How many inch drop on hitch?

[Pit Bull]

How many inch drop do I need with my truck (see sig) for the hitch, so a normal trailer will be level? Sorry for the dumb question I just don't want to buy the wrong size

Thanks

 

[JWhitcomb]

Mine takes a six drop stinger for my boat trailer when the camper is off and a three inch drop when camper is loaded. Caused me a bit of concern recently when camping I off loaded my camper and could not get the boat hitched back up. Solved the problem by letting the air out of the air bags thanks to my wife's suggestion.



You need to take some measurements as your trailer hitch might be a diffrent height.

 

[ETOBICOKE]

Hitch Height

The general rule of thumb is the top of the ball should be 16 to 18 inches above the ground. This not as easy as it sounds, you also have to allow for the load you plan to carry in the bed of your truck and the tongue weight of the trailer. Also trailer tongue heights vary conciderably, it's best to measure your trailer to be sure. It's always better off to have the ball set slightly higher than level rather than lower. You can also get an ajustable drop stinger, the one that I have used goes from a 7. 5" drop to a 6. 5" lift and cost about $65 cdn. , with one of these the ball height can be adjusted to suit any trailer that you may encounter. I can email you a photo of one that I have on hand that I made to fit a 2. 5" reciever.



Neil

 

[juicedcummins]

A 3 inch drop works perfect for me with 13 inch tires on the trailer.

 

[LSMITH]

For boats and other normal height trailers I use an 8" drop, I have 285's on which will make a little under an inch of difference if you are on 265's. 6-8" should work fine until the trailer gets over 30' long.

 

[Pit Bull]

Thanks for the replys, looks like I will get a 6 inch drop. Also what is the most common ball size? I am just setting up to tow if needed. Like a rental trailer for hauling stuff. Just thought I would have the stuff on hand

 

[dan_gilson]

a suggestion...

Because of the problems that people have listed above and because I pull a assortment of different trailers with different size balls I got an adjustable roto-eze from:

http://www2.cnewsusa.com/ads/22029.html



It is a pretty stout hitch rated at 10K#.



They were nice people to do business with. The operation in Stockton was on my way so I dropped in. They took care of me in a couple of minutes and then installed it. Showed me all the ins and outs. Finally they gave me a tour of their manufacturing. I would highly recomend.

 

[Okie-Go]

I also have the adjustable hitch for bumper pulls. Works real well for pulling the 4 wheeler trailer or lowboys. Any thing heavy I put it on the gooseneck.

 

[Eric_77]

2" is most common for boat trailers and trailers under ~6,000 pounds seems like the 1 7/8 has fallen out of favor for all but the smallest or older trailer trailers. the 2 5/16 for the larger trailers.



I purchased an adapt-a-ball that has a post that is screwed onto bumper/hitch( what is the part that goes in a reciever called?) it comes with a 1 7/8, 2 and 2 5/16 rating is lower than "solid" balls but still pretty good, 8,000#.

 

[damon_achey]

I just had to pull a friends 18ft car trailer this week and with an 8" drop the front axle tires (two axle trailer) were *just* on the ground. I ordered this 10" drop hitch from truck performance to solve the problem.

 

[dan_gilson]

A word of caution...

Before getting my roto-eze I also had a different adjustable drop hitch. The reason why I traded it out was that it was only a 5K# hitch. Roto-Eze was the only 10K# hitch that I could find. It is built stout the way I like it.

 

[Hummin Cummins]

When the RV dealer set up mine for my 28' TT, they set the unit on the level ground, levelled the camper front to rear and measured the tongue to the top of the ball. Mine was 18". We took the biggest drop they had and could not get lower than 21" They welded another square tube receiver underneath the existing one and got me to 18. 5". I set the trailer, truck squats a little, set the w/d bars and the truck and trailer are perfectly level.



P. S. They said they guarnteed their weld to hold



Chris