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Old 06-27-2018, 08:26 PM   #11
BrucePerens
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I am using the 550 pound bars, trailer is a 3023, tow vehicle is a Jeep Grand Cherokee. These work fine. If you have 1000 pound bars, they will have three dots, see this, the 550 pound bars have one dot.

Here is your manual. I don't see where it says the bars should be level. It might be that on top of their being 1000 pound bars, you have overtensioned them.

Back off several links of chain and try it that way. Unfortunately this will make the bars more likely to drag when you go over a dip. But hopefully not too bad.

If the bars are biting you while you install or remove them, then with the coupler and hitch locked together, raise them on the trailer jack. This will de-tension the chains and make them very easy to put on and take off. No more band-aids and no need for force on the wrench. This is easier with an electric jack. You must have the hitch locked to the vehicle while doing this, so that the trailer doesn't roll and bend the jack. And obviously this should be lifting the rear of the tow vehicle on the springs and shocks, not ever coming close to lifting the tires off of the ground, or you will be beyond the specs of the jack, the A-frame and coupler.

Note that Blue Ox bars are not safe if they are completely untensioned while operating. The tension keeps them in the socket, and gravity if you're going slow. I wouldn't want them flying around next to the gas canisters. The button is a safeguard or an installation aid but doesn't hold as well as tension on the bar.

Although your Blue Ox is big and heavy and that silly button is poorly designed (it should be captive), it actually works. I am dubious that some of the other WDH units on the market work at all, and most of them are even more awkward to connect and disconnect. I am dubious about the effect of the Andersen in particular. The lever arm is between the center of the hitch ball and where the chains connect - this seems way too short.

My Goodyear Endurance tires say "80 PSI" on the sidewall, in two-inch tall letters, as if it is important. So, I run them at 80 PSI. I think they drop from load-rating E to D if you run them at a lower pressure. I figure that my rubber axle is the shock absorber and my tires are not meant to be the shock absorbers. We are not seeing vibration damage.
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Old 06-28-2018, 02:03 AM   #12
gonzo628
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nwhouston View Post
We tow our 3124KS with a 1/2 ton pickup. Originally we towed without a WDH as the tongue weight (trailer loaded with gear in the back of the pickup) was / is still under the 600 lb allowable for my truck. Trailer towed smoothly and the truck was level. About two years ago I succumbed to internet traffic and bought / installed a WDH. Since then our trailer has been experiencing significant bounce damage. An example is the trim on the oven literally comes unscrewed. I do not have the bars set too tight (aka they are level when attached).

So we are embarking on a long trip from Texas to Virginia next week, and I am considering abandoning the WDH. That beast alone weighs over 60 lbs including the bars. And there is always the risk of the odd bite when unhooking.

Does anyone else using a WDH see similar trailer bounce effects? Anyone tried the WDH and then left it home? Appreciate your views.

Larry
Hi Larry,

I had come to the forum with that very problem a while back. My trailer was getting beat up on every trip (usually less than 200mi one way). I thought my WDH bars (1k) were the issue and tried towing without. While the perceived outcome was that it was a touch less harsh, the reality was that my trailer was still getting beat up pretty badly. I took the trailer to the local tire place to have the wheels balanced (not normally needed on a trailer, but I had to rule it out (for my own sanity). The tire shop was unable to balance the tires and advised that my wheels were non-concentric. They explained that steel wheels sometimes get stamped outside of true dead center. their recommended fix was Alloy wheels which are less susceptible to the issue given their manufacturing process.

After our most recent trip had half of our interior hinges work themselves loose, and the oven door came off (among other things). We decided to pull the trigger on the alloy wheels and new tires. I took the trailer on a quick 20-mile jaunt and (it may be subjective) but I feel like the difference is night and day. It no longer feels like my trailer is shaking apart.

-Ronnie
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Old 06-28-2018, 07:44 AM   #13
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Default Great input on trailer bounce

Thanks for the great input overnight! Good ideas to pursue.

First the BlueOx and its 1000 lb bars. As one of Bill's old posts says, a fully loaded 3124KS has a tongue weight at or north of 700 lbs. Hence the 1000 lb bars. But I may be pulling them up more than needed. My comment about horizontal was not literal, but they do need to be pulled up so they are stiff and causing the truck to be level. At that point they are close to level (got this from calling BlueOx when I was first setting it up). But dropping back one link will not create a 'soft' lash up, so right now that is my plan. (I have thought about getting a 750 lb set to try, but the cost is enough to drive me to look at other things first. I am reweighing after load out this trip to see if something has changed).

I take my rims to Discount Tire to mount tires (two sets so far) and have had no comments on the rims. But maybe that is the right step when we replace the tires again next year. I go three years and change regardless of mileage.

We take off Tuesday, so for now I think the 'one-link' less tension is my best plan. If we find oven door parts on the floor again after day one, I may drop the WDH into the truck bed and pull with the conventional receiver hitch.

Thanks for input. Larry
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Old 06-28-2018, 09:36 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nwhouston
[The tires on my 3124] run at 65 psi (D's). When hot they can get up to 70 psi, in which case I usually let the cold (aka morning) pressure drop down to about 58 psi so I stay close to 65 psi once we are warmed up down the road. I do know that too much air can definitely add to this problem.
Tire manufacturers specifically tell you not to de-air the tires to compensate for the warming effect. The pressure rating on the sidewall, and in the load inflation tables, is the manufacturer's specified COLD PRESSURE, and the tire design takes into account the warming effect. The manufacturer is careful to say that COLD does not mean "refrigerated". It just means "not yet driven on today". Remember that by deflating from 65 psi cold to 58 psi cold, the tire's load rating for a 15-inch Goodyear Marathon drops by two hundred pounds per side.

Quote:
And I know that the road you are on is a big factor.
That's for sure. On our recent trip from Arizona to Maine, we traveled on 50 miles of old concrete road in Colorado - the kind of road where they poured a series of concrete slabs on the ground, separated by narrow expansion joints, and the concrete settled unevenly as it cured. The result is a POUND POUND POUND as you traverse the joints. It did quite a bit of damage to our TM. The real point I'm making, though, is that we have towed our TMs for somewhere around 100,000 miles, always with a WDH, and although we've had some screws shake out over the years, the pounding problem never really showed up until we hit this long stretch of bad road.

Our experience suggests that the WDH is not a culprit in the pounding. I have always felt that a lot of the problem is due to the fact that the TM doesn't have shock absorbers like your tow vehicle does. This, combined with the pounding road, is what does the damage.

Bill
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Old 06-28-2018, 03:59 PM   #15
nwhouston
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Default Tire cold set

Bill, good input. I have not let any air out, so I will just set them as I normally do at 63 psi before driving off the first day. Larry
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Old 07-01-2018, 10:46 PM   #16
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I am sure this is common knowledge but thought it worthy of mention. Cold air pressure is the pressure reading before the tires have had a chance to heat up (through driving) and reflects the desired pressure rating when the ambient temperature is 70° F. For every 10 degrees above 70, 1lb pressure is added. Likewise, for every 10 degrees below, reduce the Cold Air pressure by 1 lb.
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