advice on setting up weight dist. & air bags
 

I have a toy hauler and have been using a weight dist hitch. I put quite a bit of tension on the bars and the tung weight makes the back of my truck sag 2". The trailer sits level like this. It tows well like this. I just installed a set of air helper springs and would like some advice on setting up the hitch. I was thinking I would lower the height of the hitch by 2" Take some tension off the weight dist. bars and air up the bags to raise the truck up to stock height. Advice please.

Sounds like the static tongue weight of the trailer is more than the WD bars can support. WD hitches are available with different "weight" bars. Are yours 1,200 lb. bars? If not, you may need some.

Also, you may need to drop the hitch head one hole if that's the height at which the trailer's level, and where the truck would be as well. That may be contributing to your problem.

One other thing. The truck *will* settle below the unloaded height, but the front should come down about as much as the rear. That's what the WD bars do.

Your post is kind of confusing me. I do have 1200lb. bars and the front of the truck does come down some although not as much as I think it should. The way that I have it set up seems to work pretty well, but I was thinking that it would be good to use the air bags to support some weight and get the truck closer to stock height. But I am not sure on how to get it all set up with the air bags.

Pump the bags up till truck is level. Then the trailer will be nose high if I get your description. To fix that you'll need to drop the hitch head down one set of holes or so on the mounting bar that goes into the receiver on the truck.

It does seem that you've got more tongue weight than the 1,200 lb bars will support. The bars are supposed to be level with the trailer frame when tensioned. You may also need to adjust the angle of the hitch head outward to apply more "leveling" force with the bars when you tension them.

If you don't know, a good trick for tensioning (and releasing) the bars is to put the trailer on the ball and lock the hitch. Then jack the trailer (and back of truck) up high. Then tension the bars level and lower the jack.

When I was setting up my first TT I called Reese for directions to properly set the bars and trailer. They told me to level the trailer and measure to the top of the trailer coupler. Set the hitch ball to 1" higher than the coupler. Next put your equalizer bar into the head. Adjust the angle of the head until the ends of the bars are around 4 to 5" off the ground. Use the 5th link from the end of the chain to bar mount on the trailer. I've done this on a lot of truck and trailer combos and had no problems after that.

Pump the bags up till truck is level. Then the trailer will be nose high if I get your description. To fix that you'll need to drop the hitch head down one set of holes or so on the mounting bar that goes into the receiver on the truck.


Yes, this is what I was thinking about doing. Is it a good idea? Would I then need to readjust the tilt on the ball mount to take some weight off the bars? Or?

I do know about the trick you described and use it every time. Thanks.

Air bags defeat the purpose of the load-distributing hitch. Both TT and TV should be level within themselves prior to hitching.

And, without scale numbers for all axles, there is ABSOLUTELY no way to know that the hitch rigging is proper. There are no "calibrated Mark I eyeballs" good enough.

Getting the load distributed is a matter of details. I added some info (a worksheet, and a link) to another thread:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...8&postcount=45

The rule of thumb is that the tongue weight is "distributed" 2/3 forward onto to the TV axles (equally, or no more than about 10% off as I recall); and 1/3 back onto the trailer axle[s].

A 1,000-lb TW, therefore, will "move" 660-lbs forward (330-lbs per axle) and 340-lbs rearward (again, look for weight split) to function properly.

It isn't always a question of bigger bars. Overcoming the stiff rear suspension of the truck is a bigger matter.

Were I keeping my trailer I would be modifying the rear suspension by removing the overload and one spacer to have a more compliant suspension. And add some Timbrens. See how it worked out.

Have some fun and work the numbers. The difference in driving and in wear-and-tear are noticeable from the git go.

Bottom line: No scale ticket, no information available on hitch rigging.