When I picked up my trailer at the end of March, it was the first time I had used a WDH. No measurements taken by me at the time; don't know about the dealer tech (an 'old hand', not a 'kid'), but the TV and trailer were both level or pretty close to it. That being said, I thought the front 'felt' a little light as I drove it home (about 70 miles, and a little of that was faster than 65 mph (again, ignorance.)
I've towed a couple addn'l times since then, and it seems like my front end hasn't felt light during either towing session.
I haven't adjusted the hitch at either the tongue or receiver end. What *is* probably different is the tongue height at which I attempt to attach the bars.
Since I have a power jack, the tech advised, "let the equipment do the work", rather than struggle / gorilla the bars on. The guy at the storage facility said the exact same thing, ironically. And I do try to do that. But of course, I've tried different heights to see what makes it 'easiest' to attach the bars.
(That, plus learning from another camper that you should *not* have stabilizers lowered while trying to unhook the ball from the coupler. After learning that, unhooking is *much* easier for me now.)
Anyway...
Question: Assuming no other adjustments being made, can the bars provide more / less weight transfer, depending on how high the tongue is when they're attached? Thinking the answer is "no, of course not" - but I don't think I'd adjust to the feel of a 'light' front end that quickly, either.
Also, a couple of observations from my end...
- I've found (counterintuitively, IMO) that having the tongue (a little) *higher* makes it *easier* to attach the bars. I can tell by observation that at least part of that is that my hooking tool has more room to work.
- Also, quite by accident, I discovered that if I squat, and simply stand from that squat (while holding / moving the hooking tool appropriately), that it takes almost *zero* effort to put the bars into place (e.g.; legs are doing the lift, instead of my arms / back - but I felt zero resistance in my legs, even.) Was fairly amazing to discover that, and will be sure to try and repeat that method if I can, to quantify it.
Wondering if anyone else uses that second method for putting the bars in place - I haven't seen it mentioned. (Of note - My hitch is also a little different in that: a) it uses round bars, and b) those bars attach over the top of the frame, rather than under it (so no chains))
As for measurements (fender height) - every time I remember to do it, I'm not near the trailer (I store it, due to HOA restrictions). But I'll get it done soon, as I want to adjust the hitch optimally if there's room to improve.
Finally...not sure if the following will be helpful to newer (?) trailer owners, but I'll share...
As an aside, with 'no bars', there is definitely some sag / bounce (I did this once to fetch a full tank of fresh water at a 'pump hydrant' in a site that had only electric pedestals; doubt I went much more than 10mph in the park while doing this. It was definitely *controllable* at that speed, but I know I'd never run w/o the bars on a public road in traffic. (I did have my chains & emergency brake cable attached, just in case.) Sway control was disengaged.
I even got a chance to use 'one bar', because I bent a clevis pin backing up (the hitch is marketed as capable of doing it; I suppose they don't expect the owner to practically jackknife while backing, either.) Yes, I can imagine the tension on that bar, to have bent a 1/4" pin. Sounded pretty loud when the bar disengaged, too)
Anyway...with 1 of 2 bars attached (on public semi-rural roads, up to ~ 45mph), I didn't detect actual 'bouncing'...but there was definitely some squat / sag. Sway was also disengaged during this episode as well)
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