Brakes and Hitches

Luckydog671 said:
Hi Jack,

I've e-mailed the owner to see what kind of towing rig she used and whether there is a hitch for sale.

A couple of questions for anyone on the forum:

I've done a little research and it seems like the Equal-i-zer brand hitch is good one. Is anyone using one for towing their Hi-Lo?

Worst-case scenario, would it be safe to tow approx. 100 miles to my local dealer using a standard weight-carrying hitch until I can get a proper hitch for it?

Recall that I am a towing rookie :confused:
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I bought mine home about 30 miles with the regular class V hitch and I've taken it on a trip about 120 miles each way with the same hitch. WDH makes a world of difference and is recommended in the owners manual.
 
Lucky, keep this in mind. This trailer may or may not have had a WDH previously. And if you buy a WDH before picking up the trailer I believe you are making a mistake. There are a couple of items that will need to be installed on this trailer once you buy your chosen WDH. I seriously wouldn't make this a big deal. Use your standard hitch on your tow vehicle, bring it home, shop for your best deal on a WDH, and enjoy your trailer. My recommendation is to avoid the Anderson PERIOD. This is not a hitch for novices and there is little to be gained over a standard hitch. Your trailer probably weighs in the 3600 pound range, has a tongue weight in the 400-500 pound range. None of this calls for a first class towing rig, even if you are a novice. As I told you in a much earlier post, shop around like in ehitch.com and you'll come away with a great hitch for about $225.00......maybe including shipping if you shop hard.
 
I agree with all the above posters who warn about over-doing it with WDH. YES- DEFENITELY GET ONE! But- a basic WDH will do just fine. You can make it home with out one- and then some. I did a couple of 200 + mile round trips before I bought mine. Just take it easy. Then when you get home- go to a scale and and pull the truck on scale with the trailer attached but with the trailer NOT on the scale------and record the weight. Then, at some point, pull the truck on the scale without the the trailer attached and record THAT weight. Subtract. The difference will be your hitch weight of an uloaded trailer. From there you can start estimating how much tongue weight you will have with a loaded trailer and gear in the far back of the TAHOE. That will determine the "bar size" of whatever WDH set-up you get. Any dealer worth their salt is going to try to sell you the most expensive hitch they can and it will likely be worth it-----but not to you. These smaller Hi-los pull quite nicely with a basic set-up. You start pulling monster 7000 + lb trailers with lots of surface area to catch the wind and,yes, I'd buy the fanciest WDH I could afford. Mine ran about 225.00 at camper-world and it is fine- though I went with flat bar and I would recommend round bar as I dont think they hang down as low-and older HI-los tend to sit low.

Have fun- and take it easy.

Rick
 
I have the Equal-I-Zer hitch and like it. It's heavy, probably about 70# and I think it is probably more expensive than any other kind. However, it's easy to set up and the way it connects to the trailer and the tow vehicle, I think it prevents any unplanned uncoupling of the trailer while towing. (The chain types may do this too, but I haven't really studied them for this). My hitch combines leveling and sway control without any additional components. The ball height can be adjusted over a large range and the "angle" setting, which effects the weight distribution has a large range too - once set, there is no "fiddling" during hookups. You would only have to adjust settings if you raised or lowered the tow vehicle or trailer or changed the tongue weight significantly.

I'm going to disagree with one thing notanlines said in a previous post. I THINK your trailer will be in the 4000-4500# range and would expect the tongue weight to be between 600-700#. (I say this because my 17' trailer is 3600# with a tongue weight of about 500#). If I'm right, you need a WDH that will support at least 800#, and maybe up to 1000#. I think your trailer can probably have a gross axle weight loading of up to 5500#, and since your hitch weight should be close to 15% of the axle weight, you can see how it can "grow".

You want a WDH that exceeds the hitch loading by a "small" amount. It should not be TOO strong, or it will be too stiff. There was a post on this in the forum about a year or so ago, with a link to a trailer site that talks about it.

I also think you could probably tow the trailer (unloaded), for 100 miles if you kept the speed low (maybe 45 mph) and were careful. You're going to lift the front end of your tow vehicle quite a bit, which reduces your steering traction and will cause trailer "dive" during braking which means most of the braking force in the tow vehicle will come from the rear axle.

- Jack
 
Sound advice by all! I agree I should wait on buying a hitch until I'm sure if I'm even buying this unit or not. I still need to verify the coupler size, although I suspect it's the larger 2 5/16" one. I'll try not to overdo it on the WDH!

Jack, you're probably right on the weights being higher. The official weights in the brochure show the GVWR as 5500 with a hitch weight of 500 and a UVW of 3975. My understanding is that these specs do not include any options, just the standard features. I know this particular unit has a few extras such as A/C so it's probably heavier.

As far as towing it home without the WDH, I think my Tahoe is rated at 5000 for a weight-carrying hitch so I'd be cutting it close on the weights but probably still legal. I'll have to think about it a little more . . .

At least I'll have my P3 brake controller by then! :)
 
PappaP said:
Lucky,
Read through this thread as it gives a lot of information relating to tow weights and may help you in understanding more on which direction you should take with your situation.

I also had an Equalizer WDH and would agree with Jack that I really didn't have any worries knowing I had that attached.

http://www.hilotrailerforum.com/f19/can-i-tow-my-2007-avalanche-3339/
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Interesting thread, PappaP. We have a CAT scale at our local Love's truck stop so I'll definitely weigh my TV and trailer once I get it. I've never used a truck scale before. Is there a fee to do so?

Most of what I've heard about the Equalizer hitch (other than cost) has been positive, but one negative I've read in reviews is that they tend to "pop" loudly. Have you or any other owners had this experience?

Thanks,
 
The Equal-I-Zers ARE noisy, during tight turns and especially when new. You can lubricate the friction points to reduce this and, according to the owner's manual, it does not hurt the anti-sway properties to do this. I've lubricated it at times, and other times I just forget. I honestly don't even notice the noise unless I open the truck windows, which I do during backing.

There IS a fee to use a CAT scale. I seem to recall it being around $7 per weighing, but I might be wrong. Seems to me I paid around $15 for two different weighings. I did it a bit differently than hiltool described. I took my truck and trailer to the scale and put my truck's two axles on the front scales and the trailer's axle on the rear scale and had that weight recorded with everything hooked up. Then, I backed up a bit so I could disconnect the trailer and put it ALL on the rear scale then put the 2 axles on the front scales and recorded the disconnected weights too. They were very friendly and accommodating at the truck stop and there were no trucks waiting to get weighed.

This method let me see how much weight the trailer added to each axle of my truck and, the axle loading on the trailer with it connected. Also, the total weight of the trailer with it disconnected. I later bought a Sherline hitch scale to get a precise measurement of the tongue weight, which is when I found out it was quite a bit higher than the spec weight in the trailer manual.
 
Lucky,
The post Jack has above is spot on with my thoughts also. The equalizer did make some noises, high squeeky noises mostly when turning tight corners and it is heavy to put on, but I had a confidence that it was doing what it was supposed to be during traveling conditions.
 
PappaP said:
Lucky,
The post Jack has above is spot on with my thoughts also. The equalizer did make some noises, high squeeky noises mostly when turning tight corners and it is heavy to put on, but I had a confidence that it was doing what it was supposed to be during traveling conditions.
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Hi Pappa,

And that's the most important thing! Looks like I'll be getting an Eaz-Lift hitch with the trailer. The seller is going to instruct me on how to hook it up since I've never used a WDH before.

Time to get ready to hit the rack- the big day is tomorrow!
 
Greg, we're sitting in White Horse, Yukon Territories having a cold one and even here we're wondering how your day went.
 
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