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Old 10-22-2011, 07:37 PM   #1
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Tension On Chains

So the WDH and its chains, how tight do i want to put the chains. I mean, i saw the guy that did the trailer demo use his hands to fold the chain tensioner up. But later, i did the chain up one more link and used the pry bar to put the chain stays up to the retainer clip. does any of this make sense? I've only had two Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA honest. (good beer BTW)
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Old 10-23-2011, 07:04 AM   #2
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For my minilite I use the third link. It depend how heavy your tonge is. I assume that your roo is the same weight than my minilite at the tonge.
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Old 10-23-2011, 07:33 AM   #3
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The guy at the hitch place gave me a copper pipe wrapped in bubble wrap, and showed me how to use that to fold up the chain tension 'thingy'.
I think mine has 11 links and I either have mine on 3 or 4, depending on how much stuff I have packed in the TT front storage compartment, or if my tanks are empty or full.
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Old 10-23-2011, 08:00 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roopert21bh View Post
So the WDH and its chains, how tight do i want to put the chains. I mean, i saw the guy that did the trailer demo use his hands to fold the chain tensioner up. But later, i did the chain up one more link and used the pry bar to put the chain stays up to the retainer clip. does any of this make sense? I've only had two Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA honest. (good beer BTW)
You need to do the fender measurements as spelled out in your installation booket to determine how tight the chain needs to be. Depending your setup, you could use any one particular lengths of chain to properly distribute the tongue weight. I doubt that being able to lock the snap up bracket by hand is doing much good at all, and even using the "cheater bar" without having to jack the tongue up while connected to the TV is enough tension. I have to jack the connected trailer tongue up to install the chains.

Beware, that if you are using a Reese WDH, you should have no less than 5 links of chain under stress.
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Old 10-23-2011, 10:14 AM   #5
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And you can't go by "how hard it is to pull the snap lock". That is also a function of the orientation of the truck to the trailer and whether you have cranked up your tongue jack or not. I don't use my bar much. I raise the tongue with the jack and just snap them over with my hands.
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Old 10-24-2011, 06:29 AM   #6
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Sometimes all you need to do is snap them up by hand. On my old Award TT I tried snapping them up with the handle and it took to much weight off the rear axle. After that I just snapped them up by hand.
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Old 10-24-2011, 06:55 AM   #7
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It's not a matter of how many someone else has to use.
It's a matter of how many YOUR RIG has to use.
However many it takes to make your rig run level (front end pulled down as much as the rear end) is how many it takes.
Having used a WDH for years, I can tell you that depending on the terrain the rig is parked on at the time, it can be very difficult to lift the shackles and sometimes it is easy enough to do it by hand.
A level parking lot is a great place to do some testing and find out what the link count is for your rig.
Good luck.
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