Idea for WDH Adjustment Guide

I am still a newbie, so someone should chime in if I am off track.

Before my initial trip with my TM last year, as I had learned to do on this forum, I very carefully measured and recorded the before and after heights at all 4 wheel wheels of the TV and adjusted the WDH to get the truck with the trailer back very close to it’s original attitude without the trailer. I then knew I needed to leave two links of adjustment chain hanging on my WDH, or so I thought.

On my last trip this winter, I realized I needed to adjust my WDH differently when the headlights on the TV were shining too high. I don’t think I had that much more stuff on this trip than before, but I do think I may have had the weight more forward in the TM (another tip I picked on this forum).

What I learned from this was that it would be a good idea to do a check, and readjust the WDH if needed, whenever I pack a different weight in the TM, or even pack the same stuff differently. For me, that could be on every trip.

To make this task easier I was thinking I could attach height-adjusting bolts to one end of a carpenters level. Set the level aligned front to back in the bed of my empty truck where it won't be in the way of loading the truck, adjust the bolts until it reads level, then leave level put. Load both my TV and TM for the trip and hook up the trailer. I will then adjust the WDH until the level's bubble is close to showing level again.

Besides not having to run around and record the heights at the wheel wells, it seems this method will allow adjustment of the WDH even when the TV is not parked in a level spot, like my driveway that slopes.

I plan on adjusting the level with something like newspapers instead of the bolts just to try it for my next trip. If it works, there are several ways to attach a better height adjuster to the level.

It will be easy to set a level in a pick-up bed. People with other style TV’s would need to find a place to put it on their vehicle. I think that might be fairly easy to do with a custom-made height adjustment attachment. Another option is a level mounted on a tripod.

Does anyone see any reason this won’t work well? Or have improvement ideas?

Jim

Seems like a great idea!

A carpenters level seems overkill. Why don't you use a couple of those small stick-on RV levels like these...

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...=5905&src=SRQB

...and stick them on the inside lip. They are calibrated, so when the truck is not level you just note what number the bubble is at instead of using adjusting bolts to center it.


Paul

[fcatwo]

I have an online subscription to Consumers Reports and while looking at some of their vehicle tests yesterday found something that I think is pertinent here: The front axle vs rear axle weight distribution for the Ford Expedition is 50%-50% while that of the Ford 150 is 57%-43%. The Tahoe and Silverado were 52%-48% and 58%-42%. A quick calclation tells me the SUVs are carrying near equal weight front and back sitting as they comes from the factory while the pickups are carring 800lbs more on their front axles than their rear axles. This is probably why you can throw a thousand lbs of firewood in the back of a pickup and still drive home safely and why some say we may not need a WDH to tow a TM with a full size pickup. IMO it also means the "one-size-fits-all" approach to adjusting a WDH is not valid. Is there some law of physics that I'm not aware of that proves me wrong on this matter?

Interesting idea fcatwo.

Directions I have seen for adjusting WDH’s have involved starting by measuring the height of the TV empty from the ground at each of the wheels and then adjusting the WDH so the added weight brings the TV down an equal number of inches on each of the four wheels. This does not mean you are adding equal weight to each wheel as the compression rate of the front and rear springs are very likely to be different. I assume it would take more weight on the rear of a pickup to lower it an inch than it would on the front to lower it an inch. This would likely throw the front/rear axle weight ratio off the manufacturer’s specifications. I don’t see why that is a problem though. I have not seen anything saying that same ratio needs to be maintained when loading the vehicle.

From a practical aspect, I want my vehicle to maintain the same “level” front to back so my headlights are properly aligned when I am towing and after I unhook the trailer. I believe this will also provide optimum traction for my front wheels. This is important for me for braking efficiency, steering control, and tire wear.

I would like to know if anyone has information showing that “re-leveling” is not the best approach to WDH adjustment.

Jim

[fcatwo]

Jim

Just for info, Consumers Report shows the Ridgeline as 57%-43% and a little over 4,500lbs total so they are apparently 600lbs heavier on the front axle sitting empty.

On instructions for adjusting a WDH; our first TV for the TM was an 02 Honda Odyssey minivan and we had a one-arm 400-4000 WDH. The instruction for that hitch said to pull the front back down to it's origional location only unless the rear dropped more than an inch. Once the rear was an inch lower it said to pull the front and back down in equal amounts to maintain that ratio but never lower the front more than 1/2". I interpreted those instructions to mean "level it and keep it level". We weighed that rig hitched to the TM and found the front and rear axles were carrying within 20lbs of the same weight. IMHO that's an almost perfect setup. YMMV

I'm not trying to win an argument here by the way -- Im just trying to let people know there is not total agreement that pulling front and rear down in equal amounts is the way to do it for all vehicles. I'm assuming they'll consider all this and do whatever they think best.

We rarely travel after dark with the TM so the headlight thing is not important to us and I'm thinking loading people and their things in the back of a vehicle is going to raise the headlights regardles of whether we are towing a trailer. When we had the 5th wheel, we adjusted the lights half way which meant we couldn't see well either towing or running solo :-).

One thing we ran into when I worked in an RV shop (a long time ago) was when people tried to move too much of the tongue weight to the front axle. In doing so they overloaded the trailer axle and burnt up the bearings or shredded the trailer tires. Don't load your front axle at the expense of the trailer axle since most of the TM axles are already loaded pretty heavily.

[cwallen19803]

I glued a two way level on the tounge. I use it to do the initial set up leveling before I open the trailer. It's easier to get every thing aligned properly if you level it first. After I set it up, I check the interior with a bubble level.

As it turns out, the tounge and interior are not exactly on the same plane. In order for the interior to be level, the tounge level needs to be touching one line instead of in the middle. It's just a calibration issue.

I also use the tounge level to determine if the WDH is set up properly. Since the point of WDH is to restore the TV to it's original attitude, I can tell by looking at the tounge level if the back of the TV is lower or higher than level. I can also be assured that the WDH is putting weight ON instead of lifting weight OFF of the hitch by the location of the tounge level bubble.