The unofficial pp users guide...

[PharmGeek]

I'm foggy on the wd cover discussion - if someone makes a YouTube video let me know!

Also - remind me what grease to use for the hitch ball - need to do that stat

[lsbrodsky]

Any good grease will do but I like to use Teflon Hitch Ball grease, white stuff, available at trailer places.

Larry

[Sean Woodruff]

Originally Posted by Alphonse

Be careful ordering the 2.5" receiver end from ProPride. I bought one and it looked great until I went to install it. it was fabricated too wide by an 1/8" where the drop bolts in and the drop would have been sloppy when installed. There are huge forces and moments at this connection of the receiver end and the drop and it must fit properly.

I have been trying to get this squared away with Sean for 9 months now with lots of unfulfilled promises. I am fearful that PP is suffering financial woes.

There are no issues with the 2.5" receivers. There are hundreds of them on the road.

ProPride is as strong financially as ever with more business coming in daily so there's nothing to fear. We've been debt free for 9 years now.

You can return the bar and I'll refund your money immediately. I don't have any within the tolerances you'd like.


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[SteveSueMac]

My 2.5" bar needed a little grinding along all 4 corners to fit into the GM 2.5" receiver. It wasn't a big deal and not much material - took the shop maybe 10 minutes and it's been fine ever since. It is, however, heavy as a boat anchor 😀

Sean - what does the 2.5" bar (with stinger bolted on) weigh? I never put it on a scale but I'm guessing 65 or more?

I just didn't want to do the reducer sleeve. Everything's a compromise 😀

[Sean Woodruff]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

My 2.5" bar needed a little grinding along all 4 corners to fit into the GM 2.5" receiver. It wasn't a big deal and not much material - took the shop maybe 10 minutes and it's been fine ever since. It is, however, heavy as a boat anchor 😀

Sean - what does the 2.5" bar (with stinger bolted on) weigh? I never put it on a scale but I'm guessing 65 or more?

I just didn't want to do the reducer sleeve. Everything's a compromise 😀

It's 55 pounds with the 2.5" receiver end.


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[Alphonse]

Originally Posted by Sean Woodruff

There are no issues with the 2.5" receivers. There are hundreds of them on the road.

ProPride is as strong financially as ever with more business coming in daily so there's nothing to fear. We've been debt free for 9 years now.

You can return the bar and I'll refund your money immediately. I don't have any within the tolerances you'd like.


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Sean, Here are two of the photos of the receiver dimensional problem I sent you November last year.

You agreed (in writing) to replace it. You also agreed that I could send back the defective one in the box that the replacement came in. You didn’t send it, I finally got in touch with you after multiple attempts and you told me you the replacement was at the powder coaters and it would be sent soon. It didn’t come. Next round you told me you had sold the replacement to someone else and you would make a new one. Multiple promises by you to send a new one and almost ¾ of a year waiting, replacement never sent.

Now you announce here that you can’t make it to the tolerances that I desire! After all this time, you also now say send it back for a refund! Wow!

By the way, I would then be out freight cost times two.

This is all sad because it is a nice looking piece but it was simply made too wide. I sincerely hope your future is not as at risk as your behavior indicates.

I wish you well.

[Sean Woodruff]

Originally Posted by Alphonse

Sean, Here are two of the photos of the receiver dimensional problem I sent you November last year.

You agreed (in writing) to replace it. You also agreed that I could send back the defective one in the box that the replacement came in. You didn’t send it, I finally got in touch with you after multiple attempts and you told me you the replacement was at the powder coaters and it would be sent soon. It didn’t come. Next round you told me you had sold the replacement to someone else and you would make a new one. Multiple promises by you to send a new one and almost ¾ of a year waiting, replacement never sent.

Now you announce here that you can’t make it to the tolerances that I desire! After all this time, you also now say send it back for a refund! Wow!

By the way, I would then be out freight cost times two.

This is all sad because it is a nice looking piece but it was simply made too wide. I sincerely hope your future is not as at risk as your behavior indicates.

I wish you well.

How about tightening the bolts to 150 ft-lbs and then showing a photo?

With the amount of heat applied to that part in welding I've checked multiple pieces we've made and that is the tolerance. The 2" bar that goes between the plates can also be up to 1/32" over 2". If the plates were made 2" apart then a 2" bar may not fit between the plates and the entire piece would be scrap. There is also 4 layers of powder coat on top of the as much as 1/32" oversize.

I just refunded the cost of the part and the shipping to your card you used to purchase it. You can keep the part. You're not out anything.




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[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Sean Woodruff

It's 55 pounds with the 2.5" receiver end.





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Thanks - I must be getting weaker - I overestimated by 10# 😀

[Sean Woodruff]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Thanks - I must be getting weaker - I overestimated by 10# 😀

Do 25 reps a day and it will feel lighter in no time.

[BearGhost]

Originally Posted by BearGhost

Hi, I've been lurking around this thread for quite a while and I've read almost the whole thing. Great info! I finally purchased a slightly used PP and got it installed. I've taken a couple trips so far and experienced a lot of porpoising and my truck feels very "loose". The sway portion of the hitch seems to be fine, but the weight distribution part is where I'm having problems. I cant seem to get enough weight taken off the rear axle of my truck. It's sagging about 1-1/2", and despite how much I crank the jacks, it really doesn't change. I've moved the jack links to the lowest hole (3rd from top) and have the jacks cranked to 8". The trailer is pretty level, but it's sitting about 1" low in the front. I've followed all the PP instructions very carefully and took all measurements, calculations ect. before beginning the install. The calculations told me I needed the longer drop stinger to work with my 7" lifted truck. My bars are the 1400lb bars but seem to do very little. My cheap $200 WDH that was previously on the trailer worked great for WD and I could raise the rear of the truck back to unloaded height easily, but swayed like crazy! I'm not sure if my 1400lb bars are wore out, or if I don't have something set up right. My regular RV forum wasn't much help so hopefully you guys will have some input or see something wrong with my install. Thanks!







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jack links- 3rd hole, jacks cranked up 8"
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Well I recently returned from a trip after installing a new class 5 receiver. I believe that cured some of my problems. My WD bars seem to do a better job now, but I'm still unable to level the truck out to unloaded ride height. It's sagging about 1-2" in rear. The WD bars lift the trailer hitch/pp head as I crank them but hardly even affect the ride height of the truck. After messing with it before my trip last weekend I got it as close as I could with the trailer level, jacks cranked up about 6-1/2", fully loaded. The "porpoise" bouncing is alot better due to the heavy duty receiver I'm guessing, but still felt very unstable. I kept a close eye on what was going on with the trailer and noticed it swaying about 6-10" back and forth with no cross winds and no other traffic going 60mph on flat ground! I thought the PP was "sway eliminating hitch"? Not on this trip! I stopped and unloaded my 4 seat polaris rzr and turned it around with the engine over the axles. Seemed to help some but still was pretty wild. After white knucklin the rest of the trip, Im still looking for a cause to my handling problems. Anyone have any ideas? I had all tires set to max cold pressure psi, airbags on truck set to 50-60 lbs, and everything adjusted pretty good on the PP (I thought ). I'm guessing I need to make a trip to the scales and maybe answer some questions. This is really getting frustrating and I never had this hard of a time towing with a $200 WD hitch. Maybe I need to ditch the pp and go with a reese dual cam! Hate to do that, but I have some long trips planned and really need to get this resolved.

[rmkrum]

Need to verify AS hitch weight, and make sure the WD bars match. If they are too light, you won't get enough WD to get the TV front end planted better. That may be what's causing the porpoising.

I'm not sure why you are still getting sway unless something is flexing. . Call or email Sean Woodruff at ProPride and ask him directly. He stands behind the product. You may have an install issue.

My rig does not sway at all, and I can easily adjust the jacks to kill any porpoising. Only takes about 1/2 inch. Jack link, if I remember correctly should be in center hole. Check the instructions. Sean can send you a PDF if you need it.


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[SteveSueMac]

(On edit - your bars even with 8" of lift - don't appear to be flexed much if at all. Mine with 6" of lift look bent and arced. For some reason, it seems those jacks aren't actually pulling on the bars much....)

Personally, I'd be less worried about the rear of the truck dropping an inch than I would about the front of the truck being lifted up an inch. But that's all speculation - do you have any scale tickets?

It's hard to understand what's going on without those numbers. You may be too light on the tongue, you may not be restoring enough to the steer axle, any number of things could be off in your setup. Scale tickets of the truck alone, the truck with trailer attached but no WD applied, and the truck with trailer attached and say 7" of WD applied will give a lot of information folks can review to help assess what might be going on.

[BearGhost]

Thanks for the input guys. The first chance I get I'm going to load up and go down to the scales. The manufacturer specs shows my tounge weight at 860 and my dry trailer weight at 7900. My spring bars are the 1400# ones. According to my calculations and the added weight of the PP on the a frame, I'm about at the perfect 12-15% of tounge weight. But as stated, scale tickets will tell the story. I'll report back after a trip to the scales.

[KYAirstream]

Scale weights are important and get weights for no WD and 3 other readings at 1" increments. It's interesting to see how a small change can have a large effect.

Your hitch box and stinger look nice and level. If you need to introduce more weight distribution you might try adding some washers to the stinger and/or lowering the bar down a hole. I had to add three washers to mine awhile back to get it to look level like yours once the WD was engaged.

Since then, I put on new axles that raised the trailer by slightly more than 3 inches, so I raised the stinger about 3 inches as well. However, I'm now getting more porpoising than before, even with about 1.5" more WD engaged. Consequently, I'm going to drop the stinger a hole to introduce more WD. I checked with Sean as well and he agreed.

[dkottum]

BearGhost, you definitely need to add more washers under the rivet in the hitch bar to get downward tilt of the w.d. bars. The w.d. bars must be tilted down toward the back even after w.d. is applied to maintain enough lift going down the road, to prevent the "Hensley bump", for the hitch to assist stability in turns, and for the w.d. bars to help the trailer return to center after turns.

The hitch does eliminate sway, I understand your truck is stable but the trailer is moving in yaw. A couple of things come to mind. There is a good chance the trailer is loaded too heavy toward the rear, and also the tongue weight is too light. A poorly balanced trailer perhaps, the heaviest equipment should be over or near the axles. The bed of the truck may be overloaded, especially in combination with passengers, gear, and hitch weight. And the tires on the truck may have too much sidewall flex; the ProPride stabilizes the combo by applying all sideways movement of the trailer tongue to the truck's rear axle. If the tires are flexing side-to-side (or if there is any looseness in an aftermarket lift system), the pivot point projection function of the hitch is compromised.

[KYAirstream]

As long as enough WD is applied, why would it matter if the bars aren't tilted toward the back?

Do you have a pic you can show?

Mine towed great with my bars angled forward, and it seems like my WD jacks would have to start engaging almost immediately if they were to be angled toward the back.

[KYAirstream]

[SMLJeep]

We are taking delivery of our new 2017 27FB FC this Saturday and I will be installing the PP at the dealer. My TV is a 2015 Ram 2500. I have read this thread from beginning to end and gone over the PP installation instruction. As the son of a mechanic and an ME with 30+ years of building special equipment for military field use, I plan for the unexpected. My question is has anyone here installed the PP on the same TV and AS? If so what any input would be useful.

Thanks

[rmkrum]

Needed a floor jack and a small bottle jack to hold it up while I connected parts.

You will need a 250 foot-pound torque wrench 1/2" drive plus the usual assortment of sockets and hand tools. Helps to have an assistant.

You will also need a grease gun and appropriate grease for the ball and bar ends. Latex or similar gloves if you want to keep hands somewhat clean.

Follow the install and setup directions in the manual. It's no biggie to do if you follow the directions.

Myself and 19-year-old daughter put ours on.


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[DoublTrouble]

I'm curious if anyone has experienced scraping on tight, sloped entrance ramps. I am not exactly sure but I think the U bolt on the curbside WD bar may have touched the road surface..... anyone else?
I don't think the sound is from the Tow vehicle.