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Old 06-18-2013, 07:07 PM   #1
MISailor
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Spring Bar Tension - Confession of a whimpy kid

My questions here may be difficult to answer but here goes.

Background:
- I have determined that my tongue weight will be between 600-700 lb when loaded.
- The front of my TV only lifts about 1/4-3/8" without the WD system, but I'm over the 600 lb limit of the hitch for weight carrying so need to use the WD system.
- I've upgraded my spring bars from 550 lb bars to 1000 lb bars (older Reese straight trunnion style), but it seems that the tension needed to force the front of the truck back down even 1/8" is extreme compared to what I experienced with my old trailer and old TV.

Questions:
- How much tension on the bars is too much?
- If you were to try to snap up your brackets without having the weight supported by the jack, could you do it?
- How much bend do you see in your bars?

My trailer is small by comparison to many on this forum, so I assume many of you need much more tension than I do. So either I'm weak or worried about nothing.
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Old 06-18-2013, 07:25 PM   #2
theeyres
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I can't speak to your specific question because I have not used the Reese system. But I am concerned about your comment about being over the weight limit for your hitch. If you have 700 # on your hitch, you have 700 # on your hitch. period. No equalizer system takes weight off the hitch. It stays there. The equalizer systems remove weight from your rear axle and moves it to the front axle. It doesn't change the weight on the hitch. If you are over too much on the hitch you need a beefier hitch.
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Old 06-18-2013, 07:44 PM   #3
MISailor
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My hitch has a different tongue weight rating (as most do) depending on whether or not a WD system is used. For "weight carrying" (no WD system) the hitch is rated for 600 lb max tongue weight. For "weight distributing" it is rated for 1100 lb. So I'm not over the rating for the hitch provided that I use the WD system.
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Old 06-18-2013, 07:51 PM   #4
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I believe the weight limit on the hitch is something along the lines of "500 lbs w/o weight distribution – 800 lbs with weight distribution." That's pretty much the type of thing I read in truck owners manuals. But with more realistic numbers.

As for the original question, that's a pretty small trailer to put much leverage on the hitch system. Read through the Reese manual. If it's anything like mine, the bars need to be parallel to the A-frame. Adjusting the hitch head angle (on mine) helps a bit with the settings. With my last tow vehicle, I really had the bars cranked without enough effect on the front end. So I just dialed everything else in best I could and left it at that.

Ultimately, the best way for dial-in is to weight your truck's axles without the trailer, then hook up and see how much the front axle weight has changed. With the WD, even if it doesn't get the front end down to ⅛", it'll at least spread the load of the tongue when you hit dips and such in addition to flatland towing.
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Old 06-19-2013, 04:22 AM   #5
Bob Landry
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The only information that is relevant to your rig is that which is contained in the manual that came with YOUR truck.
As far as the bars being parallel to the frame, that only applies to round bars. Trunnion bars will angle downward when correctly set. You should go back and read the Reese instructions again. They will specify a specific number of links to use. Those are links under tension, not hanging. Too few under tension can cause interference with the frame during turns. Once that is set, use the hitch tilt to return the front end height to the specification in YOUR truck manual. Once you achieve that height, with the trailer loaded as you are going to tow it, LEAVE IT ALONE. Don't try to get the truck level by tweaking the hitch. That's not the purpose of WD. I've read a lot of posts saying to do that and that is wrong. If you need to level the trailer, do it by moving the hitch shank up or down, not with the bars.

To your original questions... Too much tension is when the hitched height of the front fender is lower than the unhitched height.

On many rigs, it's entirely possible to snap the bars up without the trailer tongue being supported, but there's no issue with doing it whichever way is easier. i do it with mine supported because I'm close to 1000 lbs on the tongue.

I don't see any bend in my bars, but that's my particular setup. I would think that if you see much bend, the bars are absorbing the weight instead of transferring it where it needs to go.

Finally, go to RV.net and read the two WD stickies in the towing section. They explain how W works and how to set it up properly. They should be required reading for anyone who tows, because there are a lot of people out there towing with hitch setups that are not even close to right.
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Old 06-19-2013, 06:18 PM   #6
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Thanks for the feedback, gentlemen.

I'm completely confident that my hitch is set up correctly (ball height, ball mount angle, spring bar angle all per Reese instructions). I visited the scales back when I was using the 550 lb bars and found that without the WD the front axle of the TV was 240 lb lighter and the wheel well was lifted about 1/4-3/8" compared to the measurements made w/o the TT. The best I could do with the 550 lb bars was to shift 60 lb back to the front axle with no change in the wheel well measurement. The 550 lb bars were clearly under-sized and had noticeable bend.

With the 1000 lb bars, I have no noticeable bar bend, but I thought it would be easier to reduce the small amount of lift in the front end without having to put so much pressure on the bars.

I may be overthinking this since the TV manual says WD is "optional" with TTs under 7000 lb (as mine is) and indicates that only 50% of the front end lift need be removed for TTs between 7000-9900 lb. For TTs over 10000 lb the manual says that 100% of the front lift should be removed.

I've only driven this TV/TT combination for about 25 freeway miles so far but it felt fine. We'll be doing about 400 miles round trip this weekend so I'll have a good feel for how it behaves by the end of the day Friday. I'll revisit the scale as soon as I can to get actual data with the 1000 lb bars.
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Old 06-20-2013, 09:54 AM   #7
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It sounds like you're on the right path, and are careful enough to ask insightful questions (which are fodder for us to ask follow-up questions).
Good on ya- I hope it treats you well!
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Old 06-20-2013, 01:13 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by audio1der View Post
It sounds like you're on the right path, and are careful enough to ask insightful questions (which are fodder for us to ask follow-up questions).
Good on ya- I hope it treats you well!
Thanks, audio1der. Thinking about this a bit more I realized that what I really wanted to know and should have asked is this: Can I damage my TT frame in anyway by applying too much pressure on 1000 lb bars with 700 lb on the hitch?
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Old 06-25-2013, 08:09 PM   #9
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Per doctors orders I am "allowed" to lift 30# maximum. I have a 10k Equalizer hitch. I use my electric tongue jack to lift the TV and TT up into a /\, where I can just slide the bars on and off. Works great.
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Old 06-26-2013, 05:02 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chuck&gail View Post
Per doctors orders I am "allowed" to lift 30# maximum. I have a 10k Equalizer hitch. I use my electric tongue jack to lift the TV and TT up into a /\, where I can just slide the bars on and off. Works great.
I used the same "trick" the other day when I misplaced my snap-up bracket lifting pipe and had to snap the brackets up with my bare hands.

Although I did not make it very clear in my original post, my concern when I started this thread was more to do with the final tension/stress on the TT frame than the effort required to apply that tension/stress. I'm feeling better now after completeing a 500 mile round trip last weekend; the first significant trip with this TT/TV combination. The rig behaved very well despite some very high winds. The wind pushed us around a little from time to time, but when it did, the rig moved as a unit with no sway at all. When there was no wind, it was like a Sunday drive in the park. I was particulalry pleased to find that replacing my Astro with the Silverado Crew Cab (longer WB, heavier) virtually eliminated the "push" that I used to feel from passing cars and trucks.

As I mentioned in another post somewhere, now that I have an appropriate TV that is set up correclty using numbers from a scale and not just blind trust in a manufacturers towing limit spec, I'm a bit ashamed that I ever tried to tow this TT with anything less.
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