WD Hitch Reccomendation

[squeaky]

So I found this hitch on Amazon which comes with sway control and everything. Its sitting at 5 stars with over 300 reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/Eaz-Lift-4805...5%3A2470955011

I'm curious if anyone here has experience with this brand or hitch in particular and wouldn't mind offering a little advice on it. I think I'll have to get another shank that's more adjustable, reviews seems to say it only drops 2 1/2" and my truck is pretty well lifted on the rear end. I need to get out and do some measurements to figure out how far I need to drop it

[jim44646]

It has 800lb. bars, might be a bit stiff for your application. I had that style sway control, didn't like it.
For first time hitch buyer I'd talk to a few dealers to learn what to look for.
I went with Reese with cam sway controllers. Am well satisfied with that setup.

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[bunjin]

The link I see says available with 600, 800, 1000 & 1200 pound bars.

[jim44646]

I just glanced at the site and seen what's in the box and didn't look further

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[squeaky]

Ok Im realizing this hitch may not work for me. Thanks for the feedback. I just did some measurements, and it seems that the trailer only sits about 12" up and the top of the hitch recover on my truck is 22". So I need to drop 10" right? The shank in this hitch only drops 2 1/2"

[jim44646]

If you do an axle flip on your trailer it will raise your trailer about 4 inches.

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[Jim-Bev-2363]

When measuring the hitch height you should be on level ground. Somewhere like a level parking lot would be great. Level your camper and measure to the inside of the ball socket on the receiver. That will tell you where the top of your ball needs to be.


Since you are not familiar with hitches you might get someone to install one for you. They can do the hitch and wiring in a afternoon. Then you can be on the road faster and safer.

[j52wf]

I like the Reese Dual Cam system because of it's integrated anti-sway controls.

[Steve Collins]

The critical dimension you need is the distance from the ground to the top of the coupler where the ball will sit. Everything has to be level, the trailer and on level ground. Mine was 15 1/2" and that was very common for 5,500# GVWR Sunlines back then.

Then you need to know your tongue weight which you can find on the brochures in the files section. That will be dry tongue weight and you'll need to add about 40% to that to help decide what weight bars you need.

Frankly, this is one of those times that ordering online might not be a good choice since you are unfamiliar with rv hitches. You'd be better served by going to a shop that sells and repairs trailers. Notice I said trailers and not RV's. RV dealer don't always have your best interests in mind. The trailer folks do. Let them teach you the basics of weight distributing towing and show you some options in the systems they have.

As for the drop of the shank, most of these trailer shops will work with you and swap shanks if needed, charging you only the price difference of the shanks.

If I was buying, I'd go Reese all the way. For a 1950, the 800# weight arms are about right. I had 600#'s on my 2453 and they were actually a bit light. My loaded tongue weight was 820# so I should have used 1,000# bars I prefer trunnion (square) weight arms over the round ones because the weight bearing transfer point is part of the drop-forged ball platform rather than tubes welded on. I'd go with the Dual-Cam sway control, too. Reese's tilt adjustable ball platform is a great choice. The dealer may try to sell you friction sway controls. Don't bother as that is only good for trailers about half the weight of yours.

The dealer should be willing to work with you on the weight arms and the shank height. Reach that agreement before you buy. That way, you can get what you need and should have rather that what a salesman wants to sell you.

[j52wf]

Yeah, I tried one of those friction sway controls on my current Sunline 2475 ( sold my Reese with the old Sunline t-24). After I peeled my white knuckles from the steering wheel, I immediately got another Reese Dual Cam setup. Towed like a dream to South Dakota and back.

[jim44646]

Originally Posted by j52wf

Yeah, I tried one of those friction sway controls on my current Sunline 2475 ( sold my Reese with the old Sunline t-24). After I peeled my white knuckles from the steering wheel, I immediately got another Reese Dual Cam setup. Towed like a dream to South Dakota and back.

I know the white knuckle feeling. Pulled TT to Florida back in 1980 with just torchon no sway setup. I knew when every semi was passing. In Florida I found a Camping World and they set me up with a Reese dual cam. Was a dream the rest of trip. That sold me . Tried round bar with friction sway control, didn't like, sold it and bought another Reese dual cam.

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[JohnB]

Originally Posted by squeaky

Ok Im realizing this hitch may not work for me. Thanks for the feedback. I just did some measurements, and it seems that the trailer only sits about 12" up and the top of the hitch recover on my truck is 22". So I need to drop 10" right? The shank in this hitch only drops 2 1/2"

Hi Squeaky,

Heads up, the hitch part number you linked is for 1,000# WD bars. That is way to heavy for you 83, T1950. You could damage the A frame being that far over capacity with those heavy bars.

I did some looking for you. The T1950 has been around a long time. And I see the floor plan has changed a little since the newer ones.

If you go to the "FILES" tab on the top of the forum, click it and in there go to brochures. They have 2 flyers in 1983, one specs the other more general.

Your camper has a 4,200# GVWR. It weighed empty with no battery or LP gas in the tanks approx 2,290# the day it left Sunline. It had a empty camper (dry) tongue weight of 245#. This is a little trailer compared to some of the newer T1950's that are built on a larger frame.

As far as WD bar sizing, on that trailer, 600#bars are much closer. Your actual loaded tongue weight might be 350 to 450 pounds.

The EAZ hitch you linked is the standard round bar WD hitch. They are not a bad hitch, consider them the basic WD hitch. EAZ use to be a big leader in the old days, then they sold out to Camco who is selling the line. And that in itself is not a bad thing, just the new day EAZ lift is not the same old EAZ lift hitch in quality.

There are other options in hitches that can offer better performance in anti sway ability. The longer shank is manageable too, but it will take a little work to sort this out.

We can help you sort this out, and you can learn from it how your WD hitch works which is very important. But it will take a little work. If this interests you I can type some more on how to size up the right parts.

I will show 3 hitches that which will fit your lighter tongue weight camper and do a good job.

In the Reese brand (a good brand) they have 2 hitches in the 600# tongue weight class that I would say will work well when setup correct with your camper/truck.

The 1st pick, the Reese SC hitch
https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Dist...e/RP66151.html

2nd pic in the Reese line, this is fairly new called the Steady fast
https://www.etrailer.com/Weight-Dist...e/RP66558.html

1st pic in the Equal-I-zer brand. A very good hitch too. This is the mfg site, you can shop price at other online dealers.
Equal-i-zer Hitch Store
main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=9

All 3 of those hitches have built in anti-sway control along with the WD hitch. Those styles will work with your light tongue weight. The Reese dual cam was mentioned and it is Reese's best WD/anti-sway hitch. In your specific case I am not recommending that one because of your very light tongue weight. They have been declared to not work as well on very light weight tongue weights and yours might be 350, to 450. If you where over the 500# then yes I would say go DC. There may also be a ground clearance concerns

The shank and tow ball needs to be sorted out yet. We can help there too.

If you want to go with the EAZ lift round bar and friction bar hitch, we can help make that setup work the best it can be. The performance will be less then the 3 hitches above, but you really will not know how good it will be until it is all mounted on your camper and truck. It may work OK or not. The truck is a big part of towing stability too. Think of the hitch as a tool, it itself is not the complete fix for all towing issues, it is part of the solution. The truck setup has to do it's part too.

Let us know what how you want to go and will type more from there. We will need the ball height of your camper. (Camper level, ground up to the inside of the ball coupler) We also need your truck receiver height. Ground up to the top inside of the 2" receiver.

Hope this helps

John

[DaveSha]

Originally Posted by squeaky

So I found this hitch on Amazon which comes with sway control and everything. Its sitting at 5 stars with over 300 reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/Eaz-Lift-4805...5%3A2470955011

I'm curious if anyone here has experience with this brand or hitch in particular and wouldn't mind offering a little advice on it. I think I'll have to get another shank that's more adjustable, reviews seems to say it only drops 2 1/2" and my truck is pretty well lifted on the rear end. I need to get out and do some measurements to figure out how far I need to drop it

….Should you decide to go with this hitch, check amazon warehouse….I found it there for around a 165 dollars…( damaged box)….Hitch was in perfect shape….I can't make a fair judgement on it as I am presently working on my camper to get it ready to tow…Sunline 2653….Dave….

[Sunny06]

Reese Dual Cam.. 1200 pound bars.. no problems so far..

[vcrt]

I just ran across this and thought I'd add my .02.
Our daughter and son-in-law are now proud owners of our former 92 2470 Sunline and are towing with a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee w/V-8 engine (I forget the size). Due to the short wheelbase of the Jeep, my Son-in-law was experiencing some sway especially in cross winds and when 18 wheelers passed by. Since I wasn't using the dual cam set-up that I got with our Reese WD hitch for our 2499, I gave them to him. That should solve their sway issues.

The reasons I wasn't using the dual cam set up on ours is that 1-I haven't had any sway issues with our rather long WB 2002 Silverusto 1500 ext cab and 2-I didn't see any reason at all to add another 28 lbs. of weight to our already tongue heavy 2499.
Rich

[squeaky]

Originally Posted by vcrt

The reasons I wasn't using the dual cam set up on ours is that 1-I haven't had any sway issues with our rather long WB 2002 Silverusto 1500 ext cab and 2-I didn't see any reason at all to add another 28 lbs. of weight to our already tongue heavy 2499.
Rich

For cost reasons I'm thinking about not going WD at all on this one. When I look at things its not really necessary on this setup. The dry weight of this trailer is pretty low and it's already been quite gutted. I'm going to be gutting more of it before I bring it home. Also we won't have propane tanks on it at all so that is going to keep the weight down. I'd be surprised if our tongue weight is even 400# by the time we start rolling.

That combined with a really beefy suspension on our truck i'd be surprised if we drop the back end more than an inch or two once connected. I'm going to tow it around town a few times before I get on my main journey, and there are plenty of 18 wheelers on the roads around here so I'll get a good feel for trailer sway before I go.

[DaveSha]

Originally Posted by squeaky

So I found this hitch on Amazon which comes with sway control and everything. Its sitting at 5 stars with over 300 reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/Eaz-Lift-4805...5%3A2470955011

I'm curious if anyone here has experience with this brand or hitch in particular and wouldn't mind offering a little advice on it. I think I'll have to get another shank that's more adjustable, reviews seems to say it only drops 2 1/2" and my truck is pretty well lifted on the rear end. I need to get out and do some measurements to figure out how far I need to drop it

I finished my camper yesterday and took it for a 100 mile shake down cruise using the eaz lift system and one sway bar…I have the hitch on the hitch shank in the lowest position and probably about 1/2 way tilted back…Pulling it with my 4.6 "chipped in the towing mode" 4x4 F 150 ( the travel trailer is a 2653, about 27' 11" long )…I had no issues …I ran on State 104 meeting Semi Trucks and driving about 60 mph most of the time…I did run on I 81 and ran it up to about 72 for a ways also….There was a slight breeze at times…These are my findings…I'm going to try and lower the TT a bit by means of tilting the hitch a bit more and I ordered a Curt sway bar for the left hand side…I had no issues but I found the sway bar on Amazon for 28 dollars complete…( Warehouse) and a little safety goes along way….Tomorrow I will tweak an exact measurement of what I need to make the TT perfectly level and perhaps I'll get a 12 or 14 drop shank if I need one in the future…Actually on a normal day it needs nothing …It tells you its back there which is good and the truck averaged 11 mpg which is not real bad but not so good either ….All in all for 165 dollars for the original hitch and sway bar and 28 for the added sway bar ( all thru Amazon damaged packing warehouse ) Prime 2 day shipping included, it suited my needs…Thanks Dave

[Jim-Bev-2363]

Since you only need a small adjustment you might can adjust by the number of links in the bar chains. I can tell a difference by dropping a different number of links on mine.


I only have a 2363 but use the two friction sway bars. May be overkill but I never know the TT is behind me until I get in tight quarters.

[Ray and Lynn from PA]

We used a Equal-I-zer hitch with 1200# bars on our T195SR with over 900lbs of tongue weight for 7 years with no problems and sold it with our trailer.

[wrigger]

I think this answers my question on which hitch to purchase for my T-1950 Solaris the Reese #66151.