Equal-i-zer Hitch Thread.

[m.hony]

I have used air.
I just can't get it tight enough by hand.
When I do it by hand I am tightening the hitch at every campground.
Give it a little air and it stays put.


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[Rocinante]

So far a giant wrench on the bolt head to hold it in place and a half-inch breaker bar with plenty of muscle on it for the nut has done the trick. Doesn't seem to come loose...so far.

[KJRitchie]

I have an old Snap On 250lb torque wrench. I get the bolts to 250lbs then use a breaker bar with a floor jack handle over the breaker bar to get the next 80lbs. I have to borrow it from my brother-in-law. So far so good. I use another socketed breaker bar on the bolt head and as I tighten the nut it rotates to the ground where it gets wedged. If I were to replace my Equalizer I would prefer a hitch that didn't require such high torque values for the mounting hardware.

Kelvin

[m.hony]

My breaker bar will not fit over the handle on my old Craftsman "beam style" torque wrench.
I am only strong enough to get about 60 ft. lbs., which is plenty for most things, but when you got 6,000# and 8,000# snatching against each other on rough roads...


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[abone]

TQ required divided by body weight = bar length required.
I weigh 200lbs, so 320lbs torque/200 = 1.6 x 12" = 19.2 inches.
So for a 200 lb person leaning all his body weight at 19.2 inches on the bar on the horizontal (not jumping on it, just leaning) until it stops moving will generate 320 ft lbs of torque.

[whitegs]

Originally Posted by abone

TQ required divided by body weight = bar length required.
I weigh 200lbs, so 320lbs torque/200 = 1.6 x 12" = 19.2 inches.
So for a 200 lb person leaning all his body weight at 19.2 inches on the bar on the horizontal (not jumping on it, just leaning) until it stops moving will generate 320 ft lbs of torque.

Do you have to insert the hitch upside down in order to tighten the bolt using this method? Or alternatively, inserting the bolts from right to left so you can apply clockwise pressure to the nut. But then loosening later becomes a problem, no?

[Bgibbs]

I don't like guessing on something as important as the hitch, so I bought a 3/4" drive 600 ft lb torque wrench on Amazon. Of course, the torque wrench weighs almost as much as the hitch! I get a good workout. I found the sockets at Lowes. The torque wrench is long enough that you don't have to use a cheater handle. I had a Craftsman breaker bar break using a cheater bar and I don't want that to happen again. People and things can get hurt when that happens.

[abone]

Originally Posted by whitegs

Do you have to insert the hitch upside down in order to tighten the bolt using this method? Or alternatively, inserting the bolts from right to left so you can apply clockwise pressure to the nut. But then loosening later becomes a problem, no?

I didn't, but I did tighten using the nut end. I had my son hold the bolt end with a box wrench. It works well.
And it isn't a guess, it's a mathematical calculation used by master mechanics.

[whitegs]

When I weighed my setup, the weight on the front drive axle was 3080, the weight on the rear drive axle was 4320 and on the trailer it was 6020. This on an F150 with a 2016 Flying Cloud 28. The max on the front axle according to the label inside the door is 3505, on the rear axle 3800 and on the trailer 7600.
Tampa RV where I bought the AS installed the equalizer hitch and I now see they only installed 3 washers.

Since I was on the road, and didn't have access to more washers or big sockets, I raised the L bars one notch and now find that the front fender measures 38 inches unloaded, 39 inches with the trailer attached but no WD bars, and 38 inches again with the WD bars installed. I haven't been back to the scales but according to the manual, this should be an ideal setup.

But 3 washers sounds way too few from what I've read on the thread. And I'm not sure if adding washers will move 500 pound off the rear axle onto the front axle which would make everything within tolerances. I'm also afraid if I add washers, it will over correct.

I have two Honda EU2000 generators, 5 gallons of gas, and an 18 gallon smart tote in the truck bed, with my wife and I in the front (350# together) and our two dogs in the back seat (180# together). And it drives like a dream - no sway and doing fine up and down the monster hills in I68.

i really have no idea what to do. I feel I should add washers but maybe there is just no way to get everything to fit together as it should. Any ideas?

Richard

[m.hony]

Add 2 or 3 washers.
You'll be amazed at the difference.


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[Shaggy1970]

So I sold 27FB and got an Open Range 308BHS and still run the equalizer setup. The tongue weight is heavy and so is the trailer. Even with 8 Washers front felt light and thought about raising the L brackets (still might do that) and there was a lot of sway, due to the 38 foot trailer. So looked at options and came across the GenY-hitch torsion GH-1202 shank that connects to the head of the equalizer head. Bought it and hooked it up, see pictures below. The ride is now considerably much smoother and it has reduced the sway considerably (even though the front still feels light) since in essence has separated the truck from the trailer. If the only benefit is less stress on the trailer frame and its contents then its worth it already but there is more. For me it has made towing this huge trailer much more enjoyable and once I dial it in it will be a great investment.

__________________

[Rich W]

I don't see the pictures, did you forget to post?

[Shaggy1970]

Originally Posted by richw46

I don't see the pictures, did you forget to post?

Rich,
No I posted the links to the pics and the torsion hitch but the Mods informed me that the links didn't work, but since I have been inactive from this site I can't see the post with the links cause it says it needs to be reviewed by a Mod, so I am dealing with a catch 22 until I get more posts under me and be able to forgo the Mod intervention.

[paiceman]

Originally Posted by m.hony

My breaker bar will not fit over the handle on my old Craftsman "beam style" torque wrench.
I am only strong enough to get about 60 ft. lbs., which is plenty for most things, but when you got 6,000# and 8,000# snatching against each other on rough roads...


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Mine issue was the same - I went to Home Depot and bought a small piece of cast iron pipe which fits nicely over the handle and works great as a breaker bar. Took the wrench in with me to make sure I got the smallest diameter pipe which would fit over the handle.

Bud

[Rich W]

Originally Posted by Shaggy1970

Rich,
No I posted the links to the pics and the torsion hitch but the Mods informed me that the links didn't work, but since I have been inactive from this site I can't see the post with the links cause it says it needs to be reviewed by a Mod, so I am dealing with a catch 22 until I get more posts under me and be able to forgo the Mod intervention.

I hate catch-22s. always a problem
You'll just have to post more. There's always the Argue Thread, you can go over there and start something until you get enough posts under your belt http://www.airforums.com/forums/f161...ead-60297.html

[m.hony]

I understand catch 22's.
I can come up with more problems that no one else has ever had or no one has a ready answer for.


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[Posse96]

I've had my Equil-i-zer since June and it performs great. I'm towing a 19' Flying Cloud with a 2014 4Door Tacoma. The two just cruise together as one when going down the road. It was a bit noisy during the breaking in mode, but I used the Equil-i-zer lubricate and that solved that. I'm sitting a little low, but my Taco is slightly lower in the back anyway due to my suspension lift system. I could add a washer, but truth is, I installed to air lifts for $350 and just pump them up a 1/2" when towing and that addressed it and distributed the weight a bit more for both truck axles.

[whitegs]

Originally Posted by whitegs

When I weighed my setup, the weight on the front drive axle was 3080, the weight on the rear drive axle was 4320 and on the trailer it was 6020. This on an F150 with a 2016 Flying Cloud 28. The max on the front axle according to the label inside the door is 3505, on the rear axle 3800 and on the trailer 7600.
Tampa RV where I bought the AS installed the equalizer hitch and I now see they only installed 3 washers.

Since I was on the road, and didn't have access to more washers or big sockets, I raised the L bars one notch and now find that the front fender measures 38 inches unloaded, 39 inches with the trailer attached but no WD bars, and 38 inches again with the WD bars installed. I haven't been back to the scales but according to the manual, this should be an ideal setup.

But 3 washers sounds way too few from what I've read on the thread. And I'm not sure if adding washers will move 500 pound off the rear axle onto the front axle which would make everything within tolerances. I'm also afraid if I add washers, it will over correct.

I have two Honda EU2000 generators, 5 gallons of gas, and an 18 gallon smart tote in the truck bed, with my wife and I in the front (350# together) and our two dogs in the back seat (180# together). And it drives like a dream - no sway and doing fine up and down the monster hills in I68.

i really have no idea what to do. I feel I should add washers but maybe there is just no way to get everything to fit together as it should. Any ideas?

Richard

So I added three washers and raised the L bracket one notch. I reweighed the truck but with only 60% left in the fresh water tank, only 1 gallon of gas in truck bed, no ez tote, no weber q grill and here is what I got:

Front axle: 3340
Rear (drive) axle: 3840
Trailer axle: 5920


So this is a big improvement though the rear axle is still 40# overweight. The downside is that I have to raise the hitch so high to attach and remove the WD bars, I have to be creative in getting it accomplished since the jack won't raise the hitch high enough. So what I did was put as many Lynx leveling blocks as would fit under the jack, raised it as high as I could, placed as many Lynx block under the hitch as would fit. raising the jack as high as it would go with the hitch resting on the other blocks, added more Lynx levelers under the jack and then could raise it high enough to attach the sway bars. Lowering the jack was the opposite series of steps. What a pain but it got the job done. I'm thinking of getting a scissor jack to support the hitch while adding or removing blocks which could speed things up.
Or I could just get an F250 and forget all this nonsense. The way things are now, I'm just on the cusp of being overloaded or just within tolerances. In any case, the F150 pulled like a dream through the mountains of West Virginia, where we stayed in a small corner of heaven called Audra State Park.

[jimfa440]

I got rid of my EAZ Lift hitch, put the Andersen Hitch back in the box. I got my old Equal-I-Zer out of the basement, cleaned it up, disassembled it, painted it and put it back together. I used information I gleaned from this website to set it up properly, torqued it down and took a trip through the east TN mountains. We pull a 30' Airstream Excella, GVWR 8300#. The hitch did such a fine job in the curves and passing on the 4-lanes. I'm glad I went back to the Equal-I-Zer.

[Cispook]

From what I'm reading - everyone with a27FB and 28 and pulling with the F150; have 6 washers and most have raised the bar 1 notch.
In my opinion we have established a baseline for setting up the hitch.