Opening tailgate when my Airstream is hooked up to the pickup?

[TravelerNash]

Newbie question. The distance between ball of the hitch and the back of the pickup is about 2 inches short of letting the pickup tailgate go down all the way. The tailgate hits the electric motor that raises and lowers the front of the trailer. Any suggestion on how to solve this problem?

Thanks!

[FloydCoVa]

Have you Tryied rotating the electric motor? That is what I had to do and mine works fine .ymmv...

[SeaLevel]

Same here. When I replaced my power jack, I got one that could be mounted sideways (90 degrees) so that the tailgate would clear. I still need the truck and trailer to be inline though or it doesn't clear.

[DonRich7878]

Originally Posted by FloydCoVa

Have you Tryied rotating the electric motor? That is what I had to do and mine works fine .ymmv...

Now that's a great idea.. Thank you..

[batman]

You should be able to rotate the head 45 degrees for clearance.

One other thing. It looks like the Ball Mount is off camber and tilted down.

-Dennis

[GMFL]

Originally Posted by batman

You should be able to rotate the head 45 degrees for clearance.

One other thing. It looks like the Ball Mount is off camber and tilted down.

-Dennis

That probably do he can get more resistance on his weight distribution bars. You tilt the head down to increase the weight shift when “fine tuning” your weight distribution hitch.

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by batman

One other thing. It looks like the Ball Mount is off camber and tilted down.

It's an Equalizer hitch and that's one of the adjustments. It tilts the bars lower, thus more weight distribution.


As far as the jack, you have two choices. Rotate the motor or rotate the entire unit in the frame. Some jacks can't be rotated at the head and some others have a triangular base plate that won't accept turning 90 degrees.

I think the stock Attwood won't do either. When my Attwood left me stranded, I ended up replacing the Jack with a Husky 5000 and turned it by drilling new holes in the jack plate. It was easy...but. It required a few tools.
I did a post on how I did it.
https://www.airforums.com/forums/f45...ys-196460.html
Now my tailgate clears, but just. I found the Tundra has a deep bed, which makes the tailgate higher.

I also considered a longer shank on the hitch. I might do both.

[turk123]

If turning your head does not work, Jack-e-up makes a product that allows you to remove the jack altogether. I used this for over a year with my first trailer and it gave me all kinds of room to get to the truck bed when traveling.

It requires you to add a couple of electrical plugs to disconnect your two wires running to the head, but that was easy.

https://jack-e-up.com/

Don't buy one from them, I'll trade you mine for a case of toilet paper!

[TravelerNash]

Originally Posted by batman

You should be able to rotate the head 45 degrees for clearance.



One other thing. It looks like the Ball Mount is off camber and tilted down.



-Dennis

Thanks for the heads up on the Ball Mount being tilted down.

[TravelerNash]

Originally Posted by FloydCoVa

Have you Tryied rotating the electric motor? That is what I had to do and mine works fine .ymmv...

Excellent idea!

[FloydCoVa]

Thanks, glad it worked.

[Lumatic]

Originally Posted by TravelerNash

Thanks for the heads up on the Ball Mount being tilted down.

Not saying the angle is right but the angle the ball is mounted depends on the hitch. It is not necessarily level. Check the hitch specs.


Also, I use an Air Safe hitch that places the ball about 8 inches farther back.



An other alternative would be to plug in and extension to your receiver.

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by TravelerNash

Thanks for the heads up on the Ball Mount being tilted down.

Wait.
It's supposed to tilt, based on the number of washers on the "rivet". More washers, more tilt, more weight distribution. Very adjustable.

From the manual:

To correct under-adjustment you must add more weight distribution force to the hitch by adding spacer washers

[21Airstream]

FWIW, I replaced the 2” Stinger that came with my Blue Ox hitch with a 2.5” Reese Titan stinger and my now I can fully open my tailgate (whereas before I couldn’t).

[SetterX]

I had the same problem with my 2017 F250 Super Duty and my 28' FC RT... Couldn't rotate the jack 90 degrees. Equalizer didn't make a longer Shank with enough drop. Went to a hitch specialist- The Hitch Man -Taneytown, MD, and had them replace the shank with a longer and deeper shank. They re-setup everything since you need a long level surface and a 600 ft. lb. torque wrench. They did an excellent job! https://www.thehitchmaninc.com

BTW, the ball drop camber is correct for y'all without an Equal-i-zer.

I tried to explain to the folks at Equal-I-zer the problem with the height of the new F250's but at that time it fell on deaf ears. Equal-i-zer is a great system, they are just slow at understanding the problem with new model year vehicles.

The reason this was such a big deal was that we travel with 4 Setters, 2 English and 2 Irish and we couldn't get them out of the truck for a potty break without un-hitching so we had to fix it before we could use our AS! Now, if someone could tell me how to pump A/C and heat into the back of my truck for my dogs, I could use the help! Right now we have a remote temperature sensor in the back of the truck and only travel with them in the back when we have 50~80 degree temperature back there. Then we stop and move them into the back seat! Puts a lot of dog hair in my Platinum.

[caboob]

Get a longer shank. I had to switch from the 12” shank that came with my wd kit to a 14”. Don’t do a hitch extender. They specifically state that your weight rating is reduced by 50%. They are intended for use with bike racks.

[JCWDCW]

I believe CanAm routinely tilt the ball back up to 15 degrees. I took mine in for a new ball and they reinforced the the head and adjusted the tilt back as far as it would go
It helps with correcting sway as the tilt tends to centre the hitch ... like a pendulum eventually stops dead centre
As others said it also increases weight distribution if in fact you don't have enough
JCW

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by caboob

Get a longer shank. I had to switch from the 12” shank that came with my wd kit to a 14”.

You were fortunate to find a shank 2" longer. I searched a lot, and was often frustrated by different manufacturers measuring shanks differently. Some measure total length, while some measure between holes. I found the e-trailer videos very useful because they get out a tape measure.
Eventually, I found a longer shank with the correct drop by Curt. All I need to do is drill a new hole. They went from 12" to 16" which is too much IMO. I'll drill to extend another 1.5"-2".

[azflycaster]

My tailgate opens with my stock Blue Ox hitch even with the flag holder mounded on the front of the jack. The rig and truck need to be in alignment, bur I have about 1/2 inch of clearance.

[Rgentum]

Cut off the top two inches of your tailgate!