Forum Discussion

ralph_day's avatar
ralph_day
Explorer
Sep 07, 2014

over tightened tension bars

I let my daughter and son in law borrow my new trailer/truck combo. Fully checked out on hitching, or so I thought. When it came back the wdh tension bars were latched at a severe angle (not level with the frame of the trailer as usual). Immediatley raised tongue and release/reset to proper number of links hanging free.

He re hitched on a rough site, tension bars were put up by hand to the too high position (strong guy!)

Question: Could there be any repercussions on the hitch assembly, trailer frame or truck hitch/frame, or am I worrying about nothing?

Ralph
  • beemerphile1's avatar
    beemerphile1
    Explorer
    Sep 08, 2014
    No damage done and in fact I'm thinking that if he was able to put them on by hand maybe you are the one not hitching correctly.

    There are stickies in the towing section on how to correctly set-up a WDH.
  • westend's avatar
    westend
    Explorer
    Sep 08, 2014
    It's virtually impossible to do any damage to the truck or trailer with a set of WDH bars. Think about this, the user attached the bars by himself. How big of a lever would you need to bend any part of the truck or trailer? It would have to be over 20' long and it is doubtful it would bend anything, rather only raise something.
  • Ron_Gratz's avatar
    Ron_Gratz
    Explorer
    Sep 08, 2014
    ralph day wrote:
    ---When it came back the wdh tension bars were latched at a severe angle (not level with the frame of the trailer as usual).---
    We have no way of knowing if the "severe angle" really was severe.
    The bars being "not level with the frame" will not necessarily cause any overloading.
    The real concern is how many chain links were under tension.
    With too few links under tension, the fore/aft movement of the bar end during a turn is restricted and could overload the chain lift device.

    I would say that, if the TV was not noticeably low in front and not noticeably high in rear, there probably was no overloading involved.

    Ron
  • TucsonJim's avatar
    TucsonJim
    Explorer II
    Sep 08, 2014
    Unless it was so severe that it caused metal fatigue and failure, I highly doubt there was any damage.
  • mhardin's avatar
    mhardin
    Explorer
    Sep 07, 2014
    The number of links you take depends on how much weight you want to transmit. That varies from setup to setup and even how your truck/trailer are loaded. You probably have a "normal" for your setup, but that could change depending on your load. You have nothing to worry about, truck, or trailer.
  • loulou57's avatar
    loulou57
    Explorer
    Sep 07, 2014
    Ok...hubby isn't here to ask but I am thinking, could this not have done damage to the truck frame since the back of the truck would be too high ?!
  • Mike_LA's avatar
    Mike_LA
    Explorer
    Sep 07, 2014
    ralph day wrote:

    Question: Could there be any repercussions on the hitch assembly, trailer frame or truck hitch/frame, or am I worrying about nothing?

    Ralph


    I drought you'll have any problems.

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