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Originally Posted by BobRederick
I run the chains in the 3rd link (2 hanging loose) and it appears quite good.
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Bob - Three links between the tip of the springbar and the hook on the snap-up bracket is not enough. You should have about 5.
As long as you are towing straight, it doesn't matter. But if you have to make a sharp turn - in a crowded parking lot, for instance, or getting into a tight campsite - the springbar on the inside of the turn is suddenly too long, and the bar on the outside is too short. The tips try to move forward or back to compensate, but they are constrained by the length of the chain. Does that make any sense? A sketch might help if needed.
At any rate, one of the symptoms of too-short chain is "groaning" - the springbars make a groaning sound in a tight turn from the enormous stress put on them. A Search on the word "groan" will turn up discussions on this board.
You need to increase the number of links. But if you simply snap up on the 5th link instead of the 3rd, you don't get enough lift, so that is not the answer. The secret is to lower the tips of the springbars toward the ground. Then you can lift up from the 5th link, and get the same force that you had before on the 3rd.
How to lower them? The forward end of each springbar is set rigidly into the ballmount. If you tilt the ballmount backward, the springbar tips drop toward the ground.
With the TM unhooked, take a look at your hitch ball. I bet it is pretty close to vertical - straight up and down. To most people, this instinctively feels right. But in most cases it is not. It should be tilted backward a bit. On most hitches, the tilt is adjustable, generally by removing the upper of the two huge bolts and selecting a different setting of a washer or a grooved grating of some sort. As you tilt the ballmount back, the springbar tips drop toward the ground. Now when you snap them up, you end up with more links in the chain between the tips and the bracket hooks to get the same force. Of course, if you drop the tips too much, they approach the ground, which is not good..
My thanks to the folks at Reese for patiently explaining this to me when I was struggling with it a couple or three years ago.
Bill