How Long of a Hitch Extension Should I Use ?

[DonCurley]

My Jeep Wrangler TJ is just about set up for flat towing behind my Dodge 3500 and one essential item remains ... getting a hitch extension bar to accommodate towing when our Outfitter Apex 8 slide-in truck camper is on board.



Since I am essentially a towing novice, is there any rule of thumb as to how long a hitch extension should be to adequately deal with the rear overhang of a camper, but without it being longer than it needs to be? Without some words of wisdom in this regard, it seems like I should be in the ballpark if I dropped a plumb bob down from the center of the rear wall of the camper and then laterally measured straight back from the opening of the factory receiver back to the plumb bob line. Does that seem like a reasonable approach to take?

 

[LRutigliano]

If your slide-in camper is truly 8' long, then you shouldn't really need much of an extension (you should be able to use a standard type ball receiver) Your ball hitch is way below the truck bed and camper, so it doesn't need to stick out very far to work just fine.



When we had our 9' 10" Eagle Cap slide-in, I used an 18" extension that was a solid tube and then used a standard receiver connected to that. The total length was approx 22" and was rock solid. Used that for 5yrs towing our 4000lb boat with the slide-in.



I sold the camper to my buddy (along w/the extension) and he has been using it to tow his 4000lb plus tournament ski boat for the last 3 yrs.



I've seen the Torklift extensions, but have only seen them used w/the 11' campers.

 

[DonCurley]

If your slide-in camper is truly 8' long, then you shouldn't really need much of an extension (you should be able to use a standard type ball receiver) Your ball hitch is way below the truck bed and camper, so it doesn't need to stick out very far to work just fine.

Thanks for your input. By the way, here are a couple of shots of my rear overhang:

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I am going to be putting my camper back on my truck tomorrow and taking some measurements, but if I was to guess, I am probably going to need an extension (including the ball hitch) somewhere in the 14" to 18" area.

 

[EricBu12]

Yeah that looks reasonable. . when you first post, didn't look that you had a SB. . what you described on measurement should work. . then get an extention that gets closest to what you need.

 

[Road Dog]

You can always use a longer tow bar (on the TJ) to clear the camper and make sure the trailer or tow bar or whatever doesn't hit the rear jacks.

 

[LILHauler]

Hello Don
Your on the right track. Keep in mind that when you turn, will you have enough room to make a tight turn you may encounter. Does your hitch have a vee style where it will come in contact with the jacks on your camper? How close will your jeep be to your camper when turning? Will the door on the camper be able to clear any obstacle you may have on the hitch. I went slightly longer to give me a little clearance and also be able to upgrade to that larger TCer someday without having to buy a longer extension.
You can see my Torklift SuperTruss in my photo gallery.
Some have mentioned to go shorter but I can only imagine how many times I would hit my head having to hook the hitch up under the TCer. Keep it as easy as possible since you will be dealing with some pretty fair hitch weight. And yes, an Equalizer can be added to the TorkLift SuperTruss. They are made to work with this.

 

[Crazy Horse]

My Jeep Wrangler TJ is just about set up for flat towing behind my Dodge 3500 and one essential item remains ... getting a hitch extension bar to accommodate towing when our Outfitter Apex 8 slide-in truck camper is on board.

Hi Don,

The photos are part of my past learning expediences. The extension I've got now has solid bar stock connecting the receiver to the ball mount. I would never use the hollow extension like the photos again.

 

[DonCurley]

You can always use a longer tow bar (on the TJ) to clear the camper and make sure the trailer or tow bar or whatever doesn't hit the rear jacks.

Well, I'm pretty much stuck with the Currie tow bar I just purchased, so I'll have to go at this more from the extension & ball hitch perspective. I'll certainly check the clearance with my rear jacks, but I think they may be high enough to be out of the way.

 

[DonCurley]

Hello Don

Your on the right track. Keep in mind that when you turn, will you have enough room to make a tight turn you may encounter. Does your hitch have a vee style where it will come in contact with the jacks on your camper? How close will your jeep be to your camper when turning? Will the door on the camper be able to clear any obstacle you may have on the hitch. I went slightly longer to give me a little clearance and also be able to upgrade to that larger TCer someday without having to buy a longer extension.

You can see my Torklift SuperTruss in my photo gallery.

Some have mentioned to go shorter but I can only imagine how many times I would hit my head having to hook the hitch up under the TCer. Keep it as easy as possible since you will be dealing with some pretty fair hitch weight. And yes, an Equalizer can be added to the TorkLift SuperTruss. They are made to work with this.

Yeah, I do want to pay attention to having enough clearance for tight turns. The Currie tow bar I went with is a basic V-shape, but I think my rear jacks are mounted high enough so I will have clearance as the Jeep swings around. And the rear door to my camper is even higher, so there shouldn't be a problem with that.

 

[DonCurley]

Hi Don,

The photos are part of my past learning expediences. The extension I've got now has solid bar stock connecting the receiver to the ball mount. I would never use the hollow extension like the photos again.

Ouch!



To be honest, I already intended to go with the solid steel bar stock type of extension, and seeing your photos only helps to reinforce that. By the way, did you have some form of home-made side chains to counteract side loading forces? I can't clearly tell if that's the case, but it looks like you had something like that in the first pic.

 

[Crazy Horse]

By the way, did you have some form of home-made side chains to counteract side loading forces?

Originally I only had a set of chains from the middle of the extension to the trailer. As you can see in the photo. Although the trailer only weighed approx 1900 lbs it was poor scenario thought. After that happened I rigged a 2nd set of chains. One to tie the trailer to the extension and the other to tie the extension to the truck hitch.

 

[LILHauler]

Ouch!



To be honest, I already intended to go with the solid steel bar stock type of extension, and seeing your photos only helps to reinforce that. By the way, did you have some form of home-made side chains to counteract side loading forces? I can't clearly tell if that's the case, but it looks like you had something like that in the first pic.

Hello don

Just wanted to ask if you are also looking at strengthening the hitch assembly.

When I added the extra TorkLift receiver under the factory hitch, you could really see how it adds extra strength in the hitch area. Adding an extension

onto the factory hitch puts new loads on the frame of the truck. your jeep being pulled on it's own gives you a light hitch weight but the side stress will be multiplied with the extension. I wish I had a photo to show you how TorkLift did it.

Some of the bars on the SuperTruss are solid also. You know you have some serious iron when you try and lift one of these.

 

[surfbeetle]

Keep in mind that since you are flat towing the jeep, you essentially have no tongue weight. As a result, the length of your towbar or of your extended hitch will not be much of an issue where the weight is concerned. What would be an issue is if you went with the extended hitch and then decided to tow something other than the jeep. Also, at least here in CA, your safety chain has to connect from the tow vehicle to the tow'd vehicle.

 

[jelag]

I think some of you are missing the torque applied as the length of the extension gets longer... . now lets say that the current installation is 6" and you put 1500 lbs of side thrust when you go around a corner... . I just pulled these numbers out of the air by the way... that's about 750 lbs of torque... 1/2 ft x 1500 lbs... now lets make that 24", that's now 3,000 lbs of torque trying to twist the frame... .

If this were mine... I'd lengthen the triangle of the tow bar...

We used to have an F550 that gave us fits... we made a tow bar that was about 5 ft from the 2 5/16 ball on the truck to the front bumper on the F550... . this long triangle allowed us to turn the tow vehicle so that the bumpers wouldn't touch each other... I can't begin to tell you how many times we chased after it until we finally fixed the issue... but we'd tow it back, (18,000 lbs) with one of our 3500's...

The additional torque I mentioned above is the force that caused the tube to break and the towed jeep to break away... I'd worry about the cross tube between the frame on your truck doing some damage to the frame if you do have a problem...

And of course with murphy's law... . this will always come back to haunt you when you least expect it... .

 

[DonCurley]

I mocked-up a hitch extension using 2x2 lumber in my truck receiver and the way it has worked out, the ball center will be 5" rearward of the back wall of my camper. This is going to require a 22" to 24" custom fabricated hitch extension using 2x2 square steel stock inserted into the custom hitch receiver tube and welding that together. I will also be going with grade 70 side chains along with forged turnbuckles to handle the side loads. Then I will need to go with something between a 7" to 9" riser ball mount to get the tow bar level on my Jeep (as my modified Jeep has an effective 5"+ lift plus 35" tires).

 

[JMundinger]

hitch extension





I have a 05 3500 Quad cab 8 ft bed Lance 11ft truck camper ( 3ft over hang). I pull trailer with 2 harley davidsons inside. I use the Torklift Super Hitch. We have been almost everywhere with this setup. NEVER had a problem. Go to Torklift.com for info. JOE

 

[DonCurley]

Joe,



I appreciate the suggestion, but we're pretty far along with our current plan. The other thing is that I won't be towing a trailer with this set-up, so with flat towing my Jeep, there is going to be zero tongue weight.



Don

 

[DonCurley]

Here are a couple of pics of my custom fabricated hitch extension and related hardware (which still needs to be painted or powder coated):



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The lower section goes into the factory receiver hitch, which has a piece of solid 2x2 steel welded inside of it. The longer upper section was welded on top to get some more lift to make a readily available riser ball mount come out to the correct height for flat-towing my lifted Jeep. Had it not been done that way, the riser ball mount would have had to be another 2-1/2" taller. The side chains tie into the two beefy D-ring tabs on my rear Road Armor bumper



And here are three shots of this set-up installed on my truck:



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The hitch extension ended up being 25-3/4" long (truck receiver pin to hitch extension pin). The Reese riser ball mount added another 10" (hitch extension/ball mount pin to ball center).



The center of the ball on the riser ball mount is approximately 11" to 12" rearward of the back wall of my camper, which will give me plenty of swing clearance. Despite this, we can still put the scissor stairs on the rear of our camper with the hitch extension in place, as long as we either remove the riser ball mount, or alternatively just temporarily reverse it downwards into a drop ball mount configuration.



As previously mentioned, I am only flat-towing a Jeep Wrangler TJ (and never intend to tow any form of trailer with my camper on board), I essentially have zero tongue weight. Based on that, I believe my hitch extension set-up will safely get the job done, such that a Reese Tow Beast or Torklift SuperHitch set up would be overkill for my application IMO.



Don