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Old 06-24-2018, 05:05 PM   #21
sourdough
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I had a heck of a time getting the passenger side bar loose to get it off the L bar. Took a half hour to budge it... had to get the Tongue Jack really high and use a crow bar to get it loose. Hope it's not always like that! They did say at the shop it would be stiff for awhile. So like some of you said here, lubing it may help that...
Lube it and use it. A couple of things will happen: it will get quieter and it will get easier to pull the bars off. When we initially installed ours I thought I would have to find Hercules to remove them....after I had lifted the trailer/truck.

When you raise the truck/trailer with the jack raise until you feel that you have a little play in the bar at the L bracket..stop then. Remove the little bar retainer and either take the end of the bar and jerk it until it will clear to wherever you want it or, take a bar and place it behind the wdh bar, wedge it on the ground and pull backward; repeat until it is where you want. I used about a 5' length of 1" pipe (it had already been finished and painted). I no longer need it....usually. I will add that depending on where you are parked, and how you have to back to get back on the hitch, I've gotten where I open the bars wide so that it gives me some leeway on the angle hitching up without having to take the bar and pulling the swivels out further (I used the cheater bar for that too....much lighter than the wdh bars).

I torque to 65 psi on the bolts. When new it is hard to pull the bars out without the cheater bar. When it has been broken in it is no problem. I would offer you mine but I'm sure, at some point, in some location, my bars will be in a bind and I will have to have it to get loose!! It WILL get better and the cheater bar makes ALL the difference.
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Old 06-24-2018, 07:36 PM   #22
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o find Hercules to remove them....after I had lifted the trailer/truck.

When you raise the truck/trailer with the jack raise until you feel that you have a little play in the bar at the L bracket..stop then. Remove the little bar retainer and either take the end of the bar and jerk it until it will clear to wherever you want it or, take a bar and place it behind the wdh bar, wedge it on the ground and pull backward; repeat until it is where you want. I used about a 5' length of 1" pipe (it had already been finished and painted). I no longer need it....usually. I will add that depending on where you are parked, and how you have to back to get back on the hitch, I've gotten where I open the bars wide so that it gives me some leeway on the angle hitching up without having to take the bar and pulling the swivels out further (I used the cheater bar for that too....much lighter than the wdh bars).
I'm a bit lost there, any chance you can post pics of the "cheater bar" and maybe what your doing? Like using a big crow bar between the bar and trailer bar?
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Old 06-24-2018, 10:37 PM   #23
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One more concern, isn't lifting the rear of pickup AND front of trailer a lot of strain on the tongue ball hitch coupler latch? Couldn't something there break?
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Old 06-25-2018, 03:16 AM   #24
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One more concern, isn't lifting the rear of pickup AND front of trailer a lot of strain on the tongue ball hitch coupler latch? Couldn't something there break?
Something could break, but in my experience, this has not been an issue. On my trailer, the tongue weight plus the tv rear end weight lifting off of the springs, is less than the max 3500 pound weight of my tongue jack.

I lift mine until two things happen. First the popping sounds of the hitch "unwinding" stops. Second I can remove the retainer clips from the L brackets by hand. At this point, I can then pull my bars away by hand, pull the pins, and put them away.
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Old 06-25-2018, 04:10 AM   #25
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I'm a bit lost there, any chance you can post pics of the "cheater bar" and maybe what your doing? Like using a big crow bar between the bar and trailer bar?

The trailer isn't here. The bar is a 1" thick walled, hollow steel bar about 5' long. To remove the bars I put the bar behind the wdh bar (between the bar and frame of the trailer), at the end of the wdh bar, angle it toward me, wedge it to the ground or asphalt then pull the bar toward me. It pulls the wdh bar right off the bracket. Repeat until the wdh bar is in the position that you want. To put them on I just reverse the process.

As far as raising the truck and trailer at the same time, here are the instructions from the Equalizer manual, page 17:

"Back the tow vehicle to the trailer and lower the coupler onto the ball. Lock the coupler and retract the tongue jack until it raises off the ground about 1” so that the full tongue weight of the trailer is resting on the hitch. Measure the tow vehicle height again exactly above the front axle, to the same point that you measured to earlier when uncoupled. Record this on Line B of the weight distribution setup table on page 16. With the tow vehicle still coupled to the trailer, use the tongue jack to lift both vehicles until you can swing the spring arms into place over the L-brackets. See Figure 15. Then retract the jack."

And no, I've never had any issue with raising them or damaging any of the components.
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Old 06-25-2018, 04:49 AM   #26
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One more concern, isn't lifting the rear of pickup AND front of trailer a lot of strain on the tongue ball hitch coupler latch? Couldn't something there break?
The forces lifting against the coupler latch are significantly greater every time you hit a pot hole or cross a railroad grade at 65 or 70 MPH. Chances of damaging the coupler latch are essentially "non-existant" when stationary and lifting both vehicles. Besides, if it's going to break, wouldn't you want it to be while the vehicles are parked and no risk of rolling away rather than on the highway at "top speed".....
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Old 06-25-2018, 05:38 AM   #27
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I had the Equalizer hitch when we had our Raptor TT. It squeaked and moaned when turning something awful, but that is how it works. The friction between the steel bars and the L brackets is what prevents sway and it does this extremely well in my opinion. I did eventually have to replace the electric tongue jack on the trailer. The jack did not catastrophically fail, it just quit working. This could have been due to raising the TT to remove the Equalizer bars, or not, I don't know. I replaced the jack with one that had a higher weight rating and good reviews. Worked perfectly.

I found that the Equalizer hitch worked great at distributing the weight and preventing sway. If the squeaking bothers you while parking at the campground you could remove the bars after arriving and before parking. I did not.

Hope this helps.
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