Newbie Question about Trailer Hitch Purchased with Trailer

[pjkdog]

Hi Guys,
My wife and I finally made the plunge and purchased a Starcraft Launch Mini 19BHS.
I have a Ram 1500 with the factory installed trailering package, so it has a receiver, a there is already a trailer break setup on the dash.
When I bought the trailer(which we still have to pick up as it's being prepped for delivery)
I said I wanted a good anti-sway system and the guy added a blue ox pro. These were the options.
1) Blue Ox Sway Pro $830.00 Installed and Demonstrated by technician

2) Reese/Husky WD with Sway Control $585.00 Installed and Demonstrated by technician

Is this typical, is it a good hitch and price? I am totally fresh to this whole thing, I studied the campers, the hitches not so much but any advice is appreciated as we have not picked it up yet and could still make changes.

[73guna]

Are you a hands on/diy type of guy?
How far away is the dealer?
Are you comfortable towing without a wd hitch?
If you have some experience towing I would tow the trailer home and buy the hitch and ball and set it up myself.
You have to be able to torque the ball down to 300-400lbs or more so a healthy torque wrench is in order.
Not sure exactly what your tongue weight will be, but it looks like you can get a BXW0750 for $600 on ebay and setup videos are plentiful on the old interweb.
The swivel latches on the blue ox can be down right dangerous so do your research and try to have most of the tension off the bars when hooking/unhooking if you decide to go with blue ox.
With your light trailer you probably wont have many issues though.
Im not a fan of blue ox as Ive had issues and this thread is not the place to discuss it so all please no opinions directed at me for the sake of Mr. pjkdog's thread.

As always this is just my opinion.
If you dont feel comfortable setting one up by all means proceed with the dealer install.
Being a newbie all this can be overwhelming.
Rving is definitely a big learning curve.
Enjoy!

[rbpru]

We have a Blue Ox hitch on our 25ft Dutchmen/F-150 combination. It is a great combination. It has served us well for the last 4 years and 30,000 miles.

No muss, no fuss, no disconnect to back up. Stable in cross winds, swerves and hard stops. The anti-sway is built in.

I watched the dealer's tech set it up after our walk through at delivery.

Good luck

[soren]

Boomerweps wrote:
Another option is to see if they have any used WDH. I’m sure if they have one they would be glad to sell it to get it out of stock for a lower price. That’s how I got mine.

Interesting. I once had the owner of a small dealer give me a bunch of parts off a used dual-cam. When I asked him what I owed him, he told me that it was no charge, as his liability insurer forbid him from selling used hitches and parts.

[downtheroad]

DutchmenSport wrote:
...snip.. The Blue Ox is a good system, is versatile if you switch trailers, and easily adjustable if your trailer weight changes. However, in my opinion, has more parts to it and takes longer to set up.

Over the years I have always agreed with your posts, advice and opinions...but not so much with this one..
Having a lot of experience with both, in no way does the SwayPro have more parts than the Equal-i-zer. It is also A LOT easier to set up. This is just fact.
Anyway, these "hitch" discussions are always fun and I enjoy them.

[Boomerweps]

Another option is to see if they have any used WDH. I’m sure if they have one they would be glad to sell it to get it out of stock for a lower price. That’s how I got mine.

[DutchmenSport]

I agree with SoundGuy here. The Andersen is a nice system for a lightweight trailer and smaller tow vehicle. The Equal-i-zer can't be beat (that's what I use), and once set up takes only seconds to hitch up. Noise does not bother me. My diesel drowns it all out anyway. The Blue Ox is a good system, is versatile if you switch trailers, and easily adjustable if your trailer weight changes. However, in my opinion, has more parts to it and takes longer to set up.

All three systems are worthy of your consideration. I think each person on these forums is using what they like best and can write a page about everything they like about their current set-up and 10 pages about all the other systems they are no using and why.

In the end .... really .... they all do the same thing ... they lift the rear of the tow vehicle and distribute weight evenly to all the axles between the tow vehicle and the trailer. Everything else is for convince and ease of use. Some claim they have sway control built in, for the others, you can always get a separate friction sway control bar. But, distributing the weight evenly across all the axles is what they all do and they all do it well. So, in the end, pick which system is simplest and makes the best sense for you to use.

[SoundGuy]

downtheroad wrote:
Good point SoundGuy
also the Blue Ox has a pre-set hitch head angle so you don't have to fool with that when setting it up....
To adjust for load (empty or trip read loaded) just change the number of chain links under load.

and....I like the zerk fittings for greasing...no exposed grease.

The fact of the matter is that although the Equal-i-zer is a well proven system preferred by many it is quite an old design compared to the newer Blue Ox Sway Pro that eliminates most of the issues with the EQ. It's certainly much easier to set up because as you mentioned the head angle is fixed and altering the amount of weight transfer is as simple as adjusting the number of chain links taken up by the frame bracket ratchet. It's also quiet as a mouse, unlike the EQ which is infamous for the noise it makes when operating properly. The only significant downside for some to the Blue Ox is it's weight but for that you also have a system that doesn't need complete replacement if you move to another trailer in a different weight category. All that said, I use a simple 800 lb Reese trunnion bar WD system with our 19' Coachmen, no friction sway control, but if I were to upgrade now I'd be interested in the Andersen No-Sway Weight Distribution Hitch, if for no other reason than it's extremely light weight. For myself, the OP, and anyone else who owns a smaller trailer the Andersen certainly is IMO a viable alternative to much heavier systems like the Sway Pro and Equal-i-zer.

[downtheroad]

Good point SoundGuy
also the Blue Ox has a pre-set hitch head angle so you don't have to fool with that when setting it up....
To adjust for load (empty or trip read loaded) just change the number of chain links under load.

and....I like the zerk fittings for greasing...no exposed grease.

[SoundGuy]

downtheroad wrote:
We have been using a Blue Ox SwayPro for 3 years now. I really like it. It does a great job of controlling sway and is a very easy hitch to use.

The only down side is that the hitch head is very well made and thus very heavy.

It's heavy because there's just one head used across all weight ranges, the advantage being that if you later change to a trailer in a different weight category all you have to change are the spring bars. With systems like the Equal-i-zer you have to change the head as well, at which point you might as well sell your EQ and buy another of the correct weight range.

[downtheroad]

Welcome to the Forum....
We have been using a Blue Ox SwayPro for 3 years now... (we have had 4 different hitches over the years). I really like it. It does a great job of controlling sway and is a very easy hitch to use.

The only down side is that the hitch head is very well made and thus very heavy.
I think the $830 price is a little high. The hitch costs around $600 and is a half hour job to set up...

Good luck with your new adventure..

[SoundGuy]

Unfortunately you haven't indicated just which Reese system this might be, whether it requires the use of a separate friction sway bar or whether it's a WD system with integrated sway control, as is the case with the Blue Ox Sway Pro. Hard to go wrong with the Sway Pro if you can afford it. Regardless, keep in mind that it's difficult at best to properly set up any weight distribution system on an empty trailer and you may well have to make your own adjustments to it once you've figured out how you're going to best load your new trailer for camping.

[pjkdog]

Thank you, the dealership is pretty well rated, and my guess is they do this install a lot but I will for sure ask plenty of questions!

[afidel]

It's a pretty well regarded option, up there with Equalizer and Reese Dual Cam. The pricing seems reasonable IF they set it up correctly. It runs ~$600-650 on Amazon and etrailer so charging ~$200 for install and customer training seems pretty reasonable given that install is probably an hour and customer training could be 30 minutes. I would read the manual and ask them about the setup, many have reported that their dealership did not correctly install their WDH in which case it can actually make towing worse and I personally would be pissed to spend $200 on a bad install.