Types of tow hitches and what type is best?

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ant21b

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Jun 11, 2017
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55
There seem to be two types of  tow hitches for towing a travel trailer with weight distribution and anti sway. One type has the spring bars fitting into a guide or stay on the trailer A frame with an L bracket locked with a cotter pin the other has the spring bars attached to the trailer A frame by chains. Which one is better and why?
I know there are many brands.
 
I'm not convinced the method of attachment is a significant factor by itself, but my strong preference is for a WD that has built-in anti-sway capability (asopposed to the add-on friction device). That built-in type utilizes a bracket rather than chains to anchor one end of the spring bar so that the other end can inhibit sway.
 
Both type's inhibit sway but the the type that have a spring bar bracket stay instead of chains for the spring bars have a tendancy to come out of the stay when turning so chains appear to be better.
 
Sorry, but I don't see any way that a standard WD spring bar set-up inhibits sway.  They make no  claim about that, for good reason.  That's why add-on friction late devices are sold for use with them.
 
The sway control is done by the hitch head on the hitches with built in sway control, with those hitches most use the brackets to create another sway control area by using the friction point. The other with the chains most do not come equipped with built in sway control but is almost impossible for the chain to come out of the snap up bracket, however you must ad a seperate sway control device. That is the type I use and really wishing I went to the built in sway control, imo I feel it's better at what it's designed for.
As for the bars coming off the brackets I think if the brackets are placed on the tongue at the right specification then you would be turning pretty sharp for the to come off.
 
We have a GMC Sierra 2500HD that came with built in sway control. I think it tends to be a reactive system instead of proactive like something on a hitch.
Our WDH is Eaz-Lift Elite. It has the round spring bars with chains. We also bought the friction sway control device because the entire Eaz-Lift system is something we used years ago and are familiar with it. However, in towing our Arctic Fox 22G in all sorts of conditions we have yet to use the friction sway control device. We keep it with us, just in case, but haven't needed to use it yet. Perhaps we have a good hitch setup plus the truck's heavy duty nature and built in sway control just haven't required us to use the friction device yet. YMMV.
 

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