[nickcrowhurst]

I'm grateful for the interest and encouragement from Ryanh, dancepancha, lewster and
markdoane. I'm across the Atlantic, so I've only just woken up in my time zone to see the
recent posts on this thread. I'd like to make a few comments:

1. To dancepancha: as markdoane said, the equations will work with the extended hitch. Just
input the larger value for H, the rear overhang. However, I support markdoane's warning.
Increasing the hitch distance, H, from the rear axle of the tow vehicle will decrease the
stability of the rig. The trailer just has a longer lever with which to rotate the tow
vehicle about its rear axle in a horizontal plane, making "trailer sway" more likely.
Hitches such as the Pullrite and the Hensley Arrow owe their effectiveness in dealing with
sway to their designs which, in effect, move the ball pivot point very close to the rear
axle. You will be going in the opposite direction, and you need to be aware of this. This is
not to say that you should not use an extended hitch. It just means that you need to
consider how close you already are to the maximum safe trailer load for your combination of
tow vehicle, trailer, and their loads. The weigh station, with the rig fully loaded with camper, passengers, fuel, tools etc, together with the loading data for your vehicles, is your starting point, IMHO.

2. To Druupy: I'd appreciate the opportunity to see your calculations. It may be that you
need a softer set of bars, set up with some deflection, rather than a hard set of bars with
virtually no deflection. This could assist a smoother ride. Could you please post the three
dimensions, B, H, and L, so that we can look at them? For those who are new to this thread,
B is the length of one load bar, H is the distance from the hitch ball to the tow vehicle
rear axle, and L is the distance from the hitch coupling to the center of the axle system of
the trailer. You give the tongue weight as 900 pounds. Is this from the Airtream manual, or have you
measured by going to a weigh station, or by using the "lever and bathroom scales method"?
Nick