equalizer hitch - any negatives?

[Journalist]

I find all of the "my hitching setup is better than your hitching setup" discussions interesting. There are so many different opinions on the subject that these threads never fail to get people riled up. My rig goes against almost everything ever written on this forum. I tow my vintage 25' with a one ton dually. Is it too much truck for the trailer? Maybe. Can I afford to buy a second truck JUST to tow the Airstream and hang on to the dually for towing the big stuff? Nope. So, I ditched the WD hitch that I own in favor of a plain old hitch with enough drop for the trailer to run level. I bought an adapter to allow for use of a friction type anti-sway device. This setup has served me well for quite a while now even through some nasty cross winds. My truck is just three feet short of being the same length as the trailer and outweighs it by more than 3,000 pounds. With that setup, I've never popped a rivet or damaged the trailer in any way. There's no one solution that works universally for every tow vehicle with every trailer. I use what works for me and the equipment that I have, even though I've been told it can't be done. I do most of my camping in the appalachians, and I see a lot of other campers struggling to maintain control while driving through the mountains, often from not having enough truck to do the job or a poorly set up hitch or both.

[Rollertoaster]

Sorry it took so long to post these pictures. We're getting ready for the
Area 33 rally and other things cropped up, like stinky holding tank syndrome. After much sniffing around my wife (JanetB)
located the source--the area near the bottom of the toilet.
I pulled the toilet today and replaced the plastic gasket,
and whadaya know, no more smells! When we first got the
trailer there was a leak behind the toilet in the supply line
and I had to remove the toilet to tighten the compression fitting.
What I neglected to do was replace the gasket, thinking that it was
rubber and re-usable. Turns out they're not. When the toilet was out
Janet (ever the RN) cleaned and sanitized the entire thing.
She's sorry she didn't get a picture of me sitting on it outside
the trailer in the thinker position.

But on to the Equal-i-zer. Here are the pictures of the grade 5 bolts
and the grade 8 bolts. The first picture is the bent upper 3/4" bolt
that attaches the hitch head to the shank. The second picture is
the hash marks indicating the grading, 3 for the 5, six for the
grade eight. The last picture shows the location of the bolts,
for reference.

Terry

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by HowieE

The bolts that hold the head to the shank. Sometimes that mating is loose, do to casting, and 45 lbs on the bolts won't pull the 2 together. I have had to make a thin shim plate to place between the head and shank in order to fill the gap and then tighten the bolts to insure proper load between the head and shank.

The 3/4" bolts should be torqued to 270ft-lbs if grade 5, or up to 380 ft-lbs if grade 8.

[Inland RV Center, In]

I don't understand how tons of faith can be put into any brand of equalizing hitch, where the owner must be on the look out for bent bolts.

Surely the manufacturer is aware of that problem.

Not provide adequate quality hardware, to me, is a huge negative, and an absolute major strike against the Equalizer brand hitch.

That's not even mentioning the excessive rigidity of their torsion bars, and the couple of inches for friction sway control, HUH!!!

Of the good, better and best ratings, I personally rate the Equalizer as "good" only because that's as low a rating you can have.

Ask Sears.

Andy

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, what is the real reason Andy is always there to bash Equal-i-zer brand hitch? And to side step on the brand's way of spelling their name? What is he hiding from us? And when cornered on something he has your post moved or removed or no further comment? What's up? Besides this is an "Equal-i-zer" thread isn't it?

[Rollertoaster]

"I don't understand how tons of faith can be put into any brand of equalizing hitch, where the owner must be on the look out for bent bolts."

Andy, I agree with you about the bolts. I mean, how much more can the
grade 8 bolts cost? False economy at best, maybe bad engineering.

On the other hand, the whole assembly, at least on our tv/trailer combo,
seems to absorb shocks and vibrations quite well. Looking at those
heavy, square bars you would think otherwise. As I mentioned
in a previous post, higher loads on the bars can affect the steering.

The flexible bars of the dual cam seem like they would be more
absorbent. I like the fact that there are detents on the bars,
which would center the steering better. I would probably go the
dual cam route if I had it to do over.

Terry

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, what is the real reason Andy is always there to bash Equal-i-zer brand hitch? And to side step on the brand's way of spelling their name? What is he hiding from us? And when cornered on something he has your post moved or removed or no further comment? What's up? Besides this is an "Equal-i-zer" thread isn't it?

I didn't bring up the negative qualities of that brand. You owners did, up to and including posting photo's.

I don't hide anything that I am aware of. I have no reason to.

But for over 43 years, I have always mentioned the good and bad in whatever, that has to do with Airstreaming.

The vast majority of those comments come from first hand experience, research and/or from fellow owners.

Of course I have my favorites with both good and not so good load equalizing hitches, backed up with tons of data.

My only interest, is to pass that information on, for others safety and enjoyment, and for the best interests and well being, of the trailers. That in part, is what this Forums is all about.

Many agree, some disagree, that also is what this Forums is all about.

Politics, facts, experiences, opinions, as well as Physics, all have believers and non-believers. Freedom of expression, runs rampant in the USA.

And so it is.

Andy

[SteveH]

Hi, what is the real reason Andy is always there to bash Equal-i-zer brand hitch?

Uh, maybe because he doesn't sell them????

Personally, I have a Reese Dual Cam (the new one with the adjustable bolt/cams things), and don't really like it. Don't get me wrong, once you get it adjusted, and the bars traded because they sell you too heavy of bars, it works good.

But, (there's always a but, isn't there?) the thing is way too complicated to adjust, IMHO. AND, you have to readjust the cams any time you make any change. Then in addition to that, the thing is hard to adjust. Unless you go and buy a special $45 wrench, you end up working with a big Cresent wrench, and that's a pain because it won't go in there right. And then the worst thing, again IMHO, I had to resort to using a feeler guage and a BIG hammer to get the cams to move and insure they are in the right place.

I've found if you don't do it right, there is virtually NO sway control.

Years ago I had the older version of the Reese Dual Cam with the "U" bolted plates and it was much easier to adjust, and actually worked better.

At this point, if I had it to do over, I'd buy a different hitch.

[Sean Woodruff]

UPFRONT DISCLAIMER: I sell the Reese Dual Cam and manufacture the ProPride 3P.


There, now that is out of the way...

I see where Andy is coming from with reporting his experiences and I have learned a lot valuable information from his posts. I think many people are so quick to jump on the "he sells it" bandwagon that they fail to read the details of posts and put up their "sales objection shield" way to early to learn anything. The fact that he may or may not sell the product doesn't change the details of the experience. We can all learn and use the information and I don't think he, or anyone else, is going to reach through the computer screen and separate us from our wallets.

[HowieE]

Originally Posted by markdoane

The 3/4" bolts should be torqued to 270ft-lbs if grade 5, or up to 380 ft-lbs if grade 8.

You had questioned my mention of 45 lbs as the torque for the head bolts.

45 lbs was mentioned by the poster just before mine, post #79. I was explaining that 45 lbs was too low a torque setting to hold the head to the shank, a friction contact.

The quality control on the clearance between the head and the shank is none existent for both Reese and Equalizer. That interface relies on the friction of the 2 surfaces to restrain the movement of the upper bolt in a slotted hole, thus the high torque requirements.

The lack of quality control of the 2 parts results in a need to file the head to allow it to even go on the shank in some cases.

On heads that were the opening is too large, for a friction fit, even 290 ft lbs of torque will not bend the plates of the heads enough to provide the frictional contact to hold the head in place given an elongated hole around the upper bolt. Thus it is necessary to have to shim the space between them. Not shimming this space will produce unnecessary strain in the head casting.

There once was a reasonable level of quality control, at least with Reese products, but now that they are made in Mexico all bets are off. The last 4 parts I bought from Reese all had to be exchanged for some form of manufacturing mistake.

I currently have a letter into Reese questioning 2 design mistakes in their current head. Mine wore out is less than 4 years. While they have at least designed their newer head not to require an exotic wrench to tighten the ball nut they have placed the oiling holes for the top trunnion too far to the rear so none of the oil ever gets to the mating surfaces. The upper trunnion cup has far less material then is required to support the load on the bars. I replaced this newer design with an older head I had used for close to 20 years.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Maybe QC south of our border means "quantity control", or maybe "quell control?"

The quality ambitious labor effort seems to have gone to that funny "weed" and "sniffing" stuff that they are well known for growing very well.

Andy

[Rollertoaster]

Regarding the friction between the hitch head and the shank:
Equal-i-zer recommends that the two 3/4" bolts are only hand tight
before hooking up the bars. The head comes to rest against the
washer pin, and the set bolt is then tightened. The final step
is tightening the 3/4" bolts to the 320 ft/lbs recommended.
Unless I am missing something. But my torque wrench doesn't go
high enough, so its kind of a guess for me on the 320 lbs.

After a couple of years of messing around with this hitch I think I
finally have it where I want it. The ride is ok, the weight is shifted,
it is quiet enough if you keep it greased. There are drawbacks to every
system it seems, but for now I'm happy with this one.

Terry

[markdoane]

My thinking on this is that with the bars hooked up, the torque on the top hitch head bolt (the one that bent) doesn't matter. But if you don't torque the top bolt to specs the bolt will bend, a) if you have too few washers, b) if you try moving the trailer without the bars on, c) if you hit a big bump and start to porpoise.

Anytime you don't have at least a couple hundred pounds pushing the hitch head up against the washers, you're likely to bend the bolt if (when) the bars come unloaded.

[Gene]

The bolts I meant in post #77 are the ones on the shank which attach it to head. I was in that post referring to another post, but should have been more specific. Despite the need to tighten the top one every week or so, it works fine. Not having a torque wrench that goes so high, I guess too. I will pick up more washers when I get home and do it right, but it's been working fine regardless of how tight the top bolt is.

Gene

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, sometimes we need to use what I call body torque. Lock your back-up wrench against something solid and then stand on your breaker bar. This will give you the length of the bar's leverage plus your weight. [works for me]

[Mexray]

I find it difficult to see how that 3/4" bolt bent to that extent, if the hitch was adjusted properly, AND the shank bolts were torqued properly close to 300 ft lbs...and in any event, the bolt did remain intact, doing it's job of holding things together...in this case, 'bending' is lots better than 'shearing'...

Sure, the bent bolt was then probably more prone to breaking, had it not been replaced - and grade 8 bolts are a good replacement - I've seen grade 8 bolts 'bend' much worse, and not break - their strong point, for sure!

I'm wondering if that 3/4" bolt bent during an unexpected event - like hitting a 'speed bump' one didn't see in time...3/4" hardware is beefy stuff, and just normally doesn't bend like that without being 'tweaked' a bit...

I've removed my shank bolts at least four times during the initial adjustment period on two TV's, and haven't seen any hint of stress or 'bending'...I use a large box-end wrench and really 'stand' on that sucker to torque the bolts...

It just goes to show we should all check out our tow-gear often to maintain those systems properly and for our own safety, as well!

[woppa 4]

Question: I have been following the hitch tread with interest. I have a 30 C L 2009 Equal-l-izer 1000 lb S bars. Q:Are my bar's to heavy (over-rated for load) with the following weight data.
SA tongue weight dry: 690
40# LP bottles vs 30#
heavy bed cab ARE est 150-180
bed load with support stuff 150-200
TV Dodge HD 2500 with Cumins Turbo 2007 mega cab

Due I need the lighter 750 spring bars. woppa4

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by woppa 4

Question: I have been following the hitch tread with interest. I have a 30 C L 2009 Equal-l-izer 1000 lb S bars. Q:Are my bar's to heavy (over-rated for load) with the following weight data.
SA tongue weight dry: 690
40# LP bottles vs 30#
heavy bed cab ARE est 150-180
bed load with support stuff 150-200
TV Dodge HD 2500 with Cumins Turbo 2007 mega cab

Due I need the lighter 750 spring bars. woppa4

Absolutely, if not even 600 bars, because of the tow vehicles stiffness.

Andy

[Gene]

woppa,

The 2008 literature I have from Equalizer doesn't mention a 750# bar, only 600, 1,000, 1,200 and 1,400. This must be a new one. In calculating your tongue wt., remember it doesn't include full propane tanks and maybe the effect of the spare tire. It's likely true tongue wt. is more than the number Airstream gives, and sometimes Airstream has different weights in different literature for the same model and year. The best way to know is to weigh it; how to do so is in the owner's manual.

The dealer we bought the trailer from put 1,200# bars on, much too heavy, but when I called Equalizer they said as long as it was set up right, that was ok. Of course, it wasn't set up right, but that's a different issue. I don't want to get a new hitch since you just don't replace the bars and I'm unsure what it would cost. I'd call Equalizer and ask them their opinion since you seem to be on the borderline and also ask them to remove those dashes from the name because I don't want to type them. I'm confused too and will be interested to read about what they tell you.

Gene

[Mexray]

Woopa4,

I'd have to say you are right in the 'ball park' using 1000# bars, tongue weight wise...going to the 600's would be too light, IMHO.

we use 1K bars on our 28, and have comparable weight to yours, and have great ride, no sway (but we only tow around 55 MPH) and no evidence of stuff moving around inside (more than normal) the AS when on the road...

I've had conversations with other using this same hitch, with 1K bars, but much shorter AS's...and questioned their set up, but haven't heard of any problems - and usually it's the opposite, they like their Equal-i-zer's performance...

I know it's a matter of 'flex' in the bars, but I guess with lighter tongue loads, and less loading of the bars still gives one enough actual 'flex' to do the job...those bars are made of 'spring steel', don't ya' know...