smurfs_of_war

Blue Ox Sway pro- pulled for the first time. It works extremely well- I was amazed since I didn't get the older style. If you look closely at the newer design, the bars actually torque down and out now, and there is definitely friction in the head from the leverage. I can't for the life of me figure out how the design works, but it does. As for weight- agree. Had to get an additional shank to drop it further because my truck wouldn't sag enough with the weight of the tongue to level the trailer out. Heavy unit, but definitely happy with it. The head angle adjustment would be nice, but realistically- it is the same angle I have my other head at, and I am able to move plenty of weight off my axle.

The choice for the BlueOx over others boiled down to availability where I am. So far, happy with it.

FX4RR

Lots of good information here, I will be looking locally to see what is available.

Blue Ox, Equalizer, Reese and husky are all on my list.

Thinker

Stay away from the older style with chains to tension. Lots of noise and they have zero sway control value. You have to add a sway bar in addition.


Current Equal-I-zer and similar with landing pads are much better. BUT, it is all worthless if not set up properly.


I have towed a bunch with various hitches. Picked up my new camper trailer and the dealer offered to set up the hitch and get me going. BIG MESS.


When towing, a trailer has to be level or SLIGHTLY nose down. With an electric jack on the tongue, you connect, then jack both trailer and truck until bars slide easily in place. You should not have to use the pry bar. Then raise the jack foot and when it is free and clear on level ground, trailer should be level or slightly nose down. This will give minimum sway.


BTW, my first post on this forum.. Looks like a great bunch here with lots of F150 knowledge. My last truck was a Chevy.

smokeywren

Hi, Thinker, and welcome to F150forum.

But you are misinformed about chain length adjustment. My Reese Strait-Line uses chain length adjustment, and includes dual-cam sway control. That's all the sway control you need 99% of the time, and as much as you get with the other WD hitches that cost less than $1,000 discounted price - including your darling Equal-I-Zer. I don't notice any more noise coming from my dual-cam WD hitch than comes from similarly lubricated Equal-I-Zer spring bars.

Yeah, my $2400 ProPride WD hitch is better and covers that other 1% of the time when none of the less-expensive hitches - including your Equal-I-Zer - will prevent uncontrollable sway. The ProPride doesn't use chain adjustment, and is a quiet as any other WD hitch. But a new one costs $2,400.

The disadvantage of chain length adjustment is you cannot fine tune your spring bar tension. One chain length difference goes from not quite enough tension to a bit too much tension. So from that perspective my ProPride hitch is better. It has a screw adjuster that you can turn to achieve any amount of tension you want. It looks like maybe the Equal-I-Zer and Husky Center-Line have a similar fine-tuning capability. But I usually choose the slightly too much tension adjustment, and it works well.

I recently returned from a 2,800 mile towing trip with my Strait-Line hitch, from west Texas to Oregon and back with my cargo trailer grossing around 6,000 pounds one way and 2,000 pounds the other way. Perfect performance from that hitch. No noticeable noise, excellent sway control, excellent weight distribution. My route included all sorts of road conditions from flat desert to hills and valleys to mountain passes, with and without high head winds and cross winds, about half on interstate highways and half on two-lane highways such as US 191 in eastern Utah.

After such good performance on that trip, you might wonder why I spent the big bucks for a ProPride hitch for my TT. The answer is that way back when, I have experienced uncontrollable trailer sway, and I know it's a rare combination of conditions that causes it. But that rare combination of conditions does occur, and I want my hitch to manage it if it happens again.


So why don't I use the ProPride on all my trailers? Because it's a major project to move the ProPride hitch from one trailer to another. For that trip, I didn't have time to tackle that major project, so I "made do" with the Strait-Line hitch for that trip with the cargo trailer. Most of my longer towing trips is with the TT, so I installed the ProPride hitch on the TT. I'm an old farm boy, but it still took me over two long days to get the ProPride hitch installed and adjusted.

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Here's a picture of my Eqaul-i-zer, and you can see the holes in the bar support brackets - they are 1 inch apart, so that's as much fine tuning as you can do, but that's plenty:







Bob


.

FX4RR

I found a Canadian retailer for Blue Ox Pro WD Hitch. I think I will go for it since it came recommend by here. I'm looking at the 1000lbs TW version. I appreciate all the opinions and help.

FX4RR

Forgot to ask they mention that I require a Ball with a 1 1/4" shank? Is this not the norm for all *****? Or do I need to look at a specific one? I know the ball size is 2 5/16".

smurfs_of_war

You can use 1" or 1 1/4". There is an included sleeve to use the smaller shank, but I think 1 1/4" is kind of the norm- that's what I used anyways. I ordered mine from hitchweb and they were awesome and shipped for free. Sophia is the girl I always seem to deal with and she is stellar. After figuring shipping into it all, hitchweb was the best online retailer I found

smokeywren

Most, but not all, 2 5/16th inch ***** will have a 1.25" shank. But some have a 1" shank - like this one:

And this one:
http://www.etrailer.com/*****/Curt/C40007.html

So you must pay attention to the fine print in the specs for the ball.

Also the length of the shank varies some. So you need to know the length of the shank you require, in addition to the ball diameter, the shank diameter, and the weight capacity of the ball.

Mike Up

The people at Blue Ox explained it to me the same. The bars are angled out so the torque on the bars is always trying to pull the rig straight. But as others at rv.net pointed out, all WDHs do the same to some point, and it has little affect on sway.

The new chain strap brackets or whatever they call them, helps a little also but still allows the bars to swing in and out unlike the Reese Strait Line and Equalizer brand systems.

The proof is in the pudding. Most systems will pull fine in ideal situations. Up here by the Lake, we get winds and gusts around 40 mph all the time. It pushes me, but as 1 unit. I've seen the tail wagging the dog on other's rigs and I stay far from them.

The adjustable tilt in the head is your fine tuning while the chain links are your coarse tuning. While I see their point in making the head angle permanent, it does limit the adjustment. I have tilt in my head as well as an adjustment to have my spring arms not interfere with the cam bracket. I use more head tilt so I need less chain links and get the clearance I need for the arms.

I almost bought the New Sway pro but had a hard time seeing the sway control. I asked the experts at rv.net and they had a hard time as well.

BUT if it controls the sway, the design works and that's all that matters.