# Blue Ox With Sway



## kingfam (Sep 12, 2011)

WE HAVE AN OLD BLUE OX WITH SWAY CONTROL BOUGHT IN 2007. WE USED TO HAVE A 13RS OUTBACK THAT PULLED FINE WITH THE SYSTEM. WE RECENTLY BOUGHT A 21RS OUTBACK ANNIVERARY ADDITION. THERE IS A LITTLE BIT OF WEIGHT DIFFERENCE IN THE GVWR. WE TOOK IT OUT THIS PAST WEEKEND AND HAD A HARD TIME GETTING THE WEIGHT OFF THE HITCH AND BACK ONTO THE TRAILER. DO YOU THINK THE BARS ARE TO SMALL FOR THE WEIGHT? GWVR IN THE OLD ONE WAS 6000 (I THINK) AND THIS ONE IS 7550. HAVING A HARD TIME GETTING THE ACUTUAL SPECS ON THE OLD ONE. THIS NEW TRAILER IS A LITTLER BIT TALLER (7"). ANY SUGGESTION WOULD HELP. I REALLY DON'T KNOW TWO MUCH ABOUT THIS STUFF.


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## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

kingfam said:


> WE HAVE AN OLD BLUE OX WITH SWAY CONTROL BOUGHT IN 2007. WE USED TO HAVE A 13RS OUTBACK THAT PULLED FINE WITH THE SYSTEM. WE RECENTLY BOUGHT A 21RS OUTBACK ANNIVERARY ADDITION. THERE IS A LITTLE BIT OF WEIGHT DIFFERENCE IN THE GVWR. WE TOOK IT OUT THIS PAST WEEKEND AND HAD A HARD TIME GETTING THE WEIGHT OFF THE HITCH AND BACK ONTO THE TRAILER. DO YOU THINK THE BARS ARE TO SMALL FOR THE WEIGHT? GWVR IN THE OLD ONE WAS 6000 (I THINK) AND THIS ONE IS 7550. HAVING A HARD TIME GETTING THE ACUTUAL SPECS ON THE OLD ONE. THIS NEW TRAILER IS A LITTLER BIT TALLER (7"). ANY SUGGESTION WOULD HELP. I REALLY DON'T KNOW TWO MUCH ABOUT THIS STUFF.


 Kingfam,

Check your Capitals. Many people consider the use of capital letters hollering. But I think we all know that your not.

I had a Blue Ox for a number of years. Good WD Hitch!

This what I did to dial my hitch in. It may work for you as well..

First check your bars. There should be a stamp on them with the weight rating. 1000, 900, etc. Ensure you have bars that are compatible with your tongue weight.

Secondly your newer trailer could indeed be taller at the hitch than your older. No problem. It will take a little wrenching but it isn't tough.

1. Level your trailer, disconnected.

2. With a ruler or tape measure, measure the distance from the ground to the inside of the trailer ball reciever. It does not have to be exact, but as close as you can get.

3. Measure the distance from the ground to the top of your ball.

4. You will want to move the hitch head in its mounting holes to bring the ball as close to the measurement you made to the trailer hitch. This may require flipping the "Stinger" so that maore holes are available to the top side of the hitch.

5. Your hitch head, before you tighten it in place, should have a slight downward angle. Most noticable with the WD bars inserted in the head.

6. Tighten the hitch head.

7. Measure the distance from your tow vehicle rear bumper to the ground

8. Measure the distance from your tow vehicle front bumper to the ground

9. Ensure the trailer is chocked.

10. Connect up to the trailer and ensure the ball is locked in the reciever.

11. Attempt to take weight with your Weight Distribution hitch bars. You may need to raise the tongue jack a bit to do so. If you find that you need to raise more than a 3-4 inches the head angle must be adjusted to bring the bars up a bit.

12. Once you have got the bars connected and strapped up, measure the distance to the ground from your front and rear bumper on your tow vehicle.

13. Ideally, your want roughly a proportional drop on the front and back. If the back dropped 2" and the front dropped also about 2" then you can be assured that the weight distribution hitch is doing its job.

14. Though if you see a 6" drop at the rear and your front goes up 6" then well...it ain't working!

15. To help even the drop out, you will need to change your hitch head angle. You will need to disconnect to do this.

16. Once disconnected, Measure the distance of the chain end of the bar to the ground so that you will have a reference point.

17 Tilting the head up (Bar tips go up) shifts more weight to the rear. Tilting the head down (Bars tips go down) will shift more weight forward. A small amount can go a long way and depends on tongue weight, vehicle weight...etc.

18. The measurements are going to be approximate and you may not ever be able to get the front and rear drop measurements exactly the same. You could beat yourself to death trying!

19. After the adjustment re-connect and take your front and rear drop measurememnts on your tow vehicle. Further adjustment may be necessary.

In my experience the Blue Ox did a great job. Provided your hitch is set up properly, AND you have the right bars for your trailers tongue weight you should be in good shape.

This procedure will work for most other WDH's as well.

Good luck! Send pictures! they can tell alot and you'll have more people chiming in!

Eric


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## kingfam (Sep 12, 2011)

So i've got the TT hooked up and the TV rear bumper is 3/4" lower and the front is the same before hooking up. Pretty good, right? I'm a little concerned that I had to really put alot of torque on the bars to get to this point. There is a noticable bow in the bars and they are within an 1" 
of the TT frame. Is this all normal? We've got the 750# bars and the TT GVWR is 7550, but is currently unloaded.. Am i asking to much of the 750# bars?


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## hautevue (Mar 8, 2009)

Seems to me you need to know the tongue weight of your TT. If you can tow it to a professional trucker's scale, you can get the weight. If not, maybe you can get it to an RV dealer who has one of those small portable scales, and weigh the load on the jack pad.

That info will help you decide if the bars are the right size for your tongue weight.


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## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

The bars should fall into the 10-15% range of the trailers GVWR. It appears your hitch head does not have enough down ward pitch and it does appear your bars are bowed. This would suddest that you need to move up to the 1000 bars.

What was your front bumper drop compared to rear on your truck?

The bars will have a downward slope when tensioned. About 3" or so when measured from the bottom of the trailer frame to the top of the bars at the chain end. Count about 4-5 links of chain to the tensioner.

Nice job so far!

Eric


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## kingfam (Sep 12, 2011)

Keystone says the tongue (hitch) weight is 525#'s, so I should be good with the bars I have. With 5 links in the tensioner, the front sits unchanged with the rear @ 3/4" lower, and before tensioning there is roughly 3" between the tips of the bars and the bottom of the frame, hence the bow. It all seems to be in line, but...not sure about the arch in the bars, and the fridge is empty.


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## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

kingfam said:


> Keystone says the tongue (hitch) weight is 525#'s, so I should be good with the bars I have. With 5 links in the tensioner, the front sits unchanged with the rear @ 3/4" lower, and before tensioning there is roughly 3" between the tips of the bars and the bottom of the frame, hence the bow. It all seems to be in line, but...not sure about the arch in the bars, and the fridge is empty.


 I would weigh your tongue. I think you'll be surprised!


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