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Old 05-08-2018, 07:07 PM   #21
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Originally Posted by Olotti View Post
When hooked or not. Unhooked and leveled it’s 22” on the ball with the wdh it’s 23”.


Unhooked height is what I was talking about. I don’t think you should have the TT higher when hooked up. If you are at 22” unhooked and 23” hooked you basically have no squat to it. Are the bars bent? I’m at a loss really. If your TV is level not hooked up and you have measured the TV front and rear.

Measure TT coupler height and set ball 1” higher than the TT.

Once that is done make sure you have that measurement ball 1” higher. Then hook up trailer.

Make sure chain brackets are at the set distance from the center of the TT coupler and hook those up and start at link 9. Measure TV wheel well height again and see if you are close to normal height.

Check TT and TV for level. If not level or to high in front go to link 10 and see where you are at.

Also if you have some lumber and a bathroom scale make a quick tongue scale and see what you are loaded at.

I know you have most likely done most of this already but this is pretty much how I had to do mine from scratch. I took everything apart like it just came to me in the box.

Try sending us a few pictures of the set up maybe we can figure out from those. Hopefully we can help otherwise I would call Blue Ox and see what they say.

Tim
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Old 05-08-2018, 08:16 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by mopwr4me2003 View Post
Unhooked height is what I was talking about. I don’t think you should have the TT higher when hooked up. If you are at 22” unhooked and 23” hooked you basically have no squat to it. Are the bars bent? I’m at a loss really. If your TV is level not hooked up and you have measured the TV front and rear.

Measure TT coupler height and set ball 1” higher than the TT.

Once that is done make sure you have that measurement ball 1” higher. Then hook up trailer.

Make sure chain brackets are at the set distance from the center of the TT coupler and hook those up and start at link 9. Measure TV wheel well height again and see if you are close to normal height.

Check TT and TV for level. If not level or to high in front go to link 10 and see where you are at.

Also if you have some lumber and a bathroom scale make a quick tongue scale and see what you are loaded at.

I know you have most likely done most of this already but this is pretty much how I had to do mine from scratch. I took everything apart like it just came to me in the box.

Try sending us a few pictures of the set up maybe we can figure out from those. Hopefully we can help otherwise I would call Blue Ox and see what they say.

Tim
Sorry I’m looking at my notes and heck I’m confusing myself. I did this all this afternoon at the storage where we keep the camper on level ground. Unhitched it took ball height, leveled tt and dole checked by placing small level on various parts of the tongue and floor inside the tt then took the measurement to top of coupler, hitched the tt up and took wheel measurements then parked it. I remembered when I measured the coupler that it was within BO specs for placement as they advise doing what you say and placing the ball 1-2” higher than coupler height.

The other thing I noticed with the tt hooked up with wdh when I placed the level at the tongue is was just ever slightly low and same with front end of tt when placed the level on the floor and it’s also evidenced by the 1/2 diff in height of the tt frame from from to back, 24” at the front, 24 1/2” at the back. Don’t know if his means anything as far as ball height and placement.
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Old 05-08-2018, 08:23 PM   #23
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Felt excessive bouncing while towing tt.

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Originally Posted by Olotti View Post
Sorry I’m looking at my notes and heck I’m confusing myself. I did this all this afternoon at the storage where we keep the camper on level ground. Unhitched it took ball height, leveled tt and dole checked by placing small level on various parts of the tongue and floor inside the tt then took the measurement to top of coupler, hitched the tt up and took wheel measurements then parked it. I remembered when I measured the coupler that it was within BO specs for placement as they advise doing what you say and placing the ball 1-2” higher than coupler height.



The other thing I noticed with the tt hooked up with wdh when I placed the level at the tongue is was just ever slightly low and same with front end of tt when placed the level on the floor and it’s also evidenced by the 1/2 diff in height of the tt frame from from to back, 24” at the front, 24 1/2” at the back. Don’t know if his means anything as far as ball height and placement.


Sorry my friend I know it’s frustrating. Time to take a step back deep breath and come back to it tomorrow.

I would call blue ox and see what they say to do. There has got to be a simple reason to your issue. If your numbers for measurement are correct the only logical thing left is spring bars, suspension and tires for the most part. I’m personally feeling you are over weight for the bars you have so without that tongue weight you are just guessing. You will figure it out.

If you were closer I would offer a hand to help.

Tim
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Old 05-08-2018, 08:29 PM   #24
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Sorry my friend I know it’s frustrating. Time to take a step back deep breath and come back to it tomorrow.

I would call blue ox and see what they say to do. There has got to be a simple reason to your issue. If your numbers for measurement are correct the only logical thing left is spring bars, suspension and tires for the most part. I’m personally feeling you are over weight for the bars you have so without that tongue weight you are just guessing. You will figure it out.

If you were closer I would offer a hand to help.

Tim
I just want to figure it out so I know I’ll have a nice smooth ride when we take the camper out. Idk when I figured it but at some point I figured my tongue weight at 1050lbs so that’s why I went with the bigger bars. Even in BO’s manual there’s a q/a section and one thing is if u have a rough ride the bars may be oversized but until I get it to the scale like u said before I’m just guessing. Thanks for the help
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Old 05-08-2018, 08:53 PM   #25
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If your water tank is over the axle try filling it. This helped greatly with our 25rb
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Old 05-08-2018, 10:39 PM   #26
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If your water tank is over the axle try filling it. This helped greatly with our 25rb
Hmmm I’ll look into this. I’m thinking now after some reading and you tubing the tongue weight is to light, my 1500 bars may be to heavy as even at a loaded 6800 lbs and that’s prob an overestimation as we travel light our tongue weight would be at 850lbs so there to much slack in the bars even though there’s a bow to em the weights not there. I based that off the 6800lb tt x .13% formula.
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Old 05-09-2018, 06:24 AM   #27
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If you still have the factory rear shocks, install a pair of Bilstein 5100's. Very easy and inexpensive DIY upgrade on a F150. This can only help.
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Old 05-09-2018, 07:12 AM   #28
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Also agree with water in front tank. On our MiniLite if I didn't keep about 3 inches or so of water, I would get lots of bouncing on the side roads. Works great for us.
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Old 05-09-2018, 10:00 AM   #29
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IMO you need to step back and breathe.
Start from the beginning and get a bench mark to set up.
Weigh the TT tongue 1st to see if you have the correct TW. You can do it with a simple bathroom scale and some wood. https://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-to-...ue-weight.aspx.
Once you've determined that you have the correct TW then proceed.
Measure the front of the truck when unhitched.
Next get the TT parallel to the ground.
Measure the coupler then set the ball 1-2" higher.
Now drop the TT coupler on the ball with no WD.
Re-measure the front fender.
You need to be 1/2 the distance from the unloaded # to the loaded unhitched #.
The closer to the unloaded number the better.
Now start adjusting the WDH until you get the front fender as close to but not under the unloaded measurement.
Next re-check the TT to see if it's parallel to the ground. Adjust the up and down part on the WDH as necessary.

FWIW I had a similar setup and never got rid of the bouncy jerky stuff. I tried every trick in the book. None ever completely got rid of the jerky bounce. I attributed it to a poor design of the TT.
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Old 05-10-2018, 01:24 AM   #30
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I’m thinking now after some reading and you tubing the tongue weight is to light, my 1500 bars may be to heavy as even at a loaded 6800 lbs and that’s prob an overestimation as we travel light our tongue weight would be at 850lbs so there to much slack in the bars even though there’s a bow to em the weights not there.
You may be onto something there. After sifting through dozens of threads on the Internet about WDH setup I noticed there are a lot of people that can describe in excruciating detail how to get the weight distribution right but most don't grasp why manufacturers bother to offer different spring bars. You could use I-beams instead of spring bars and get the weight distribution right, it just wouldn't drive that well on the road.
Most everybody has heard of SAE J2807, mostly how it relates to towing loads uphill, but it also has a section "combination handling" which deals with front axle load recovery via WDH and how it affects handling. In a nutshell, the stiffer the WDH is for a given tongue weight, the less compliant the rear axle of the tow vehicle becomes. Less compliant meaning harsher ride and more prone to losing adhesion (resulting in oversteer and possible jackknifing in turns)
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Old 05-11-2018, 11:46 AM   #31
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One thing I forgot to ask you is did you get the right hitch for your trailer coupler. They make different heads for different coupler set ups. If you got one for a underslung set up and you do not have that you will be off on everything for your TV and TT. Just look into it to make sure.
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Old 05-12-2018, 06:03 PM   #32
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I believe you tongue weight is over estimated. I also have a 26dbh. My actual tongue weight is 931. So if your an inch high above level with a light tongue, that should be your problem. Drop your ball and try at link 8. Bet that works for you. I use a equalizer e2 with 1000 lb trunnions. I was towing with 2003 F150. I now tow with ram 2500. I now realize, the F150 just was not enough truck.
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Old 05-12-2018, 07:01 PM   #33
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One thing I forgot to ask you is did you get the right hitch for your trailer coupler. They make different heads for different coupler set ups. If you got one for a underslung set up and you do not have that you will be off on everything for your TV and TT. Just look into it to make sure.
I bought the hitch and the bars as one set off amazon. It’s the 7 hole hitch set with the holes pointing down and the ball is set with the first bolt at hole 2 and 2nd bolt at hole 4.
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Old 05-12-2018, 07:09 PM   #34
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I believe you tongue weight is over estimated. I also have a 26dbh. My actual tongue weight is 931. So if your an inch high above level with a light tongue, that should be your problem. Drop your ball and try at link 8. Bet that works for you. I use a equalizer e2 with 1000 lb trunnions. I was towing with 2003 F150. I now tow with ram 2500. I now realize, the F150 just was not enough truck.
Did you use a scale to get the weight, homemade or cat scale? If I use 7000# max at 13% my tw is 910lbs and I’ll say we prob don’t come close to 7k max prob closer to 6600-6700# as we travel really light. We just pack groceries, firewood in the truck, clothes and misc stuff and that’s it, two full propane tanks too. So if I go 6700# @ 13% that’s 870# which would mean the 1500# bars are really taking off that tongue weight if I’m correct. I’m gonna try next trip moving to link 9 but if that doesn’t work I’m gonna get the 1000# bars.
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