WDH with Swing-away Tongue

I posted a followup on the skid wheels in case someone else has the steep driveway issue for info. I upgraded to the 15 inch 2540 lb tires to achieve a higher and safer load rating for the trailer tires. I hoped that with raising the trailer and the hitchball an inch that this would also make it possible for me to back up my steep driveway without having to have the WDH hitch partly on. Unfortunately this was not the case as the front of the trailer and bottom of hitchbar still grounded out. The skid wheels worked well to prevent the grounding of the back of the trailer and I found that I still had to put the WDH on the slackest or the very first link to prevent grounding of the front of the trailer. At this one link, the deflection of the spring bars was only about 3 inches which is similar to normal use and does not put any undo stress on the system. Depending on the steepness of the driveway, I would install the skid wheels first and don't put the WDH on at all unless you have too. In my case, I still had to put it on the very last link to keep the front of the trailer off the driveway. In summary, the swivel skid wheels in the end have made backing up the driveway a much easier process.

[Barb&Tim]

Thanks BigBear, After looking at your pictures:

Now i understand, you have both a steep drive and a high crown on the road which really makes a bad combination. I am noting that as something i need to avoid if possible.

[Bill]

BigBear -

Perhaps I am flogging a dead horse here, but it looks to me like
a) putting some 2x6 chunks in the gutter would solve the problem shown in photo 1 - I have to do this in my driveway, too
b) a cheap non-WDH hitch with a bit of lift (an inch?) would solve the problem in photo 2. One such is at WalMart http://www.walmart.com/ip/Reese-Towp...w-Bar/15125840 for $10 plus the cost of a ball.

Waddya tink?

Bill

Yes, thanks for pointing that out as I already have one of those hitch bars. If I am going to leave the trailer out and wash it for a day or so and disconnect it anyway, I would be better to just switch hitch bars which will give me a higher ball height and then I won't need to put the WDH on partly on at all when I back up.

Call me 'Pinhead', I'm a 'newbeeee'. Question: I have a fairly steep driveway (not sure of the degree) from the road as well as a sharp left of right turn when backing in or pulling out. My boat never hits, but, I'm in the market to purchase a 26/18 TM and was wondering---Will a WDH increase my chances of grounding out or decrease?

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by Garybb

Call me 'Pinhead', I'm a 'newbeeee'. Question: I have a fairly steep driveway (not sure of the degree) from the road as well as a sharp left of right turn when backing in or pulling out. My boat never hits, but, I'm in the market to purchase a 26/18 TM and was wondering---Will a WDH increase my chances of grounding out or decrease?

Summarizing what I've read here, there are good ideas and not so good ideas for making it better, but not all driveways are easy. But no, I won't call you any of those things!

Generally, a WDH will lift the hitch and lower the rear bumper of the trailer. There are strategies people use for remediation, like filling in the street to driveway point with lumber or even a ramp (the problem is not the slope, it's the difference in slope between the driveway and the street). Also, it helps to back the trailer across the driveway threshold on an angle for the same reason (the transition from street to driveway to street is more gradual).

[Wavery]

It is best to unhook the WDH spring bars before backing anyway.

The concept of the WDH is to increase braking and steering control when hard braking @ highway speeds. It has NO value while backing or maneuvering while parking..

The problem that you may encounter is that the WDH receiver hangs down quite a bit. The guy that I bought my trailer from had to back up a steep driveway. Once he got his WDH set-up, he cut the bottom off of the receiver and eliminated about 2" of unused, worthless steel.

If you still drag, you could always remove the WDH hitch receiver and install a standard receiver before backing in the driveway. It would be a PITA but it may solve a problem.

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by harveyrv

It is best to unhook the WDH spring bars before backing anyway.

The concept of the WDH is to increase braking and steering control when hard braking @ highway speeds. It has NO value while backing or maneuvering while parking..

The problem that you may encounter is that the WDH receiver hangs down quite a bit. The guy that I bought my trailer from had to back up a steep driveway. Once he got his WDH set-up, he cut the bottom off of the receiver and eliminated about 2" of unused, worthless steel.

If you still drag, you could always remove the WDH hitch receiver and install a standard receiver before backing in the driveway. It would be a PITA but it may solve a problem.

It's best if your WDH can work without having to change anything. Hopefully it won't be necessary to unhitch.

The purpose of the WDH is to keep from unloading the front wheels, tending to lift the hitch, which tends to lower the trailer back bumper. So an adjustment for getting in the driveway would depend on if or where you're bottoming out.

This was a very interesting thread. I'm surprised there aren't more reports of swing hitch failures with the wdh. I passed by Custom RV a few months ago, and I saw two versions of swing hitch design. The factory design places the passenger side lock pin inside the frame, held back only by a 1/4" thick plate that connects the rear frame members (and the frame is thin, maybe 1/8"). Custom RV buils the swing hitch with both lock pins attached on the ouside of the frame, passing through heavy guage upper and lower L-brackets welded to the frame. The factory version looked susceptible to structural failure under stress, especially if a few hundred pounds of tension are transferred through the area with a WDH.

Backing up in a sharp curve easily solves the problem, but it means getting someone to come out as a spotter since you can't see the far side of the garage door in your mirrors when backing up. I wanted to be able to back up straight by myself, so there was no choice to add the skid wheels, even after changing to 15 inch tires, because no matter how I set up the hitch either the front of the trailer or the back of the trailer would ground out. Yes with the skid wheels, I would be able to take my equalizer hitch out and replace it with a simple higher hitch, but this takes quite a bit of additional time. The simplest thing, in my case, was just to reduce the setting on the equalizer hitch chains, drop down from 4 chain links to 1 when backing up. This only takes a minute and this reduces the force on the swing hitch and still kept the front of my trailer from grounding.

An easy way to think about how going up a steep driveway increases the force on the swing hitch, and possibly damaging it, is this. If you have a 500 lb hitch load on your vehicle before you put your equalizer bars, then as you tighten up the chains on the equalizer system it transfers a few hundred pounds to the front wheels of your vehicle and the trailer axle. If while, you have your equalizer bars on normal tension on level ground and you simply jack up of the trailer hitch a couple of inches with your trailer jack, the chains links will go slack. Going up a steep driveway with the equalizer hitch set on the normal setting is the opposite of this and is much like forcing your trailer hitch down a few inches while on level ground and this is doubling the force on your hitch equalizer system. (Say to 1000 lbs instead of 500 lbs) This was how my swing hitch bent in the first place. With my skid wheels on and no risk of grounding on the back end, what I do now when backing up straight, is to reduce the number of chain links from 4 to 1, effectively taking the 500 lbs off the equalizer bar system to zero before I back up. Then when I back up the equalizer bars go from zero to 500 lbs rather from 500 to 1000 lbs. This way I don't overstress my vehicle hitch. I still see some references to backing up with the equalizer hitch on up a steep driveway but I would caution this. If you want to leave the equalizer bar tension on, reduce the chain link setting before you back up so as not to overstress the swing hitch if you can. I realize my situation is unique, with the skids wheels, so reducing the chain link setting may not work for others if you are grounding out on the back end of your trailer. I posted to mainly to add some caution about stressing the swing hitch again. It sounds like with the stronger outside brackets on the Custom RV hitch, you would not have to worry about backing with the equalizer system on the normal chain link setting since the tow vehicle hitch can probably take the extra stress. This would have been an option for me I guess instead of welding up the swing hitch.