terkkila

so i have been wondering if i am not hooking up my trunion (spelling?) style WDH, it def. helps with the sag but does not make the truck sit level when hooked up.

can someone give me some insight on this?

here is what i have been doing

back up to trailer and lower coupler onto the ball. causes truck to sag big time

pull out onto flat ground and insert the trunion bars, count up about 4 links and insert the chain onto the hook on each side of the tongue, used the supplied leverage bar to raise up the chain hook and insert the pin to hold her all in place.

repeat on the other side.


my question is, i thought i once heard that after hooking the ball and coupler up, u are then supposed to use the tongue jack to raise the truck and trailer to a level postion and then insert the trunion bars and hook it all up, and then raise the tongue jack away so that there is no more weight on it.

can someone shed some light on this?

here are a couple pics of the set up

TylerF150

I may be wrong but I believe once you back up and lock the coupler on the ball your supposed to jack the truck up with trailer jack about 3 inches higher than when the truck sits stock without trailer then hook up the bars and chains and drop it... If I'm wrong someone correct me

mbopp

Read the sticky at the top:

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...s/forum/40.cfm

brulaz

I believe Ford's instructions for WDH setting have changed over the years. The instructions should be in your truck's manual.

My 2011 instructions say to put all the tongue weight on the ball (with slack WDH chains) and measure the front lift. Then set your WDH to reduce that lift by 1/2. And to never raise the rear above the un-weighted height.

I believe earlier years instructions said to reduce the front lift completely.

AFAIK the only reason to jack up the trailer tongue is help you lever the WDH bars into place. All the lift measurements should be made with the tongue un-jacked.

Looking at the OP's pictures, I would say he needs stronger bars for his WDH. Already he only has 4 links between the bar and the frame (most WDH's will say you want at least 5 links there). And he still has sag and probably too much front lift. For big trailers with lot's of tongue weight, 1000# or higher bars are usually used.

F150_PA

I see the the trunnion bars are not parallel with the trailer frame. So the bars need to be dropped a link or so. Could be that you need the next step up in bars as well.

05 4x4 Triton

I have never towed a trailer with this setup and I know this may seem like an obvious question but do the bars actually reduce tongue weight or simply alleviate the sagging on the back of the truck?

brulaz

They move weight off the truck's rear axle. Part of the weight is moved to the truck's front axle, and part to the trailer's axle(s).

Tongue Weight is usually something you calculate without a WDH or with slacked tension bars.

But you could say that the weight moved to the trailer's axle by the WDH reduces the Tongue Weight by the same amount. And the trailer's GVW stays the same.

05 4x4 Triton

Ok, that makes sense if it just distributes the weight more evenly. Thanks.

jml79

Ok, here goes...

The setup of a WD hitch is multi step. One, the ball height has to match the level hitch height before anything is connected. That is the correct starting point for all WD systems. Next, take your measurements of the fender height front and rear of the unloaded truck. Now hitch it up. Re-measure the fender heights. The back should be less than before and the front more (higher). How much tension to put on the bars is a matter of discussion. I like to put enough tension on the bars to reduce the front height by half to three quarters of the difference of the unloaded height and the loaded height. This gives a bit of wiggle room to load the trailer in different ways without having to re-adjust the setup. The rear height should never be higher than the unloaded height.

I think you knew all of this already but here is the step I think you may have missed.

If you have less than 5 links of chain you should unhitch, and tilt the ball/trunnion mount down and away from your truck to change the angle of the bars more towards the ground. Yours looks like a Reese with the nice toothed tilt adjustors. On less expensive hitches you have to add washers to a spacer pin near the top bolt of the ball assembly. You may have to do this a couple of times to get the angle right. If you have more than 6 links of chain then you tilt the ball assembly up. This should correct your issue. Make sure you tighten the bolt holding your hitch together properly. About 180 lb/ft.

To answer the question about using the tongue jack, your system does not need to because you use a lever to snap the chain brackets into place but you can use the jack to make things easier or to get the right chain link on to your unsnapped brackets. There are other types of chain brackets that are fixed (just a hook bolted to the side of the frame) and on these you have to jack the truck and trailer high enough to hook the right chain link on to the bracket. I use a Reese SC hitch on one of my trailer and I don't have enough ground clearance to use the lever arm fully to hook up the load bars so I have to use the tongue jack to partially lift the trailer so I can get the lever arm in there.

Long post but I hope it helps. I have been towing heavy bumper pulls for years both for work and pleasure and have used a bunch of different WD hitches from the crap to great ones. Each on needs to be setup for the specific tow vehicle and trailer and no two are exactly alike.

brulaz

Yes, but just to clarify, that redistributed weight is not the Tongue Weight. It is whatever weight lifted off the rear axle that is moved, part to the front axle and part to the trailer axle.

Apparently with a sufficiently strong WDH you could lift the truck's rear wheels right off the ground. That's probably why you see the warning not to raise the rear axle level above it's original level. It's actually possible to do that and more.