need an 18" ball mount

[Pat]

Because of the back door and center step on my mh, I need an 18" long ball mount in the hitch.? I know it's long.? Last time at the CAT scales the towed weighed 3300 lbs hooked up to the mh.  All-in I was not overweight on any axle or towing.  Close, but still within limits.  Car is towed 4-down, which I think means there's no weight on the tow bar?

I've seen at least one mh of this make and model that has such a single piece mount, instead of a floppy extension like I've been using.?

I am interested in the forum experts' opinions of this setup.

--pat

 

[John From Detroit]

The problem with a long hitch (And they do make extensions which when combined with a standard hitch adapter would easily hit 18") is torque and load weight.  Now, if you tow 4-down your hitch weight is under 100 lbs (Way under) so that is NOT an issue and you can ignore it.  But cornering is going to put side stress on that hitch.  Still, You are towing .66 the rated hitch load... (Assuming a 5,000 lb hitch) if your hitch is rated at 10,000 it's only .33 so I don't see a problem either way.

About the only possible issue I see is the safety cables and If I recall my geomotry right, that won't be an issue either. save for dragging on the ground,  To stop this wrap them a turn around the tow bar

 

[Pat]

JID:

I had been using an 18" solid filled extension with a 10" ball mount, so all cables are plenty long.  In fact the problem might be excess length.  I'll have about 6 or 8" less on the total ball-to-hitch-pin length with this new ball mount.  I asked the hitch guy pretty specifically if this thing can handle the load, and he said he'd never do it, for insurance reasons, if it weren't OK.  When I first bought the extension with ball mount, I was planning to tow a cargo trailer, which had tongue weight.  The new ball mount won't press down on my bottom step like the old extension did.  It was a really bad setup, because all sideways pressure on it scraped along the step.  I couldn't even remove the extension without lowering the step, so the step was never properly raised with the extension in place.  Now I need to refinish the bottom step and replace the black nonskid pad. 

--pat

 

[John From Detroit]

More or less along the lines of what I was thinking in regard to weight.

Rather than do all that work on the bottom step you can put a "Wrap around" step cover.  use a rust-inhibitor paint to paint it, then use the wrap around step cover which not only hides all those scratches and provides a slip resistant surfact but takes some of the mud off your shoes when entering the rig

 

[Pat]

JID:

I was thinking about the wrap around step cover, but I think I ran into things attached to it last time that interfered with the cover.  I'll check it out again, because I'm certainly considering that.  It'll be nice to have options.

--pat