Equalizer Round Bar interferes with Swing Hitch

I have a Ford Explorer and I have a 2007 trailmanor 2720SL. I have a Reese 750 lb round bar equalizer and I find that I cannot tighten up the chain at the end of the round par because the swing hitch pinning point projects about 3 inches outside of the frame such that the round bar jams on it when I try and tighten up the chain. This would not be a problem if I did not have the swing hitch which reduces the length of the trailer by 2 feet. My garage is long enough such that I don't really need the swing hitch. Is the solution to try and cut the 3 inch projecting part off? or to try and weld some other section onto the side of the frame to make the frame wider? or is there some other type of equalizer bar system that I can buy that will work? I attached a photo showing the conflict.

[ThePair]

I may be off base here and the wrong person to answer, since I personally have never used a WDH before...but, it's my understanding that the bars are ideally supposed to run parallel to the tongue, when all is more or less properly adjusted.

Judging by your question and the picture, your bars will be pointing up towards the tongue, which seems too high, based on everything I've read about adjusting a WDH.

I think the thing to do would be to adjust the angle of the head of the WDH where it attaches to the draw bar. I believe there should be washers of some kind that can be used to tilt the head "downwards" so that the bars are straighter--requiring more links of chain to get the weight distributed. This would also have the affect of lowering the ends of those round bars, so that the swing hitch projection would no longer be a hindrance.

I have a feeling someone with more experience can explain this better, or even correct me if I am totally off base.

Yes I will look into adjusting the angle of the hitch mount and if I can point it more downwards then perhaps I would be able to pull up more on the round bars. Thanks alot.


Next Day comments. I went to a Hitch shop next day and they explained that I could adjust the galvanized adjustment plate on the REESE hitch. It has setting 1 to 6 and setting 6 is the maximum downward tilt. I previously was on setting 5 and when I changed to setting to 6 it gave me a couple more inches with the car on the sloping driveway. I will get more than this when I get it flat on the street. See photo with adjusted hitch mount.

Thanks to the person in Chicago for the advice. Much appreciated. I think you solved my problem. Anyway I still hope the Vancouver Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round!!

[ThePair]

Originally Posted by Barry C Anderson

Thanks to the person in Chicago for the advice. Much appreciated. I think you solved my problem. Anyway I still hope the Vancouver Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round!!

Hey, I'm just glad that my weak understanding of WDH in general actually had some basis in reality!

Gives my hope that I'll be able to tow my own TM when I finally take delivery and get all the parts together.

First things first, wiring my van :P

Best of luck!

Marc

I have a 2008 2619 with a swing hitch. I also have a Reese WDH. My tv is a Honda Ridgeline. My bars do point down without any adjusting washers. But I believe the pins on my 2619 are on the inside of the hitch frame and not the outside. The TM is in storage below the snow line so I can not go to the garage to verify that.

Barry, the other posts seem to be right on the mark. You need to tilt the ball mount platform back some, so that you can run the bars parrallel to the ground. You should have plenty of clearance at that point.

Here is a good video that shows how to install and adjust the Reese round bar WDH:
http://www.etrailer.com/tv-weight_di..._ford_van.aspx

Even though I use a Reese trunnion bar WDH with my current trailer, maybe you can see from this photo how far I have the ball mount tilted back to give me at least 5 links of chain (Reese's stated minimum) on the snap-up brackets.



The same principle applies to the round bar setup. I would have actually been better off with the round bar setup because I get some rub between my trunnion bars and the yoke on my dual cam sway control...but that is another long story.

[mjlaupp]

Barry,
I would suggest that you should upgrade to a 1000# bar set. This will get you back into adjustment range. Apparently your combined tongue weight and way back weight in the Explorer are close to the 750# limit of your WDH.
Mike

Originally Posted by mjlaupp

Barry,
I would suggest that you should upgrade to a 1000# bar set. This will get you back into adjustment range. Apparently your combined tongue weight and way back weight in the Explorer are close to the 750# limit of your WDH.
Mike

Mike, I used 800 lb. bars on my Trailmanor, and they seemed to be sized just right for my 500+ lb. tongue weight, so I wouldn't think that Barry's 750 lb. bars should be a problem. 1000 lb. bars might be a tad too stiff, and make the ride really bouncy. Typically, the minimum suggested tongue weight is 1/2 of the bar rating. So, the 1000 lb. bars would be too much if Barry's tongue weight is under 500 lbs.

Here is an excellent chart about 1/2 down the page: http://www.etrailer.com/c-wd.htm

On my current trailer (not a Trailmanor), the dealer set me up with 800 lb. bars, but I found that I have a 720 lb. tongue weight, and still need to add a little gear up front and some water to the black water tank which is well forward of the axles.....probably putting me over the 800 lbs. In this case, I did order 1200 lb. bars, as the 800 1s would be maxed out. The 1200 lb. bars are good from a 600 lb. to 1200 lb. tongue weight, so I should be good to go with those......but those puppies put some bounce in my ride.

Thanks for all of your advice. I think that I need to try and see if the 750 lb bars as I have newly adjusted will keep my two wheels on the Explorer level or down the same amount. If not then I guess I will need to move up to the 1000 lb bar.

Since you people are so knowledgeable, I think another problem I have been having is that I have ripped off a couple of snap brackets from what I believe was too much pressure. I thought this might have been from the fact that the round bar was prying on the swing hitch plate. However, now I think it might be from the fact that at times I have been putting the equalizer bars on the trailer when my Explorer is on a steep drive way and the trailer in on the flatter garage and also when I back up the trailer from the flat road to the steep uphill driveway with the equalizer still on it must be causing to much stress on the snap brackets and bending them. I guess I should only be using the equalizer hitch on flat ground and when I back up the driveway take the equalizer off before I do this. Has anyone else had problems with overstressing the snapbrackets when going from steep slopes to flat ground with a sudden change in angle of the vehicle and the trailer? The attached photo shows two different possible angles of the hitch bar when the vehicle is on a steep driveway (yellow) and the blue line would be the case when backing the trailer from a flat road up a steep driveway with equalizer hitch on.

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by mtnguy

Mike, I used 800 lb. bars on my Trailmanor, and they seemed to be sized just right for my 500+ lb. tongue weight, so I wouldn't think that Barry's 750 lb. bars should be a problem. 1000 lb. bars might be a tad too stiff, and make the ride really bouncy.

I'll politely disagree. I use 1000lb bars on my 2619, sometimes on fairly on rough roads, with no bouncing problems ever. My feeling is, excessive "trailer bounce" is not caused at, or solved by, worrying about relatively small motions happening at the hitch mount. Instead, it happens at the tires and the Torflex suspension (where TM meets the ground). And so, I think that the right way to deal with it is to lower your tire PSI per the actual axle loading, per the Goodyear table.

On my 3124-like upgraded suspension, the recommended PSI value for 50 MPH and lower (avoiding the "plus 10 PSI if you drive faster than rated" rule) is a bit below 35 PSI at TM's official "maximum load", for my model year. I actually use about 45 PSI, because I load a little bit heavier than suggested ; But the sidewall max PSI on the D-rated Marathon is 65 PSI, running with my tires stuffed that full would shake my TM almost like running on the naked rims. I think that creating the proper level of "flex" in the sidewalls and tread, by tuning the PSI properly, is important for both ride quality AND safety, and that leads me to make a nasty follow-up statement:

Originally Posted by for emphasis

People who say "crank your tire PSI up to the sidewall max, ALWAYS", without even asking about your axle loading don't know #$%^#@ about the Marathons, even if they've been working as tire professionals for 30 years. ST tires such as the Marathon are different than regular truck tires. They either never learned this, or they forgot, or they're following legal advice to avoid responsibility for catastrophic under-inflation-- shaking your trailer to a young death isn't their problem, not compared to the legal risk of telling you the truth about how it really works.

AFAIK, TM recommends max sidewall PSI all the time, just like these other people. If you care to do it right, however, follow Goodyear's table (and not the sentence in TM's manual.) I don't know if they've changed that advice in the new models, where even the small trailers (2619 and 2720) come with 15" tires. But excessive shaking of an in-alignment TM with balanced tires on rough roads is usually a tire pressure issue. The Toflex can't make up for rock-hard tires all by itself, they need to work TOGETHER.
- - - - -

Back on topic: The stronger WDH bars, of course, also help to solve the exact problem he's having: the more flexible bars he uses now need to be pulled up by (probably) one more link of distance towards hitting than the 1000 lb. bars would need. The final position, at rest, can be adjusted to wherever he likes-- But in motion, the 800 lb bars will flex more (both up AND down) from this initial rest position when the trailer hits a pothole. More risk of "whack" or "bang" both ways-- against the swing hitch A-frame, AND against the ground. Like everyone else with a swing hitch, I've got a pretty big angle on my head-- 4 washers in my washer-adjusted "Robin" head, instead of the often typical 2 washers. Maybe there will be enough play in both directions after adjusting the head angle, without buying new bars. But after a lot of experience with the near-clone "Robin", equipped with 1000 lb bars, I think that this is the best size to use with 2619/2720 TMs.