Let's talk weight distributing hitches?

[mbryson]

I have had the "Equalizer" hitch before and liked it fine. Worked well with my 26' flatbed and my 29' camp trailer behind my trucks. I believe that's called the "friction" type of WD hitch?



Who's had the "cam type"


Advantages and disadvantages between the two designs?

In my experience with the Equalizer, I liked the friction concept. It worked well and wasn't a big pain to hook up and secure. I did lose a pin once and ended losing the "lock" that holds the sway bar to the trailer tongue somehow.

 

[Hickey]

I had the cam type on my old travel trailer, though I did not have that sway control shown in the picture. I never had a problem with it.

 

[jeeper]

I prefer the cam type. i don’t know why.. just because that’s what I have always had I guess.

 

[frieed]

My Equalizer hitch was flawless with my 28' travel trailer. I must admit a good part of that is Ford's integrated brake controller.

 

[rholbrook]

I have had both and prefer the CAM type.

 

[ID Bronco]

I've only ran the CAM type, love it.

 

[LJTim]

Does anyone have any ideas for a solution for my situation? I just purchased a used "Equal-I-Zer" brand hitch, and when I was setting it up over the weekend, I realized it wasn't going to work for the height of my hitch-to-coupler relationship. I have a slight drop hitch on my Expedition now, and that gets the trailer sitting almost perfectly level when I pull the jeep about 6-8" forward over centered on the trailer axles. It has towed well with that set up and never wanders. I have just hopped to reduce a bit of the bouncing bu adding a distribution hitch.

The issue is, the lowest setting on the shank is still 3.5" too high on the hitch. I looked at getting a hitch with a longer shank, but i'll be plowing everyone's asphalt/concrete when pulling in and out of gas stations. To get it at the right height, because of the brackets under the actual ball, I would only have 3-4" of clearance at the hitch. Currently, my plan is to forget about it and sell the hitch, and keep running it how I have been, but I wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas before I give up. I posted a couple pics so you can see what I'm talking about.




And just for kicks, I thought i would see where this extension thing I had kicking around would put it. It only has 3" of clearance from the pavement here.

 

[mbryson]

I'll have to take a look at my Navigator setup. Should be very similar? I'll see what I can do about getting some details tonight

 

[LJTim]

I'll have to take a look at my Navigator setup. Should be very similar? I'll see what I can do about getting some details tonight

Cool man! Thanks. I didn't think my trailer was uniquely low, but maybe it is?

 

[TJustin]

Does anyone have any ideas for a solution for my situation? I just purchased a used "Equal-I-Zer" brand hitch, and when I was setting it up over the weekend, I realized it wasn't going to work for the height of my hitch-to-coupler relationship. I have a slight drop hitch on my Expedition now, and that gets the trailer sitting almost perfectly level when I pull the jeep about 6-8" forward over centered on the trailer axles. It has towed well with that set up and never wanders. I have just hopped to reduce a bit of the bouncing bu adding a distribution hitch.

The issue is, the lowest setting on the shank is still 3.5" too high on the hitch. I looked at getting a hitch with a longer shank, but i'll be plowing everyone's asphalt/concrete when pulling in and out of gas stations. To get it at the right height, because of the brackets under the actual ball, I would only have 3-4" of clearance at the hitch. Currently, my plan is to forget about it and sell the hitch, and keep running it how I have been, but I wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas before I give up. I posted a couple pics so you can see what I'm talking about.
View attachment 117813

View attachment 117814

And just for kicks, I thought i would see where this extension thing I had kicking around would put it. It only has 3" of clearance from the pavement here.
View attachment 117815

I work for Equal-i-zer hitch. I have a solution for you, and prevent you from dragging the shank through gutters when using it. Contact me if interested. You can install the hitch ball roughly 2" higher than the coupler, and still get it to function correctly. We'd only need to get you 1-1.5" lower than you currently are.

I can get a drop shank that will accommodate the lower hitch ball height while not extending extremely far down. Here's my setup:

Going for anyone on here, but if you need Equal-i-zer or Fastway items, let me know.

 

[zmotorsports]

To answer the OP's question, I've run both and prefer the cam style but have not run it in combination with the friction sway control device as shown above. I feel the cam style are a smoother operating hitch and also provide some sway control due to their inherent active design.

Other key things to remember are to keep approx. 10% of the total weight on the hitch or you can induce sway issues. Keeping the trailer as level as possible with the weight distributing hitch installed properly is another thing to remember, which usually means trailer being a couple of inches lower when connected without the weight distributing arms connected. The rig should sit level with the weight distribution evenly spread out over the tow vehicle, the connection and the trailer.

For LJTim, I had a friend several years ago with a similar setup and I ended up beefing up the tongue of his trailer and raising the coupler at the same time. I used 2"x4" square tubing and welded it on top of the original tongue tying everything together and back to the front of the deck. I then welded a better coupler onto the new raised tongue. It was a lot of work but he had other issues that we needed to address other than merely the ball height. The trade-off was now a bit lower tongue on the trailer. Just a thought.

Mike

 

[Hickey]

My first thought was to raise the tongue of the trailer, perhaps using an adjustable style tongue.

 

[mbryson]

Here’s the Navigator setup. After trying the “chain type” like pictured, I’d go back to the friction type again.

 

[LJTim]

Here’s the Navigator setup. After trying the “chain type” like pictured, I’d go back to the friction type again.

Yeah, your trailer tongue must sit higher than mine.

 

[LJTim]

I like some of these suggestions. I don't want to compromise the levelness of the trailer, so I think I'll be dealing with it for now. But I think some tongue reconstruction wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[gijohn40]

I guess I have the friction type and love it. there are different levels of weight I think mine is the 8k model. It came with the trailer.