New Owner Questions

Ok, update I purchased a WDH and a really nice guy installed it and showed me how to do everything, I am quite able and comfortable doing it myself which was my main concern, I did get a electric hitch raise thing which makes it easier to put on the bars for the hitch I just jack it up really high and the chains just slip on, wasn't going to do that but glad I did makes it so much easier. Once again thanks for all the advice.

Having never towed before, I have similar questions. that Doris once had. Plus, I am not familiar with some of the terms used. Anyways, I viewed a few YouTube video. The following video is pretty detailed and seems to explain everything nicely. Does the guy in the video do it right?

Here is the video:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vYuQeWO...%3DvYuQeWO0-FA

[LoveToCamp]

The only thing I would do differently is to get the ball back up to original, unloaded height. With the 1" sag he is okay with, your headlights will be aiming high. You will be blinding oncoming traffic, even on low beams.

To me, that is a good argument for a WDH. Many people say their truck doesn't sag "much", then their headlights are too high. Bad form!

[Redtail Cruiser]

LoveToCamp is right; however, it all depends on your tow vehicle's capacity and how much tongue weight you're trying to equalize versus how close you can really get to leveling the TM and TV.

Remember to load the back of the TV with the same weight your traveling with (including human and animal) to set the WDH.

[Bill]

I was a little confused by one part of the video. The guy had to really crank on the tongue jack to lift the hitch and the truck above the truck's starting position. OK, I understand why it would be hard to lift both the tongue weight of the trailer plus a large chunk of truck weight. I'm not convinced that the jack is rated to lift that much weight, but that is a different issue.

Then, once he had jacked the hitch up above the unloaded position, he still had to exert some real two-arm effort on the cheater bar to lift the chain hooks into position. I am not convinced he could have lifted the hooks at all if he had not lifted so high with the jack.

Once jacked up that high, I would have expected the chain hooks to go up very easily. They certainly do on my TM, if I lift it that high (which I don't). Did I miss something?

Bill

Thanks for the help, everyone. The guy in the video did exert himself quiet a bit, as Bill noted ;-)