Better than factory trailer hitch?

[RideSlow2004]

Since I will have the bumper off, should I put a better trailer hitch on? My 31 Jayco BHS is heavy, but it is paid for. If and when I get up, I will get the scale numbers.

 

[HBarlow]

Probably not needed. What is the tongue weight of your trailer?

 

[AH64ID]

The stock hitch is very nice, but if its starting to wear I would replace it now.



I need to replace mine, it was a little slopy from the factory and that has let it get much worse. The metal seems to be soft. My vertical opening is probably nearing 2. 25"



This new hitch from Reese has been catching my eye. .



Trailer Hitches - Reese



I have not seen a tougher looking hitch!

 

[MChildress]

Seen a couple of the factory ones fail and went ahead a installed a Reese Titan V on my dually when I first got it just for piece of mind.

 

[Mark31]

Torklift advertises here on TDR, but I don't remember seeing any comments on them. Wonder if they are as good as they look (to me)? I like the idea of hard surface around the hitch pin hole. Mark

 

[AMatsonIII]

Go with the torklift. One hell of a hitch. Easy install and you can haul whatever you want. Put one on my fathers 01 1 ton and haul a log trailer around all day. Definitely worth the price. If I didn't have a cab and chassis with a welded plate I would have gotten one to haul my camper just for the reassurance.

 

[RideSlow2004]

I will be using the truck on Sunday, I have the weight numbers written down in my trip book, will put them up then.

 

[RideSlow2004]

Probably not needed. What is the tongue weight of your trailer?

Here are the weights from my 2 week trip trip last summer, with 3 grandkids, and 2 foster kids, and several grownups.



truck front 4460

truck rear 5160

truck total 9620



trailer 7740

combination 17,360



Depending on how I have loaded all the food, toys, and firewood, I run a minumum of 1280 up to 1500 for the pin weight. I did add some air ride, just because even with the big bars on the E/Z Lift, I was still getting too much dip at the rear.



Hindsight being 20/20, I prolly should have opted for the dually, but I solo alot in the snow, and the SRW does great there.

 

[HBarlow]

Here are the weights from my 2 week trip trip last summer, with 3 grandkids, and 2 foster kids, and several grownups.

truck front 4460
truck rear 5160
truck total 9620

trailer 7740
combination 17,360

Depending on how I have loaded all the food, toys, and firewood, I run a minumum of 1280 up to 1500 for the pin weight. I did add some air ride, just because even with the big bars on the E/Z Lift, I was still getting too much dip at the rear.

Hindsight being 20/20, I prolly should have opted for the dually, but I solo alot in the snow, and the SRW does great there.

Well, your GAWR for the rear should be about 6,xxx lbs. and you're okay there. IIRC, the GVWR of a late model Ram 3500 SRW is 9900 lbs. so you are okay there as well. Your trailer tongue weight is running between about 16 1/2 % to about 19 1/2%, fairly heavy for a conventional travel trailer but within the truck's capability. As long as you keep good brand name tires, well inflated, and in good shape on it I would not worry about it.

An option to consider would be a stiffer weight distribution hitch set up with 1500 lb. trunnion bars. A heavier wd hitch like that would allow you to transfer some of that tongue weight forward to the truck's front axle. Personally, I prefer leaving it on the rear for traction in inclement weather as long as you aren't taking weight from the steer tires and causing loss of traction at the front.

If you don't like the way it rebounds over dips, inflating the airbags should take care of that.

The only unanswered question and it may be the big one is what is the rated capacity of your OEM hitch receiver? I don't remember what my '06 was rated for and I have a CM bed on the C&C so no hitch receiver.

I hauled some very heavy trailers, not RV trailers, on the ball when I was transporting. I never weighed them but my guess was the tongue weight was 2000 lbs. or more on several of them. The hitch receiver handled the stress but I may have been overloading it. I didn't use a wd hitch when I was transporting. I used a solid steel shank draw bar and a gooseneck ball rated for 20k or 30k.

If you are exceeding the OEM hitch receiver's rated capacity you might choose to consider an aftermarket Class V receiver. I think someone mentioned the name of a good one in an earlier post in this thread.

SouthWest Wheel, Southwest Wheel Company Steel and Aluminum Truck Wheels is a good source and a way to compare prices.

 

[seafish]

Hey RideSlow, I see now that you are looking for a better then factory trailer hitch , as well as a better then factory rear bumper... Although I am sure there are many good products out there, I would suggest to you again to look at the Reunel rear bumper with integrated hitch receiver rated at #15k. It even got written up as an installation in the TDR mag a while ago by Joe Donnelly, IIRC.

 

[AH64ID]

Here are the weights from my 2 week trip trip last summer, with 3 grandkids, and 2 foster kids, and several grownups.



truck front 4460

truck rear 5160

truck total 9620



trailer 7740

combination 17,360



Depending on how I have loaded all the food, toys, and firewood, I run a minumum of 1280 up to 1500 for the pin weight. I did add some air ride, just because even with the big bars on the E/Z Lift, I was still getting too much dip at the rear.



Hindsight being 20/20, I prolly should have opted for the dually, but I solo alot in the snow, and the SRW does great there.

Just looking at the numbers I think you need to transfer a little more weight fwd. Have you weighed your truck empty? Mine empty is 4700 on the front axle, and I wouldn't want the trailer to make my front weight drop.



FAWR 5200

RAWR 6200

GVWR 10,100

 

[RideSlow2004]

Tare for the back is around 3100. If I am hitching on level ground, I can get a couple of hundred more on the front, but it takes a crank on the bar to get it up, and it makes the rig feel funny in the corners. So, I just leave as is, run the tires at cold maximum, and go bit slower.



HBarlow, I will have to go look at my bars, I do think they are the 1000lb rated.



It is always something, right?



After this, will be batteries and tires.

 

[HBarlow]

Assuming you have an electric tongue jack on the tongue of your trailer, use the tongue jack to do the heavy lifting, not your back or a six foot lever bar.

Lower the trailer onto the ball and latch the coupler then raise the trailer tongue (and rear of the truck) with the tongue jack well above the normal ride height.

Attach the spring bars to the link desired for weight transfer and lower the tongue jack. Lowering the trailer tongue and truck rear end will tension the bars as the rig is lowered.

 

[EGroeneveld]

I have done the Torklift Superhitch on my 2005 Dually and just put another one on my 2011 Ram 3500 Dually. I really really really like it for hauling heavy tongue trailers like 14K dumpers or 10k enclosed trailers. It also works great for extensions because of slide in campers.

 

[AH64ID]

Assuming you have an electric tongue jack on the tongue of your trailer, use the tongue jack to do the heavy lifting, not your back or a six foot lever bar.



Lower the trailer onto the ball and latch the coupler then raise the trailer tongue (and rear of the truck) with the tongue jack well above the normal ride height.



Attach the spring bars to the link desired for weight transfer and lower the tongue jack. Lowering the trailer tongue and truck rear end will tension the bars as the rig is lowered.

Thats the same method I use, even with my manual tounge jack. It's a lot easier.



You really want to avoid making the front of the truck lighter if possible.

 

[RideSlow2004]

I have been using the tongue jack trick for a long time. Always have some blocks or a jackstand to fit under the leg, so I don't have to run it very far up and down. I still don't like the way it feels, going around corners and stuff. I will head up to the scales before towing season starts, and play around with it again. I do have the empty weights, written down. Really busy right now, but will get them up here in the next couple of days.



Bumper is $ 700 painted

Welded-in 20,000lb Class 5 Receiver Hitch $75

Backup Light Holes (4x6in. rectangular) $75

Distance Sensor Mounts (each) $37. 50

Diamond Aluminum Deck on top of channels $75

D-Rings Painted each $65

Custom Made Stainless Steel D-Rings (each) $100

Bumper Custom Painted $100







Sitting around $1230. 00, not including shipping. They do have lots of pics and other info on their site.

 

[MMeier]

After wallowing out the hitch pin hole and the reciever hole itself opening up a fair amount , I replaced the stock POS with a Titan V Class 5 hitch, haven't even needed the WD bars since either. After seeing how much they are for a 2. 5 " set up , it may be a while !! 18k GTW

 

[HBarlow]

The Reese Titan MMieier mentions is probably the best receiver hitch on the market from the oldest company in the industry but it is VERY pricey.

I had excellent luck with a Putnam purchased from SouthwestWheel years ago when the receiver on my '01 wore out. I checked SWW's website and couldn't find it. Don't know if they still sell it. But here is a much less expensive alternative from a good old company: PUTNAM RECEIVER HITCHES FOR TRUCKS & SUVs Scroll down to the XDR at the bottom of the page.

I've also used other Putnam products from SWW such as a solid steel draw bar and found them priced fairly and very durable.

 

[AH64ID]

After wallowing out the hitch pin hole and the reciever hole itself opening up a fair amount , I replaced the stock POS with a Titan V Class 5 hitch, haven't even needed the WD bars since either. After seeing how much they are for a 2. 5 " set up , it may be a while !! 18k GTW

It's too bad they don't make a Class V 2" like the Titan, which is the only hitch I have seen that mounts like the OEM hitch. But you can always weld the sleeve to the 2" WD receiver. My dad did that on his and it's as snug as can be, and just as strong. Heck you could even weld a full length sleeve inside the receiver and make it a 2", and then you would also have 2x the surface area for the pin to rest on and it would be really hard to wear the pin hole out.

 

[RVTRKN]

The stock hitch is very nice, but if its starting to wear I would replace it now.



I need to replace mine, it was a little slopy from the factory and that has let it get much worse. The metal seems to be soft. My vertical opening is probably nearing 2. 25"



This new hitch from Reese has been catching my eye. .



Trailer Hitches - Reese

I have not seen a tougher looking hitch!

I read the instructions on this hitch and they are instructing us to drill into the hydroformed frame. I know Reese is top quality, and I'm sure they have researched this, I imagine, but what is your opinion on this?

Seen a couple of the factory ones fail and went ahead a installed a Reese Titan V on my dually when I first got it just for piece of mind.

Did you drill for the installation, and what is your opinion?

After wallowing out the hitch pin hole and the reciever hole itself opening up a fair amount , I replaced the stock POS with a Titan V Class 5 hitch, haven't even needed the WD bars since either. After seeing how much they are for a 2. 5 " set up , it may be a while !! 18k GTW

And the same question for you as well ?????