Okay to mount L-Brackets forward of of swing tongue hitch

Is the swing tongue durable enough to allow me to mount the L-Brackets for my E2 WDH hitch's spring bars in front of the hinge or must they be mounted behind it?

I hope this makes sense, I'm a little new to this. Let me know what you guys think.

[scrubjaysnest]

Originally Posted by sleepyslo

Is the swing tongue durable enough to allow me to mount the L-Brackets for my E2 WDH hitch's spring bars in front of the hinge or must they be mounted behind it?

I hope this makes sense, I'm a little new to this. Let me know what you guys think.

I don't trust the swing hitch at all, there have been very few failures reported. But you might create one that has been reported.
My brackets are behind the swing hitch pivot points. This required modifying the street side spring bar as it wasn't long enough. I have an older Reese WDH.
You can search for more info under WDH on the site.

Mine too are mounted behind the swing hitch pivot points but no modifications had to be made to the bars. I agree that mounting in front of the pivot points could possibly be unsafe.

[Barb&Tim]

Just one more opinion:

Since the length of the spring bars on any WDH pretty much dictates where the L-brackets must be placed, in my case they had to go behind the hinge. And, since we are only talking about a relative small distance in placement (small change in leverage) i am thinking that there would not be that much difference in the amount of torque applied to the hinge.

Tim

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by Barb&Tim

Just one more opinion:

Since the length of the spring bars on any WDH pretty much dictates where the L-brackets must be placed, in my case they had to go behind the hinge. And, since we are only talking about a relative small distance in placement (small change in leverage) i am thinking that there would not be that much difference in the amount of torque applied to the hinge.

Tim

I think the load on the hinge is going to be fairly similar either way and, unfortunately, a worst case from a load-zone point of view (better to have splices in beams at the 1/4 points instead of the load points where the maximum bending moments are). There having been a few people with hinge problems (though most apparently are without problems), it might be prudent to keep an eye on the hinge area and hinge hardware from time to time (red flags might be signs of bent metal or things that don't fit right any more).

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to see about mucking with it this weekend.