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Topic ClosedI was Sold the wrong WDH...What effects???
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: I was Sold the wrong WDH...What effects???
    Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 5:15am
Tearless Tom, lowering the tongue doesn’t change the tongue weight. The trailer is like a teeter totter, once you lift your kid sitting on the other end off the ground the weight stays the same.

As I understand the way that particular wdh works, the sway resistance is created by friction of the bars sliding in their holders. So, there needs to be a decent amount of tension on the bars for it to work. IOW, I suggest you keep some tension on the bars for better sway control even if that means the TV front end winds up a little lower. You have a very capable TV in the F150, it won’t hurt anything.
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Posts: 1214 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 8:02am
   As I had mentioned before I thought we needed more tongue weight when we owned our 171 so we bought a spare tire bracket from Norther Tool and attached it to the front A frame of our r-pod. Moving the spare tire to the front gave about 70 lbs. more weight to the tongue weight and that extra weight helped the camper tow better. I think maybe with your situation more tongue weight would be of help.
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lostagain View Drop Down
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Posts: 2586 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 8:07am
I got a spare tire holder to put on the tongue of our 172 from Amazon.  It was a bolt on type that attached to one frame rail or the other.  I had no problem putting it on, but when I had to do a little sharp backing it got in the way.  I'd like to get a mounting system that would attach to both rails and hole the tire horizontally above the LP tank and batteries.  

Any ideas on where to look for one?
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Posts: 85 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 10:10am
Originally posted by offgrid

Tearless Tom, lowering the tongue doesn’t change the tongue weight. The trailer is like a teeter totter, once you lift your kid sitting on the other end off the ground the weight stays the same.

As I understand the way that particular wdh works, the sway resistance is created by friction of the bars sliding in their holders. So, there needs to be a decent amount of tension on the bars for it to work. IOW, I suggest you keep some tension on the bars for better sway control even if that means the TV front end winds up a little lower. You have a very capable TV in the F150, it won’t hurt anything.


I understand your point but not your logic or maybe you misunderstood mine.

I am lowering the tongue because it is at a slight upward tilt which as I understand is a bad thing. Can cause jack knifes in hard braking or bad weather.   It should be level or tilted slightly down. Mine is 1 inch higher  when attached to truck than it is when the trailer is level.   I need to get it down to level of just below.

I need to remove some washers as I am currently over-sprung about 1/2 inch. I am not concern about the actual weight  as stated my TV is more than adequate to handle it. 

Your analogy to a teeter totter (we call them see-saw down here because of the noise they make)
anyway your analogy is correct except for the fact that position of the axle makes it more of a fulcrum  in reverse which will apply more weight with varying  angles shifting more of the trailer weight forward which is fine for the tongue but I need to decrease the load off my front wheels as it is already more than it should be. Hence removing the washers.
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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Posts: 2627 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 10:59am
Originally posted by offgrid

Tearless Tom, lowering the tongue doesn’t change the tongue weight. The trailer is like a teeter totter, once you lift your kid sitting on the other end off the ground the weight stays the same.

As I understand the way that particular wdh works, the sway resistance is created by friction of the bars sliding in their holders. So, there needs to be a decent amount of tension on the bars for it to work. IOW, I suggest you keep some tension on the bars for better sway control even if that means the TV front end winds up a little lower. You have a very capable TV in the F150, it won’t hurt anything.
Those are separate issues. You want the trailer to be close to level. That's why he needs to lower the hitch ball to get to a logical starting place. The height of the L brackets and the down-tilt to the hitch assembly will determine the amount of tension on the WDH.

The F-150 is way more than up to the task, and you could probably put as much or as little as the WDH could be set to. I think that you need to get "enough" tension to take advantage of the anti-sway capability of the E2 hitch.
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 1:23pm
Yes for sure 2 different issues GlueGuy, I agree.

Yes the trailer should be as level as you can reasonably make it, but at some point you’ll run out of things to adjust and need to call it good at that point. An inch is not going to be significant in the way it handles and won’t impact the tongue weight enough to notice. It will change a little with load variation too. I get your argument about the point of rotation being the tire contact patch and not the axle but an inch out of level will only shift the trailer forward or back by about 0.1 inch which is not going to be noticeable.

I’m sure you’re fine on the weight on your front wheels, but if you’re concerned about it you can go weigh each axle on a public scale and compare what you get to the F150s Gross axle weight ratings. That gives you the gross combined vehicle weight and the trailer axle weight too which are good to know.


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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Posts: 2627 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 2:05pm
What I'm saying is that he's about an inch out of level, and the hitch assembly goes up/down about an inch at a time. Go for it. Start at a level place, or as close as you can get, and go on with the rest of it.
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 2:41pm
+1 GlueGuy, I agree.
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Posts: 85 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 8:49pm
Finally got it where I am happy with it.  There were quite a few errors I found in the dealers installation  which wasn't helping the performance of the hitch.

Everything was set up as a generic install, Not at all my truck and trailer specific which is what I thought I was paying for.  The hitch was one notch or an inch to high.  The hardware that mounts the L bracket was not properly mounted to the frame as I could put a finger between the frame and the bottom bolt so the L bracket was shifting as it could not be tighten down enough to hold it stable like that.

I understand why they did it.  My Propane tank line was run under the right side to the external propane connection on the right side.  It was a easy fix. I had to remove x1 3/8 self tapping screw and relocate the line.   Just dealer being LAZY!
The brackets were also not the correct distance  from the hitch.  Also some washers lock washers were missing and a mixture of No-stop and nuts with lock washers were used.

So  I dropped the hitch height by one notch or about one inch.   I removed some washers. I ended up at 3. and my L bracket with 2 holes open below the frame.  I felt this gave me a good balance between sway control, while decreasing the up down bounce from the hitch being too high .  My front end height is currently 1/10 inch over sprung.  I can live with that.  I may experiment some more later but for now the ride is good and the sway seems to have been mostly eliminated and it tracks well. Big smile

Thanks again for everyone input and help.  
Tearless Tom
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GlueGuy View Drop Down
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Posts: 2627 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2019 at 9:16pm
Good to hear Tom! Your F-150 is a beast for pulling something like the RP-179. We have had absolutely zero issues with ours. It tows like a dream. No muss, no fuss, no sweat, no bother. Just exactly what you need on a camping trip.
bp
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