I'm not getting much help from my 'hitch place' setting the weight distributing (WD) hitch, they tell me that the set up should be the same as the one I had on a 1/2 ton. The original set up was wrong on the 1/2 ton I think because the trailer wasn't level, the nose was slightly higher with the trailer empty but I was told with the horses loaded it would be level. My understanding is that the trailer should be level to start???

With the new truck I have had them lower the receiver hitch so the trailer is level now, I understand that the truck can hardly feel the trailer but my hitch needs the WD. I found instrutions on the draw-tite website...I have measured the distance from the front and rear wheel openings to the pavement on the truck and uncoupled they are 39.5" on the front and 41" rear. With the trailer attached the rear drops to 40" and the front remains the same at 39.5". I am assuming that I don't need to lift anything here so the spring bar tension should not have to be as tight as my set up on the 1/2 ton. When I adjust the spring bar using 7 chain links (my previous set up) one of the torsion bars is a little loose so am I correct that it is not doing much?? When it is adjusted to 6 links it is much tighter but there is no change in the rear wheel opening (the front is still 39.5 and the rear is 40") With the horse loaded there will be more tongue wt but I don't want to tighten the torsion bars any more because it seems too tight at 5 links and I don't want to make the tongue wt too low. This truck has so much more suspension that it looks like there is nothing on the rear axle, my other truck sagged.

Am I worring too much? I really would like a hitch place to look at this set up but I feel they are brushing off my concerns.

 

Something to consider besides the front axle weight transfer, is the truck's receiver hitch and it's weight rating. The WDH helps protect the receiver to carry a heavier tongue weight.

My truck also has a heavy duty suspension in it, and drops about 1 inch with the 750 lb (actual weight) tongue weight on it. No change in the front.

What I did was measure the TRAILER distance from ground front and rear when completely level, fully loaded.
Hitch up to the truck, and tighten up on the bar links until you get the trailer tongue measurement level again.

If link 6, say, isn't enough and link 5 is too tight, reset the washers to change the head angle to get the bars slightly more parallel with the trailer tongue.

Hope this helps....

 

I have used this method with previous trailers:

Place a bubble level to measure front to back. Find a spot on the truck when empty so that the level bubble is centered. You can use shims or whatever as long as the bubble is centred. Now hook up the trailer and adjust the spring bars until the bubble is centered again.

Worked for me.

Casey

 

I agree with balvert, the bubble level works.

If you do not want to use a level then measure the distance of front and rear bumper to the gtound or pavement with the trailer not connected. With the trailer loaded, connect up and adjust the wd hitch so that both bumpers drop the same amount. Record or save this setting and adjust the hitch up or down to level the trailer.

I painted the link of the chain to mark which link in the chain to use, or use a wire tie to mark it.

 

I'm not getting much help from my 'hitch place' setting the weight distributing (WD) hitch, they tell me that the set up should be the same as the one I had on a 1/2 ton.

I also went from a 1/2 ton to 3/4, this truck sits much higher and I need to drop the W/D hitch at least 1 hole as my trailer is sitting higher in the fronteven on the 8th lin use to tow on the 4th or 5th with my 1/2 ton so they are full of what's in the bottom of your trailer when you remove the horses.

 

I measured the difference in the height of the receiver of the old truck vs the new and there was a 2" difference with no trailer attached so the ball had to be lowered by 2" on the shank for the new truck, we ran out of room on the old shank and ordered in a new one. When the trailer was hooked up after this adjustment/new shank it was still not level, the nose was clearly too high I think because the suspension on the 3/4 ton is so much heavier the truck does not sag like the 1/2 ton did, just measuring the receiver height on the empty trucks did not take into account the difference in the suspension. I asked the shop to lower the ball even more and they went as low as they could and now the trailer looks level but the chain adjustment on the WD hitch is what I am having problems with. It is not the same as the old set up before 7 links did the job now 7 links are slack and 6 links make the spring bars not parallell to the hitch (too high in the end where the chain attaches). I'm not sure if this is a real problem but it doesn't seem right.

Thanks for the helpful posts. It looks like I have to change the angle of the ball and that means another trip to the 'shop' because I can't tighten the ball on the shank with my tools at hand.