Deep drop WD hitch shank ground clearance?

[mountainboy]

I have several vehicles that I tow with and some are higher than others. I have a lifted pick up that I may want to tow the Airstream or another trailer with from time to time which would require a 6 or 7" drop to get level.

I have a welded hitch shank/head for my Trunion WD hitch now that just doesn't offer any flexibillity. I'm looking into buying a deep drop shank with a bolt on head that will allow me to go as low as about a 6" drop all the way up to 0 so that I could use it for all of my vehicles by moving the head up or down on the shank.

But...the deep drop shank is about 12" overall in depth so I'm starting to wonder whether it would hang too low on my lower vehicles that have about an 18" high receiver (from ground to top of the receiver). These trucks only need about a 2" drop. It would only give me about 6" ground clearance below the bottom of the shank.

Has anyone had experience using a deep drop shank on lower vehicles? Any bottoming out situations? Is 6" of clearance too little under the ball?

I usually tow with a Ford Excursion....where I really don't even need the WD hitch but I figure I might as well use it if I have it.

Thanks,
Dean

[SteveH]

I really have no experience with the extreem drop hitches, but would think that 6" clearance would not be enough. I would think it would be draging in lots of situations.

Honestly, If I were in your situation, I would buy two different length drop shanks. Maybe even two complete shank and hitch head setups so you would not have to go thru all the angle adjustment every time you changed vehicles.

[mountainboy]

Thanks for the input. I think you are right. I ended up buying a standard shank set up for now that only drops to about 2.5". This will work for my main tow vehicles. I'll get another deeper drop model for the taller truck.

And as rediculous as it sounds you can buy a whole new WD set up (spring bars, brackets and all) for about the same price as just buying a shank and head...which is what I did.

Interestingly though...after installing it I took some measurements. The spring bars hang down pretty low anyway. Those were only 7.5 inches off the ground and what hangs lower is the spare tire mount under the Airstream which is only about 7" off the ground.

So...you could go with a pretty deep drop shank without getting any lower than the trailer already is.

Dean

[Coastalview]

Dean, How high is your center line of your receiver from a level surface on your lifted pickup?
We're using a drop down shank made by Reese. Adjustable up or down by 6" inches even though the shank overall length is 12" inches. Our center line height of our receiver is 21" inches on our stock truck. Using a drop down shank even of this size leaves us 11" of vertical clearance under the shank. We have ours bolted on the lowest position giving us a top of ball height of 18" inches.
I've seen larger drop shanks before but have felt that there are some leverage limits being applied to the shank that could be exceeded.
Jeff

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, my shank used to drag once in a while, usually going down my driveway. It had two holes showing below where mine is set up. I cut about 2"s off of the bottom of the shank and now only one unused hole shows and no more dragging. Click to enlarge picture and you will see my embelical cord almost hides the bottom unused hole in the shank.

[kstampa]

dean
I have a 10" suspension lift on my f250 and the same drop hitch that coastalview posted. if your still looking for one for your taller truck, that one works great. good luck.