Need a WD hitch with a Ford Expedition?

[shunter917]

I just traded in my 2000 Ranger for a 2004 Expedition. Hated to give up my truck, but we needed a real back seat.

Any idea if I will continue to need a WD hitch with the Expedition? It has air leveling which is supposed to help with a heavy tongue weight, but I'm not sure.

Anyone have any thoughts/experience with this?

[Bill]

When you put several hundred pounds of hitch weight on the ball, the rear end of your tow vehicle squats and the front end rises. The purpose of air shocks is to raise the rear end to restore a level ride. But the weight still remains on the rear end.

The purpose of a weight-distributing hitch is to tranfer some of the hitch weight to the front end of the tow vehicle, and transfer some more of the hitch weight back onto the trailer axle. In other words, to remove some of the hitch weight from the rear end, and DISTRIBUTE it to the other weight-carrying locations. That's why it's called a weight DISTRIBUTING hitch. Air shocks won't do this.

That being said, an Expedition is big vehicle, and the need for a WD hitch is certainly less than it was on the Ranger, which was (in my opinion) quite undersized for your trailer. But if it is like most SUVs, including my Explorer, it is rather softly sprung, and the ride may be uncomfortable if you hitch up "barefoot".

I can only tell you that on my Explorer (one size down from your Expedition) and my 2720SL (one size down from your 3023), a WD hitch is necessary. Without it, the rear end squats, and the front end rises, and handling suffers. This is very dangerous.

This topic has been discussed quite a bit on this board. You would do well to either browse for it, or use the search engine to find specific threads related to WD hitches. Using a WD hitch can never hurt. Since you already have one, why not continue to use it?

Bill

[G-V_Driver]

I started by measuring the distance from the bumper to the ground --on my half-ton Suburban-- with and without the TM tongue weight to get an objective number for the sag. Turned out to be less than 3". Then I eyeballed the tow vehicle to see if it looked abnormally tail-low. Then I towed it around for a while, making some fairly aggressive lane changes and other maneuvers to check for any alarming tow characteristics. behavior. Based on good results, I decided to try it for a while without an additional hitch.

Trip home was on two-lane roads complete with requsite 18-wheelers, and as gusty a day as I'd care to drive. TM was rock-steady. Since my TM has the lift kit, I need a hitch arm that raises the ball a couple of inches to cause the trailer to pull in a level attitude. TM is much easier to pull than the Coleman it replaced.

We've got a 97 Expedition and bought the WD hitch with sway control a few years back when we got tired of being pushed around when towing our big Coleman popup (3500 pounds, loaded). The improvement in handling was immediate and extremely noticeable. When we bought the TM this year, we drove it home (350 miles) with only the traditional hitch. It certainly behaved better than the Coleman did, but we went ahead and updated with a new WD/SC hitch. The improvement we got was not as dramatic as that with the Coleman, but it was significant.

A lot of it depends on where and when and how fast you drive. We go to the Rockies ever summer, across Iowa and Nebraska. Running at 75-80 with a 30 mph side wind and trucks going by you at 85 makes that WD/SC really nice. If you always drive speed limit and don't hit those long lonely but windy roads, you won't see as much improvement. Once we get in the Rockies we prefer those remote little Forest Service campgrounds that are at the end of narrow and winding roads.

We've pretty much decided for local weekend campouts we'll just use the normal hitch. We will use the other hitch whenever we are driving longer distances though. YMMV.

Pam

I noticed the sag on the rear tires of my TV when I picked up the TM at the dealership. The TM did not look level either. Sounds like the WD may be a good idea and Trailmanor recommends it in their FAQ.

What do you recommend and where can I buy it or have it installed? I have a 2004 3023 with 409 tongue wt. and 2915 dry weight.

I am a novice at towing and intend to keep the 3023 for a long time. I saw some of the photos of the Reese and Equal-i-zer. They look pretty intimidating to me.

[RockyMtnRay]

[quote author=ccc6588 link=board=20;threadid=1553;start=msg12396#msg1239 6 date=1079067055]
I noticed the sag on the rear tires of my TV when I picked up the TM at the dealership. The TM did not look level either. Sounds like the WD may be a good idea and Trailmanor recommends it in their FAQ.
[/quote]
IMHO, a WD hitch is a good idea with any tow vehicle short of a Freightliner SportChassis...and virtually mandatory for good front wheel control on any SUV or half ton (or less) pickup. A sway control is not necessary, not recommended by TM, and IMHO just an unneeded complication. Furthermore, a sway control can cause binding during tight turns in campgrounds and parking lots.

What do you recommend and where can I buy it or have it installed? I have a 2004 3023 with 409 tongue wt. and 2915 dry weight.

I am a novice at towing and intend to keep the 3023 for a long time. I saw some of the photos of the Reese and Equal-i-zer. They look pretty intimidating to me.

I have and can recommend a basic Reese Round Bar WD hitch (with 750 lb spring bars) and find it is way more than enough with my 2720SL...even when I towed with a lightweight, short wheelbase Jeep Cherokee. This is a relatively inexpensive hitch (retail about $295) and is very simple to install and adjust. The only slightly challenging part is having sufficiently large wrenches to make the vertical adjustments in the hitch bar (part that actually attaches to your tow vehicle)...the rest is very straightforward if you have any experience with mechanical tasks and a normal set of wrenches. The hitch appears to have lots of complicated parts in pictures but once you actually have one in front of you, they're quite easy to comprehend.

I bought this hitch through my TM dealer who sold it to me with the basic 550 lb spring bars (allegedly strong enough for the 385 lb hitch weight of a 2720SL). I found out later that when loaded, my 2720SL's hitch weight was actually about 520 lbs...140 lbs over the factory numbers and very close to the rated limits of the spring bars. I had quite a challenge finding replacement heavy duty (750 lb) bars at any RV dealer in the entire state of Colorado. I therefore strongly recommend that any hitch you purchase have spring bars with at least a 750 lb rating for use with a 3023 as I would estimate your loaded hitch weight will be in the neighborhood of 600 lbs.

If you have not purchased a WDH, do so. You will be very happy you did. Not only with the safety factor, but the sheer pleasure of driving. I have been woken up several times because I literally forgot the TM was behind me .

If you don't feel good about doing it yourself U-Haul or your dealer will certainly have a line of WD Hitches and they would install everything you need, usually in under an hour. I have had it done to 4 vehicles. On two of them I had to have them wired for trailer power and they were still finished in 1.5 to 2 hours.

[Bill]

ccc-

I'm getting a bit confused, I think. A "hitch" actually has several parts, and I'm losing track of what you have, and what you are asking about.

The first part is the "receiver". This is the sturdy square steel tube that is permanently attached to your tow vehicle. On a Class 2 hitch (3500 pounds), the receiver opening is about 1" square, but Class 2 is too light for your TM. A Class 3 hitch has a 2" square receiver opening. This is what you need for a TM. If you bought the factory towing package when you bought your tow vehicle, the receiver would have been part of that package. Otherwise, an aftermarket receiver could be bolted on by your TM dealer or a hitch shop like U-Haul.

The second part is the "hitch bar". This is the steel bar that slides into the receiver. Down at the bottom of the link that Ray posted, you can see two kinds of Reese hitch bars. They all look about the same.

The third part is the "ball mount". As the name suggests, the ball mount is the part that carries the hitch ball. On its underside, it also has the sockets for the weight distributing bars, aka spring bars. The ball mount is permanently bolted to the hitch bar.

The hitch bar, with the ball mount bolted to it, can be removed from the receiver when you are not towing. It's a good idea to remove it, since they are occasionally targets for thieves. Fair warning - the assembly is heavy, and usually has some dirty grease on it, since you are supposed to grease the hitch ball and oil the springbar sockets each time you hook up.

I seem to recall that in an earlier post, you said that U-Haul has installed a "hitch" on your tow vehicle. I imagine that they installed a receiver, and sold you a hitch bar and ball mount assembly to go into it. Your question about sag on the rear tires suggests that they did NOT sell you a weight distributing ball mount, and you now feel that you need one. Is that correct? If so, U-Haul might be willing to upgrade your ball mount (and perhaps hitch bar), and take the original back in trade. However, they should NOT have to replace the receiver (assuming they installed a Class 3 receiver in the beginning).

At this point, the only thing that actually has to be "installed" is the snap-up brackets on the TM A-frame. These are the devices that hook onto the upper end of the spring bar chains, and pull the spring bars up. Several pictures appear on the page Ray pointed out. In addition, the ball mount has to be bolted to the hitch bar at the height which puts the hitch ball at the proper height above the road - the height which gives you a level trailer. That's about it.

This should all be a quick and easy thing for the U-Haul shop, or your TM dealer to do. And if you feel like doing it yourself (I always enjoy a learning experience), it isn't hard.

By the way, what is your tow vehicle? Do I recall a 2000 Nissan Pathfinder?

Bill

I called my dealer and he felt I did not need one. He referred to a reference manual for my 2000 Pathfinder and there was none recommended. I was confused by the following statement from Trailmanor.com FQA

"We recommend using a Class 3 hitch with load equalizing bars for most vehicles (not necessary on heavy trucks). The load equalizing bars transfer weight to balance the load between the front and rear wheels, which is necessary to level the vehicle and keep proper front end alignment on the tow vehicle. Your TrailManor dealer can recommend the proper hitch for your specific tow vehicle."

I have a Class 3 hitch from U-Haul with a Reese items you describe. What I was referring to is something like the following:

a load equalizing bar? Check the site below.

http://www.reese-hitches.com/weight_...ng_hitches.htm.

There is even one for "pop-up" campers. I never towed before, but I felt very comfortable driving 3 hours with the set up I had when I picked up the TM. It was a windy day, but the towing was fine (except in cruise control it would shift to lower gear).

I just wasn't sure if the set up I had might cause trouble long term especially if I drove a long distance. There is no doubt that when the TM is first put on the TV, that the rear end of the TV has a lot of weight to support. How much a load equalizing bar helps, I have no clue. For convenience, I would definitely stick with my current set up. But if there is a major safety or TV advantage, I will be willing to pay the extra bucks.