Blue Ox Swaypro on a Rockwood 2109S?

[BruceM]

Hi there, I'm new to the forum and our trailer has not been delivered yet.
I wondered if anyone out there has a Mini Lite 2109S with a Blue Ox Swaypro hitch?
If so, what weight bars did you get and did you get the underslung or regular ball hitch mount and what type of chain mount works on this trailer - the bolt on or the clamp on?
My dealer only carries the E2 hitch which he highly recommends but I think I prefer the engineering in the Blue Ox. If this trailer sways at all my DW will be insisting that we get an Arrow hitch at $1700!
I'm looking forward to being part of this community. We're trading up from the TrailManor 3124 KS that we had for 14 years.

[mhartzel]

The spring bars are based on the tongue weight and are interchangeable. If your tongue weight is 900 pounds, go with the 1000# bars. IIRC, there are 500, 750, 1000, 1200# bars. You want to closely match the tongue weight, but not be grossly over. For example, you wouldn't want 1000# bars for only 600#of tongue

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[BruceM]

Thanks mhartzel, the advertised dry tongue weight is 336 lbs and the Blue Ox bars come in 350, 550, 750 and up capacities. I would think 550 would be sufficient but without the front storage compartment filled up and not sure how much will be in the bed of the truck I was thinking 750 to be safe. The Blue Ox bars are supposed to have a sway in the bar when they are tensioned so that is why I wanted to get an answer from someone who has the 2109/Blue Ox combo to see what they are using.
And I'm sure you're right about not going with 1,000 lb bars - they wouldn't have any sway at all!
BTW, I found someone on Craig's List selling a new set of Swaypros for $450. I asked him what capacity they were and he told me 750# so I drive all the way to South Portland to get them and find out they are 1,000#!! And this guy runs an RV repair shop - you think he would know better.

[mhartzel]

Keep in mind that with the SwayPro, (at least on mine) there is a manual torque setting for each bar to control the sway. Iirc, the max torque setting is 60 ft/lb. It will take a little tube to get it dialed in correctly.

The best way to estimate your tongue weight is to take the GVWR and multiply by .12. This will be the theoretical max tongue weight.

When hooking up you will want the bars to be roughly parallel to the ground with a slight bend. Check http://www.blueox.com/c-40-weight-distribution.aspx for more information.

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[GearHd6]

I have the same camper but I use an Equal-i-zer hitch and the 600/6000 hitch works perfectly for that setup.

[BruceM]

Thanks for the help. I went with the 750 lb bars. I will have my 2 Lifeline AGM batteries from our TrailManor mounted on the front behind the propane bottles so those will add some extra weight to the hitch. The side to side storage compartment is located at the front so anything stored in here will also affect hitch weight.
Searching online gave me 2 different dry hitch weights - either 336 lbs or 377 lbs. I know manufacturer's tend to bias their published dry weights towards the light side so figuring on 377 lbs + the extra battery & box, say 50 lbs, maybe 100 lbs in the storage compartment and the 100 lb weight of the hitch and maybe 50 lbs in the rear of the truck I come up with 677 lbs. To go at it from another direction I used mhartzel's suggestion of 12% of the gross trailer weight rating (4,777 lbs) to come up with 573 lbs, also just over the weight rating of the 550 lb bars.