took it out for a test tow with my TV, a 2004 Jeep Liberty V6 (4WD). Being a complete noob to the TT scene, I felt this test pull to be the single most important part of our decision making process as we weren't very sure how well our vehicle would handle the Aerolite and did not want to push our gently used but nonetheless older Jeep past its limits.
The Liberty has a tow capacity of 5,000lbs and a max tongue weight of 500lbs. I use an Anderson WD Hitch to pull the Aerolite 174E, which has a dry weight of 3,191lbs and a max cargo capacity of 662lbs.
Now, on the day of the test tow, I get to the dealership bright and early and head over to the area I was instructed to wait at for the Aerolite to be brought around for me.
While waiting for the HTT, I was given a(nother) brief demo of the hitch I intended to buy and was told to wait by my vehicle for one of the service techs who would be showing me how to properly install and setup the hitch on my vehicle.
Coming up is the crux and where my request for help/advice comes into play.
The service tech comes out with the physical hitch and lays everything out on the ground behind the vehicle. He then notices that my vehicle has a spare tire mounted on the rear door and that because of how low it sits over the rear bumper it won't allow the hitch shank to be inserted into the receiver without the ball touching the bottom of the spare tire. He then goes back into the shop and comes back out with a hitch extender which they would charge me $100 for.
I'm like, "ok, let's get on with it!" What the heck do I know, right? We install the hitch extender along with the rest of the hitch and off we go.
The long and short of it is that the test tow with my Liberty was a surprising success. I was honestly expecting constant high revving and "tail wagging the dog" action throughout but had only some of the former (whilst driving uphill) and very very little of the latter (when being passed by larger vehicles or when it got a little windy). Needless to say, I pulled the trigger and bought the unit.
Fast forward now to the day after our first trip out with the Aerolite (about a week after I pick the trailer up from the dealership). Not sure what made me do it, but I ended up googling hitch extenders and then coming across an amazon listing for the part that I was supplied. Lo and behold, the dealership's markup on the hitch extender was a whopping $70! I was somewhat pissed off but not as livid as I got when I started reading more about hitch extenders and how they worked. Especially the fact that they cut your hitch capacity in half!! Once again, needless to say, I immediately stopped using the extender and moved my spare tire to my roof rack so that I could use the hitch by itself.
Fast forward again to today, 3 months later and a few days before I'm scheduled to take my Aerolite in for some minor warranty work. Not sure if I should use this opportunity to bring the extender issue up with the dealership or just keep quiet about it. Do I have any recourse in this matter? I mean, according to me, how does the dealership not tell me this simple but crucial fact about the hitch extender, knowing full well that I'm just a noob, what vehicle I'm using and it's towing limitations. Did they (un)knowingly put me and my family at risk here not to mention all of the other motorists that could have been endangered? Am I blowing things out of proportion here or would some sort of action on my part be perfectly justified? Was I actually put in danger by way of using that hitch extender when taking into account the towing restrictions of my vehicle? I honestly have no problem kicking up a fuss with them but just want to be sure that I'm making sense and that the fuss would be warranted.
Sorry for the super long winded post, guys. I just wanted to give you as much info as possible in order to get the best advice you can objectively give.
Thanks in advance!
Riz
