3rd gen receiver hitch

[MAshley]

From what I heard... . "according to a few trailer hitch dealers" is the tow beast, and titan are the same, basicly 1 company bought out another and now they have 2 models, and then there is the super hitch.



Seeing as the super hitch is built and made by a local company, and only about 30 min from where I live and hearing only good things about it, and not having to Hack off my original one, and or having to buy adapters, I got the super hitch.

Basicly the super hitch attatches to the chain holes of the stock hitch, and is bolted to the frame with big and heavy hardware, very impressive in fact.



Now according to the builder-owner of super hitch, "yes he was there" I can use eithor reciver tube for the rating of 15K and 17K with equilizer. So my drop is the same, thought if you wanted to use the lower one, with a heavy load you may end up with a drop bar pointing up instead of down with stock supension.



I can provide photos if needed... .



To the Q of how low was it pointing down, enough to notice, and really inquire about its reliabilty, It didn't rip off but with a low rating and using it every day I didnt' want to push my luck, remember if the hitch rips off so do the chains, not exactly safe, and If I killed somebody I really couldn't live well after that. According to super hitch the stock one is good for 10K but I think if im reading the molded in plastic of the bumper it only good for 7500.

 

[TWHusband]

2003 Factory Class IV hitch

After reading this post I got my 2003 Dodge Truck Diesel owners manual out and on page 241 when you order the trailer tow prep package you are supplied with the Class IV hitch which is good for a gross trailer weight up tp 12,000 lbs with weight distribution type hitch equipment and you should have at least 10% and no more than 15% tongue weight. I have been towing at close to the limit of the rating quite a bit and have not had any problems yet. I have been inspecting the hitch closely and so far so good. I have a 2003 QC,4x4,auto,long bed with the 305/555 engine. I hope this clears up what the factory class IV hitch is rated for.



Tom

 

[JoeDiesel]

Thank you MAshley and Tom for your informative posts. You bring a lot of formation to the table. I would throw the Titan/Tow Beast on in a heart beat if the darn thing wasn't so low. If the general consensus is that ANY class V hitch will be better and safer than the stock hitch, then the discussion is a moot point for me. I plan on keeping this trailer for a long time. That is why I put all the options on it that I wanted and did not worry about the weight at all. Lets just say that I will be "heavy". 7,280 lbs of trailer, 1,000 lbs of cargo, four people, 200 lbs generator, fat dog and a bunch of tools ect... gives me cause for concern on the stock hitch. I know if it breaks, it will be under warranty but that is the exact scenario I am trying to avoid. (Who want's to be stuck out of town, in a wreck with a solid warranty claim???) I guess what I'm really asking is if a "Putnam XDR" on 3rd Gen truck owner is reading, please let me know how it is working out. Thanks again.

 

[jhenderson]

xdr

I just installed an xdr. IT went on easy, mounts up high, and seems well built, although the hardware seemed a little on the light side. after 75000 miles and a lot of off road towing a 12000 lb dump trailer, the factory receiver was oversized and the pin hole was egged out to about 7/8 of an inch.

 

[MAshley]

I supose I'm missing a very important part, What is the rating of the XDR, as far as I can tell according to there web site it is only

The XDR series...

Rating: 10,000# weight carrying, 1200# tongue weight

14,000# weight distributing, 1700# tongue weight



And according to Tom's info, not really an improvment over the stock setup if trucks are the same year.



I feel from the info I have seen $$ spent is better spent on the super hitch, or maybe the tow beast, If high weight limits is what you need or want

 

[SKing]

I have a friend that had a ranch hand rear bumper and it tore off the frame when he was towing a cattle trailor. Dealer told him no warranty to frame damage due to bumper. . It cost him $1100. to have the rear of the frame fixed. :{

 

[Mrudolph]

My hitch says 12,000# which gives me a 9% buffer over my trailer weight, no problems towing from GA to CA 2x per year.

 

[CDonaldson]

SKing. I don't know if I would have settled for their decision. There are tons of the Ranch Hand Cowboy bumpers out there on Chevy, Ford and Dodge vehicles performing just fine without having done any damage to the trucks frames. Must be more to this story. I have driven trucks for around forty years, all of them have had aftermarket bumpers built by various companies that bolt up to the factory holes like the Ranch Hand does. One thing that I HAVE noticed over all those years is that the frames have become lighter in gauge/thickness and bumper manufacturers have literally pulled their hair out trying to compensate for frame quality. Dodge makes a pretty loud statement in their tech information about welding, drilling, and so forth - one has to only take a minute or two to realize that having to 'box' around the frame suggests issues with the strength of the boxed frame. Ranch Hand supplies a couple pieces of steel to fit into the box to prevent collapsing the frame box. I noticed their bolts run out of thread at the precise point where the frame could be 'pulled in' by the bolts. I even took the time to measure them to be certain that no pressure was put on the box frame. I consulted a welder friend about making me a pipe spacer to fit inside the frame to prevent any pull from side to side of the frame toward the center. If I have any problem with the frame and the bumper at this point I will not be because of the bumper, it will be because of the frame and it's engineering design. The rules on trucks and aftermarket bumpers have been the same for many a fortnight, Dodge will have to go some to change the rules mid-stream and void a warranty in my way of thinking. In fact, it should be in all of us truck owners mindsets at this point in time to make a concerted effort to stop all this voiding a warranty nonsense where quality and design might be the underlying problem rather than someting done by an owner or an aftermarket product being of poor design and quality. Next thing you know your TDR sticker will void your glass warranty or cause major damage to your doors contents and void the warranty there too.



CD

 

[ZHutton]

My new to me 03 might have never had the factory rear hitch used, there are some rails left in the bed though so the truck did do some towing.



I looked all over that hitch to find some numbers and eventually resorted to the ding a ling owner's manual.



Unhappy with the numbers without weight distributing stuff I decided to find a hitch that any moron could bolt on and I got a tow beast. I wound up installing it myself so that is why I wanted something easy instead of having to cut the old one up.



I still sometimes rent a trailer here and there and it would drive me nuts to try and show why my hitch from the factory had to be able to handle whatever the trailer could handle that I wanted to rent.



The towbeast has a nice big sticker on it.



I am planning to most likely go with some taller tires so having the lower hitch height did not really concern me since I won't have to mess with an insert that has some serious amount of drop. I am actually using the lower hitch heigh as my excuse as well.



I was very disappointed with the way the factory hitch is done, as mentioned the numbers for the bumper are clearly done and easy to figure out without getting out the owner's manual.



for my 4x4 dually the bumper would have been too high for anything I sometimes rent though so I could not go that route.

 

[JStrasser]

Someone asked about Class/weight ratings. I copied this a while back (from where I can't remember)



Class I 200/2000



Class II 350/3500 WC, no WD rating



Class III 500/5000 WC, 700/7000 WD



Class IV 750/7500 WC, 1200/12,000 WD



Class V 1200/12,000 WC, 1400/14,000 WD





On some hitches there is a designation of "V-5". That is NOT a class 5 hitch, it is a non-standard designation that actually falls between class III and class IV. It was on my last two GMC's



Hope this information helps.



John