Reese WDH

OK we got our Reese WDH (good deal one eBay with quick delivery). And after some difficulty getting it installed (bolts were too long on the brackets and were hitting one propane tank) I got it hooked up. I leveled the TM with a level on the fridge and measured the tow socket height at 15.5 inches. I set the WDH at that height and then attached the bars.

No matter what we did we could only get the chain on the very last link. Tilting the ball backward only made it worse and pointed the bars down into the dirt.. This did not even out the TV with the front wheel well measurement still being up by 1.5 inches over the rear measurement.

On the last link the bars are parallel to the road surface and while pulling the TM the ride is much smoother with no odd jerks and no bouncing when you hit a bump. I was able to *force* the bar chain up to the second link but that left the bars not parallel and pointing up just like the Reese instructions warn you against.

So should I leave this alone or do something else? All I can think to do is to move the ball up one notch which would mean that the TM would no longer be exactly level.

I read thru the instructions again in the library but didn't see anything that we are doing wrong.

The instructions for my WDH from Draw-Tite (just installed 2 days ago) said to set the ball height 3/4" to 1" higher than the hitch - to allow for the rear of the TV to drop. It also said to use the tongue jack to raise the hitch (and the rear of the TV) an inch or so to assist with the chain hookup. When the hitch just puts weight on the ball and you can close the coupler, then crank it up 3/4" to 1". That makes the chains eaiser to attatch. I hooked up at 5 links and it worked great. Before jacking up the hitch/ball combo, I could barely get the last link hooked.
My brackets also bump up against the propane tanks - but I have a solid plastic cover that is a little bigger. I may have to cut it out a bit to allow the bracket to move forward. The chain has the slightest angle when it is hooked up. It should hang straight down.
Hope this helps.
Others may have better suggestions - I've only hooked mine up once, but it seemed to work pretty well on a short trip around the block. I'll test it out more this weekend on a short shakedown camping trip.
Alan

[Mr. Adventure]

This shouldn't be so hard. The critical measurement is from the front fender to the ground before and after hitching. The objective of the WDH is to not have the tow vehicle front axle unloaded by the tongue weight.

Generally, if the hitched trailer is about level, the front fender doesn't rise when hitched vs unhitched, and the hitch spring bars are aproximately parallel to the ground when hooked up, that sounds like you're doing pretty well and probably in accordance with your instructions from Reese. You could mess with the hitch tilt angle to tilt the ball forward so that you would have another link or two to play with if you wanted to, but if it's not broken, you might not need to fix it.

It is possible to over do it with the force on the WDH. Taking one link too many out of the chains makes the ride quite a lot stiffer for me, and I'm a big fan of doing what seems to give you the best ride and cornering in your own rig. And, of course, getting actual hitched and unhitched weights for each axle is the only way to really tell for sure what's going on.

Yeah, it does ride well as is, but I may try moving the hitch up one hole to see what happens. We are doing a short trip to Suwannee Valley CG this next weekend and that will be a good opportunity to test it. Thanks for both of your suggestions. I'm just trying to get it tuned up before we head out to Acadia at the end of June.

BK

I couldn't find any information on a suitable WDH that would work with the swing away hitch. Can someone point me to a manufacturer's page or ebay listing?

I asked some RV dealers and they are not too helpful if you are not buying a new TM from them.

I asked some Hitch shops and they only have the 10,000 lbs ones and insist that they need to install it.

I saw some Prodigy controllers online for under $90.00 but over here they want to charge $160 plus install and harnesses.

Please help.

When our TM is level the ball height on our TV is in the vacinity of 19+" or so. If I understand you correctly your 15.5" seems rather low. You might double check these measurements. Also, in case you didn't notice, Bill has written a guide on adjusting the WDH. It is found in the "TM Info You Won't Find Anywhere Else" Forum.

I'm a newbie to RVing but have just gone through the same situation. This is what I found:
1,000/10,000 WDH is over kill but the cost is not that much greater than the 600/6,000. If any time in the far future you may end up with a larger/heavier TT your set.

I had to set my sway bars up myself (no drilling or welding required with an Equalizer). It was easy. 15.5" sounds a little low. My 2720sl was set at 20-21 inches.

The hitch was set up by a RV dealership as well as my Prodigy P3 controller.

And again Bill has an excellent post on your subject.

I know it's a bit frustrating being out there on the edge but you'll get through this

Does the propane tank or swing hitch interfere with the Equalizer install?

I have a swing hitch and the reese 1k wdh works just fine.

Sorry for the delayed response, I was vacationing in the Ozarks. I don't have a Swing Hitch so I don't know how it would work with an Equalizer.