Upgrading Spring Bars for Husky Centerline TS 32217

[DunnDeal]

When we purchased our Rockwood Mini Lite LT2104s (December 2019) we also purchased the Husky Centerline TS 32217 WDH (600-800 spring bars) which was recommended by our dealer.

Our tongue weight is right at about 750 lb (I am using a tongue weight scale) and I don't feel that I'm getting the benefit of the weight distribution hitch that I should be getting.

We would like to upgrade the Spring Bars to the 800-1200 lbs bars (emailing Husky support they replied back that the upgraded spring bars could be used with my current head unit).

Trailer info from brochure:
Weight empty: 4842 lbs
Fully loaded: 6774 lbs

I don't travel with water and my weight is around 5800 to 6000 (I have had the trailer weighted at the scales)

Does anyone see an issue with this?

[SeaDog]

what is not happening the you feel should. Your current bars are within the specs. If you cannot get the desired transfer of weight to the front wheels with these bars then the heavier bars would be needed.

[IchLiebeBier]

The weight you need to figure out is trailer tongue weight while loaded, PLUS the weight of anything behind the truck's rear axle. So if you add cargo in the truck and the hitch head, you'll easily push past 800 lbs.

When we first got our new trailer, I was going to try to use my E2 1000 pound trunnion bars, since my tongue weight was 845 pounds empty. After I loaded everything up I was just over 1000 lbs on the tongue weight. It caused us to porpoise going down the road if I hit a bump. I had to pull over and adjust the L brackets to get home, but I immediately ordered the E4 with 1400 lbs bar.

It also allowed me to put more weight in the front of the trailer, which also helped distribute the weight a little better.

EDIT: what I'm saying is, don't do what I did and try to put weight in the rear of the trailer to lighten the load off the tongue. It could throw off the tongue weight ratio and cause issues. I'd upgrade to the heavier bars if the weight range covers your actual hitch weight (but stay within 10-15% for tongue weight)

[clarkbre]

IchLiebeBier is spot on regarding weight behind the rear axle of the TV.

I too have the Husky Centerline TS and was sold based on GVW as opposed to actual tongue weight. The original set up was spot on regarding weight and transfer; however, it still felt a bit squishy. My tongue weight was right at 800 so anything else in the bed and the hitch weight contributed to the squishy feel.

After upgrading to the 800-1200 bars, it made a world of difference and allowed the hitch to be dialed in even more as opposed to the bars being maxed out.

Here's the part I got. You need 2. Replacement Spring Bar for Husky Center Line Weight Distribution System - Qty 1

[DunnDeal]

Thank you Seadog for your time and response. The feel is not there and being at the upper end of the range on the spring bars I think it's the best solution to upgrade.

Thanks IchLieberBier... that's the same with me when I would go over a bump...thanks again for your time

Thanks Clarkbre for sharing your experience and the link.....when we get back home I will order a set

[Boomerweps]

I lost one of my bars once. Likely my failure to doublecheck the fit and pin engagement. Anyway, got a replacement fast via eBay for $65 or so shipped.
Edit: Did you try moving the bar brackets on the TT frame up one notch? Might be all you need is more tension. I lift my truck rear up when mounting my bars connecting up.

[DunnDeal]

Boomerweps.... I would be concerned about putting too much weight on the front of the truck by raising the brackets up and also it is already hard to raise the jack to my current setting to install the bars..... thanks for the suggestion

[Go West]

DunnDeal, I use the same hitch with 600-800 lb bars for a trailer that is very close to yours in specs. (My brochure says 4777 lbs unloaded.) My actual hitch weight by Sherline scale is 760. The 600-800 lb bars return 100% of weight to my front axle. I use three washers in the hitch head, and the bar support brackets are set so the bars are parallel with the trailer frame (five holes showing). I would first try: raising the support brackets and if that's not effective, add another washer in the head assembly. (My hitch came with 4 washers; do you have all four currently installed?) If you still don't achieve the needed weight transfer, then obviously the next step would be switching to the higher-powered bars. Hope this helps.

[Go West]

DunnDeal, I just read your reply above where you would be concerned about raising the support bars because it is already difficult to jack up the trailer to your current setting. Prior to hitching / un-hitching the Centerline TS, I roll my truck's rear axle onto 2 1/2" shop ramps so that I'm not jacking up my trailer quite so much. The ramps give a headstart on loading (and unloading) the bars & therefore reduces the distance needed to lift the rear of the tow vehicle. The ramps don't weigh much and it's become an easy step in my sequence to hitch / unhitch. Just a suggestion you might consider. These are the ramps: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[DunnDeal]

Thank you Go West for your post. It gave me a chance to update. I think you are spot on with your detailed information. I took Clarkbre's link and ordered two replacement bars and upon arriving home (we were out camping when I posted about the spring bars) I looked at my current spring bars and they stamped with 800 to 1200 so now I believe the dealer put too heavy of a spring bar on our setup (my paperwork shows the 600-800 bars being installed).

A big shout out to eTrailer they let me cancel the order and change it to the 600 to 800 spring bars (they should arrive sometime next week).

When I got home I used my Sherline scale and my tongue weight was 750 (so we are very much the same setup). I have 4 washers on my head and are 4 holes showing on the support brackets.

I will try the new spring bars with my current setup and will try your recommended suggestions if the ride is not an improvement (I will post the results).

Thanks again to everyone......

[Treybecky]

Ive had 800-1200 for 2 yrs, works great. This may help, tho long winded...
I dont know if my weights are reasonable, but heres what I have if it helps you make a decision...

My personal advice , to any Husky CL owners, I called the factory, and a lady (Briana) at customer service warranty was 110% helpful in dialing in my adjustments. She sent me a 4 page template to fill out, and after I sent it back filled out, she told me exactly how many washers, and what goes where. It took me 3 times of remeasuring and switching configurations until I got it perfect, but she was very patient. I see why even with starting with help of a really good RV shop, its tedious and I had to tweek it to get the WDH perfect.

... partially from a past blog post:

I have a 2019 Geo Pro G19FD, and am at the top end of Factory max trailer weight. Factory says 2840 lbs dry +1060 lbs of goodies = 3900 lbs. I loaded everything up in the trailer and the truck that I could think of, and filled it with fresh water (I already reinforced the FW tank with 3" Aluminum angle, and 5 ribs). BW and GW tanks were empty. I only drive full of water a few times a year, but wanted to see where I stand. I have GY 15" Endurance tires @ 80psi (load range E), and a Husky CL TS WDH with 800-1200 bars (perfectly adjusted, after a lot of work). 4 Trojan 6V batteries on the A frame just behind the 2 full propane tanks. Has Torflex single 3500 lb axle. Tongue weight is at 800 lbs. (18.5%). TV is Ford 2016 F150 4x4 short bed Crewcab with tow package.

Sticker says Trailer GVWR is 3890 lbs. (based probably with cheap factory tires)
Heres my old weights from last year, I will reweight and remeasure just to see again this year...

Took to the CAT scales, and this is what I got:
Truck weight with WDH engaged: 6880 lbs.
Truck weight without WDH engaged: 7080 lbs
Trailer axle with WDH engaged: 3740 lbs.
Trailer axle without WDH engaged: 3520 lbs.

BUT, the weight calculator comes up with: ( Actual Weights - Travel Trailer/Bumper Pull Weights from CAT Scales - Towing Planner) says my camper weight is 4320 lbs, also says Truck only weight is 6280 lbs
(Gross combined weight 10620 lbs.) All the scale weights include the trailer tires in a weight tag, which I never see anyone saying anything about why they are figured in.
Lots of numbers, ...who has a clear head to explain the results, please.
(My concern is that if I seldom drive with water, which even brings my numbers down), without water, can I subtract the water weight (250 lbs.), and the tires (maybe 150 lbs), to realistically see normally what I weigh? Looks like I'm safely under the max Trailer and axle recommendations. I know the larger safety margin the better, and the rig drives smooth and sweet, I keep it under 65mph, just wish I could get more than the paltry 10.5-11 mpg! I was told as long as my Torflex axle maintains a slight upward bow forever, as designed, I'm not doing bad. Any thoughts much appreciated!
PS. Hope we get to go camping someday after the curve flattens out !! Looks like summer is totally shot maybe, still dont want to believe it. ;-)

[DunnDeal]

Thank you Treybecky for your time in posting. I like you have been trying to adjust my Husky WDH pretty much since our 1st trip out (we have taken 6 short trips since our purchase this last December). We have dialed in the fenders heights before and after connection (front is within a 1/4" and the rear within 1").

Upon ordering the new spring bars I read some of the Q&A's on the eTrailer site and there were several statements about using the 800-1200 spring bars with trailers below their range:

"You may experience a bouncy ride with the heavier rated spring bars when your trailer is empty however you can remove the spring bars when it's empty if the ride quality is too bad."

"If you were to use the 800-1,200 lb spring bars you have now you would likely experience a very harsh ride which could then result in more wear on the vehicle/trailer."

"When empty the tongue weight is not high enough for an 800 to 1,200 pound system and that is going to produce a stiff ride which you have experienced."

We are looking forward to trying the new spring bars.

Thanks again......

[alexcomp]

Originally Posted by DunnDeal

When we purchased our Rockwood Mini Lite LT2104s (December 2019) we also purchased the Husky Centerline TS 32217 WDH (600-800 spring bars) which was recommended by our dealer.

Our tongue weight is right at about 750 lb (I am using a tongue weight scale) and I don't feel that I'm getting the benefit of the weight distribution hitch that I should be getting.

We would like to upgrade the Spring Bars to the 800-1200 lbs bars (emailing Husky support they replied back that the upgraded spring bars could be used with my current head unit).

Trailer info from brochure:
Weight empty: 4842 lbs
Fully loaded: 6774 lbs

I don't travel with water and my weight is around 5800 to 6000 (I have had the trailer weighted at the scales)

Does anyone see an issue with this?

My recent experience may be instructive.

We recently purchased a Rockwood 2509S – 2019 model. It is around 5100 pounds dry and consequently is in the same weight category as your unit.

I purchased the unit used and it came with a Recurve r3 weight distributing hitch with 1000 pound spring bars.

We drove it home 145 miles primarily on interstate roads and were absolutely shocked at how poorly the trailer rode when going over any kind of seams in the interstate road. It pitched and wallowed up and down in almost a frightening manner. We thought we had made a terrible mistake. The tires were properly aired and the hitch seem to be correctly adjusted.

I had conversation with a technical representative from Camco and received the following information:

With Camco, a 1000 pound spring bar is actually rated for as much as 1200 pounds! As this capacity relates to tongue weight and my tongue weight is probably only around 600 to 700 pounds, I was badly overmatched.

If you over match the weight capacity of your spring bars to the camper, bad things happen. Essentially the underweight camper is unable to ever really compress the spring bar and you have something much like a rigid stick coming off your bumper. This exactly explains the bounding up and down over any kind of surface irregularities – it's as though you had springs and shocks in your vehicle suspension that would not compress. Imagine what that would be like

When I pointed this out to the installing RV dealer, they did me the favor of sending me a pair of 600 pound spring bars and it solved the problem. The moral to this story is that the old verity "if a little is good a lot is better" is not true in some cases.

That being said, for anyone with the need, (and that would mean a trailer > 9000 pounds in my opinion) I have a set of 1000 pound r3 spring bars less than one year old that I will sell for $90 plus shipping.

[DunnDeal]

Thank you Alexcomp for your post. I was and am experiencing the same as you and as you can see from the start of this post I felt that I had the wrong spring bars and needed to upgrade (thank goodness they stamp the bars with their weight limits). Upon removing them I saw that my spring bars were already upgraded to the 800-1200 spring bars.

I will update my post once I get the new 600-800# spring bars and take it for a spin.

[thebrakeman]

My recommendation for picking a WDH kit size is to take the estimated or actual TW, add 100 lbs, then round up to the next available size. In your case, the dealer should have known that 800 lbs max was not enough. Being that close to the max rating often causes the bars to act more like springs and less like rigid bars, causing "porpoising". Yes, if you can get away with a bar upgrade without upgrading the head, go for it.

[ChildeRoland]

@DunnDeal, did you ever get the new bars? If so, how did it ride?

[DunnDeal]

I did receive the 600 to 800 pound spring bars from the dealer at no charge (they agreed that I should have received the 600 to 800 pound spring bars instead the 800-1200 bars). The manager said that it shouldn't make a difference. Because of Covid-19 we have not be able to get back out with the trailer until this last week when we made a trip about 50 miles from the house. The new bars were a world of difference. Using the fresh water (this is important because of the fresh water tank is in the front of the trailer) I try to get the 13 percent tongue weight (around 750) putting me within the 600-800 range.

[ChildeRoland]

Nice! Thanks for the update.