First time towing with an F150 & equalizer hitch questions

I semi retired my F250 7.3 diesel last fall, and replaced it with an F150 Super Crew with the 3.5 EB engine.

My TT is only 24' and weighs in about 1880 KG's, so when pulling it with the F250 I just hooked it up straight to the hitch and never bothered with a load balancing hitch.

Now I'm planning to pull the TT down to the coast thru the mountains, and thought that for this lighter truck I'd get a load balancing hitch. I picked up the Reese Pro Series 1200lb round bar weight distribution hitch. I opted for the heavier 1200lb unit because eventually I'll probably want to pull a bigger trailer than the 24' unit I have now.

Following instructions and a couple of youtube videos, I've got it set up to what I think is pretty close. I weighed the truck and trailer with the trailer hooked up to a straight hitch on a commercial scale, and got the following:

Front truck axle - 1300 Kg's
Rear truck axle - 1560 kg's
Truck weight - 2880 kg's
trailer axles - 1880 kg's

I set up the Reese hitch to that my front ground to fender well measurement stayed the same, and the rear fender well measurement was within an inch of unloaded measurements.  With the trailer level and the ball assembly at it's lowest point the ball on the truck was still over 2" higher than the top of the coupler (instructions said should be within 1"), even with all of the spacer washers used to tilt the ball back, but that's what I had to work with so I hooked the chains up on the 2nd last link and got the correct (according to instructions) measurements on the wheel well to ground differences. I then took it to the scale and got these readings:

Front truck axle - 1410 Kg's
Rear truck axle - 1420 kg's
Truck weight - 2860 kg's
trailer axles - 1860 kg's

It feels ok on the highway, but I'm concerned about the angle of the tension bars. The instructions said that with each washer added the end of the bar would drop 1" or so, so I guess it's ok, but they look a little close to the ground to me. The trailer is also just a tad high in the front, but bubble on a level just edging over the line but still mostly in the middle of the two marks.

I've attached some photos, since I've never used one of these hitches before I want to make sure I have it hooked up correctly and optimally. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.


thanks in advance..

Looks ok but i'd move the hitch head up to the top hole on the hitch (L shape) that will move it up a couple inches and then see how it handles. Or maybe even flip the hitch over so the L is sticking up instead of down then put the hitch head in the bottom holes.

thanks for the reply - I had it set up with only a few washers on the spacer pin, which raised the ball a bit, and had the chains one link shorter on the tension bars. However when I measured the wheel well distances with this setup, the front was about 1/4" higher and the back was almost 2" lower.

The instructions with the hitch said to get the trailer level then have the ball so it was about 1" higher than the top of the coupler. If I raised it higher then I'd be looking at 4"+ higher than the coupler - would that not tilt the trailer back even more?

Yes but only as high as the distance in the holes you move up. You will get a wide range of opinions on this but I tow my trailer level, yours is significantly nose down.

I don't have pic of my current set up with my dually but the truck and trailer are both completely level. When I would tow it with the trailer nose down it would wear the trailer tires funny.

Here's an old pic with my Excursion with soft rear springs but I set it up so the trailer is level.

glockholiday said:

Yes but only as high as the distance in the holes you move up. You will get a wide range of opinions on this but I tow my trailer level, yours is significantly nose down.

I don't have pic of my current set up with my dually but the truck and trailer are both completely level. When I would tow it with the trailer nose down it would wear the trailer tires funny.

Here's an old pic with my Excursion with soft rear springs but I set it up so the trailer is level.

Click to expand...

Actually that is more my driveway sloping back than the trailer being nose down, in this pic the level is actually bang on when I put it on the front of the frame. When I parked it on level pavement at the scale the bubble on the level was actually just a hair over the front, making it very slightly nose up, which seemed to be about as close as I could get it to being level using the spacer washers provided.

I just realized you mentioned the washers for the angle of the hitch head again. I'd leave those where they are, the angle looks fine. I'm talking about the 2 big bolts that connect the hitch head to the L shaped bar that goes in your trucks receiver. You can use any of the holes you want to move the height of the trailer tongue up or down.

Yes, I understood what you meant about moving the whole ball unit up and down the L bar - but, given that even with the L bar on the lowest location and the ball tilted back with max # of washers, the ball was still a full 2" higher than the top of the coupler on the trailer (with the trailer sitting level), when the instructions said it should only be 1" higher - wouldn't raising the L bar to higher holes raise the trailer ball even higher so that the nose would be way up on the trailer, which would result in less weight on the trailer tongue & possible make it back heavy?  Not to mention the trailer no longer being level when hooked up?

Right now with the ball as low as it can possibly go, tilted back as far as possible, the trailer still is nose up a shade when I'm parked on level pavement, but it's as close to level as I could get it. I can't see how raising the ball higher on the L shaped bar would so anything but make it less level - or am I just confused how these weight distribution hitches work?

When I pulled my travel trailer, the load looked good, but I noticed going up small, wet inclines, my rear tires started spinning. Not enough transferred tongue weight. Dropped it down a bit and I was good.

I think I was more confused in what you are trying to achieve. I think you'll just have to live with the bars being close to the ground.

I have an Equal-i-zer brand hitch and it's design keeps the whole assembly a little higher but I don't think it'd be worth the swap just to gain a couple inches of clearance. These hitches aren't cheap.

And older trailers seem to ride a bit lower anyways.

You can get a longer shank to mount the hitch head on that will allow you to lower the ball to the correct height.

I don't KG's for weight well and don't know how exact the weights are compared to the truck scales here at work. We're +/- 20 pounds here. First, I would recommend getting a Reese 3215 or Curt 17120 shank to get the ball at the correct height to start. Then once the ball is at the correct height, start on a level surface and set the angle of the ball by measuring the distance from the end of the spring bars to the ground as it states in the hitch directions. Get the truck positioned with the ball under the trailer coupler and measure the distance from the top of the wheelwells to the ground. I put a small piece of masking tape on the fenders with a reference mark to ensure you are measuring the same place every time. Write down the measurements with nothing hitched to the truck. Next, drop the trailer down all the way on the ball so the truck is supporting the tongue weight, and measure the fender wells again. Using the front measurements, for a Ford, you want to bring the nose down about halfway between the two measurements when hitched with the spring bars loaded. For example, if the truck with no trailer measures 36" and then measures 42" with the trailer and no spring bars, you want to shoot for 39". If you can't get exactly 39", then set the spring bars towards the short side. With a Ford, you want to return about 50% of the weight difference to the front axle. 50% front axle load return. (FALR). When hooking up your spring bars, start at a chain link that gets the spring bars somewhat parallel with the trailer frame, to give you a good starting point. Just try a different numbers of chain links to try to get you back to where you need to be on the front wheelwell measurement.

With the existing shank my connecting electrical is about at max stretch, so I don't know if I can free up any more slack there or not.

My front axle weight, according to my calculations, is at about 39% of calculated tongue weight  - some searching on the net I found some suggestions that it should be 20 to 25%

My rear axle is taking 50% of calculated tongue weight, which is at the top end of recommended (according to some info I found)

Perhaps I'll go weigh the truck axles with the truck empty, and get an accurate number for tongue weight, as my first weight readings were with the trailer on a stand alone hitch. Maybe then I'll have more accurate numbers to work from.  I was strictly going by measurement from the ground, as per a couple of youtube instructional videos I watched.

Your electrical shouldn't be that short. It should always have a decent loop hanging down to provide slack when turning corners and going over bumps. If you don't start with the correct measurement right at the beginning, you won't end up right in the end. An incorrectly set up WDH can be a serious safety risk factor.

I say raise the hitch on the shank. On my 1500, I have it at the highest setting and I could probably afford to go up another couple inches to get perfectly level under load, you might even consider some helper springs

I tried raising the hitch on the shank - it seemed to actually add increase the weight on the rear axle rather than take some of the tongue weight off. I raised it one hole up, then took three washers out of the angle to get the bars higher off the ground - the fender clearances from the ground measured ok but when I went and axle weighed it the back axle increase (from towing with a stand alone hitch) was actually more than the tongue weight (370 KG's) and the truck felt a little unstable at 100 kmh (60mph), less stable than towing it with the straight hitch  - which I found a bit strange since the truck was actually more level.

I played moving it up to the 3rd hole and taking washers out, but each time the rear fender - ground measurement decreased more than the 1"-1.5" recommended.  I ended up adding all 7 washers back to the angle on the 2nd lowest setting (as opposed to the lowest) and will go weight my axles again after I get a few things done.. 

Guys, the hitch manufacturers and the truck manufacturers don't write instructions and guidelines so they can be ignored. It would be wise to follow them, they know more about them than we do.

You need to be on completely flat level ground for starters and the trailer needs to be level or slightly nose down to start. Measure the frame at front and rear to be sure. And get a good 3 pass weight ticket and post all the axles or nobody including you has any idea what weights or tongue weight you have.
pass 1 truck only,  pass 2 truck and trailer with no weight bars, pass 3 weight bars hooked up. Only way to know.

keymastr said:

You need to be on completely flat level ground for starters and the trailer needs to be level or slightly nose down to start. Measure the frame at front and rear to be sure. And get a good 3 pass weight ticket and post all the axles or nobody including you has any idea what weights or tongue weight you have.
pass 1 truck only,  pass 2 truck and trailer with no weight bars, pass 3 weight bars hooked up. Only way to know.

Click to expand...

Thanks - I did a spreadsheet up with the weights of the truck alone (TA), truck with no weight distribution bars (no WD) and truck with WD, on two different settings, one with the ball at it's lowest setting and using 7 washers to lean it back, and one  on 2nd lowest setting with 4 washers to lean it back. I then put in formulas to calculate the % of the tongue weight each axle had based on the differences between the axle weights, both with the truck alone and with trailer with no weight bars. I've attached it to see what you think.

I just did a trip to the coast & back with the second setting. It seemed to be pretty stable, very similar to towing it with my F250 7.3. I'm not exactly sure how it's supposed to feel with a properly setup WD hitch - some tell me you shouldn't even notice the trailer on the truck - which is definitely not the case. It tows ok, but I sure know it's back there.. 

I would say the lowest setting looks the best. You restored all but 10 KG to the front axle and transferred 20 KG to the trailer axles. It should be good to go. Your trailer weight is well under your limits at around 5000 pounds, (not great with the conversion but close enough), and your tongue weight is somewhere close to 600. Looked like it was about 16% before you transferred some so that should be good also.

If your trailer has the axles over the springs you might flip the axles to gain a few inches of ground clearance for those bars. Make sure you check for level in a flat paved lot and remember that slightly nose down on the trailer is preferable to nose up.

kdbgoat said:

I don't KG's for weight well and don't know how exact the weights are compared to the truck scales here at work. We're +/- 20 pounds here. First, I would recommend getting a Reese 3215 or Curt 17120 shank to get the ball at the correct height to start. Then once the ball is at the correct height, start on a level surface and set the angle of the ball by measuring the distance from the end of the spring bars to the ground as it states in the hitch directions. Get the truck positioned with the ball under the trailer coupler and measure the distance from the top of the wheelwells to the ground. I put a small piece of masking tape on the fenders with a reference mark to ensure you are measuring the same place every time. Write down the measurements with nothing hitched to the truck. Next, drop the trailer down all the way on the ball so the truck is supporting the tongue weight, and measure the fender wells again. Using the front measurements, for a Ford, you want to bring the nose down about halfway between the two measurements when hitched with the spring bars loaded. For example, if the truck with no trailer measures 36" and then measures 42" with the trailer and no spring bars, you want to shoot for 39". If you can't get exactly 39", then set the spring bars towards the short side. With a Ford, you want to return about 50% of the weight difference to the front axle. 50% front axle load return. (FALR). When hooking up your spring bars, start at a chain link that gets the spring bars somewhat parallel with the trailer frame, to give you a good starting point. Just try a different numbers of chain links to try to get you back to where you need to be on the front wheelwell measurement.

Click to expand...

What about the rear? For my Ford my front is 37" (unloaded), 38" (loaded), and returns to 37" with the WDH...but my rear drops from 39" (unloaded) to 37". I read some recommendations that say I should try to maintain the 2" (39" - 37") but that seems like I would need to transfer too much weight to the front and the TV would run nose down. Note: the truck and trailer are level according to the truck, a spirit level, and measuring the trailer's frame.