# Setting Up Old Hitch On New Tv



## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

Hi all,
I traded in the 2006 E-250 extended cargo van and bought a 2011 F-250 Super Duty / Super cab 2 wheel drive. It has the 6.2L with 3.73 gears, tow package with integrated brake and Trailer sway control and the front - heavy duty service suspension package. 8' bed /158" wheelbase.

*Travel Trailer:* 2005 25RSS

I am using a *Curt weight distribution hitch *Model 17002 10,000# / 1000# Round bars
I had to drop the shank down 3 holes to get the ball low enough to keep the trailer level. I did not add or remove any washers from the original setup.
I would like to see if you guys think I have this dialed in close enough. 
Gas tank full.
The measurementsfrom pavement to wheel well lip)

*Unhooked*
Wheel well openings- Front- 36-5/8"
Rear - 39-1/2
Trailer level front to back from frame to ground- 13-1/2"

*Hooked up without WD bars*
Wheel well openings- Front- 36-3/4 (raised 1/8")
Rear - 38-5/8 (sag 7/8")
Trailer frame from ground- Front- 13-1/4 (raised 1/4")
Rear - 13-1/2 (same ?)

*Hooked up with WD bars*(5 links from top)
Wheel well openings- Front- 36-3/4 (same without bars)
Rear - 38-3/4 (sag 3/4")
Trailer frame from ground- Front- 13-1/2 (raised 1/4")
Rear - 13-1/4 (drop 1/4")

Just to see if it changed things, I tried *6 links from top *to try to bring front down that 1/8" Bars were very hard to latch. Wheel well openings- Front - 36-3/4 (same)
Rear - 39-1/8 (sag 3/8")
Trailer frame from ground- Front - 14"
Rear - 13"

All the manuals say the bars are to be parallel to the trailer frame but mine always angled up without crashing into the frame( even on the old van)
Here are a couple pics of the setup:
































I am not used to the heavy duty truck set up, am I splitting hairs or should/can I adjust ball angle with washers to get it closer or to adjust bars parallel to frame?
Sorry for the long winded post but you guys are the best source out here for hitch advice.
Thank you in advance for all replys and opinions.
crunchman


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## duggy (Mar 17, 2010)

Nice truck!

Sounds to me like you have too much forward weight transfer. You should be settling the rear of the truck some, but you're actually raising it. When you get into the heavier duty trucks (eg. 2500 series), the rear suspension is capable of taking more of the load than a 1/2 ton. I'm thinking that if you had 7/8" sag without the bars attached, you should have around 3/8 to 1/2" sag with the bars attached. I also think by easing up on the bars, you'll find you have less "lurching" when towing.


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## duggy (Mar 17, 2010)

I noticed in your 4th picture, you have a ball for a friction sway control. The general consensus on this site is that by the time you get into the 25 foot range, friction sway controls are inadequate. Of course that would require replacing the whole WD hitch system, which may not be something you want to do. At the very least, I would recommend adding a second friction sway control to the other side.


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

duggy said:


> I noticed in your 4th picture, you have a ball for a friction sway control. The general consensus on this site is that by the time you get into the 25 foot range, friction sway controls are inadequate. Of course that would require replacing the whole WD hitch system, which may not be something you want to do. At the very least, I would recommend adding a second friction sway control to the other side.


Thank you for your reply!
The trailer guys say that 2 friction bars will fight each other and make the connection too ridgid? I edited my post, the ford has the built in sway control.Not sure if sway bar is required now?
Not sure what you mean by too much weight forward transfer, the front stayed the same with the bars attached, raised 1/8" with or without bars on.
Thank you for the nice truck comment, it will work well for me.
crunchman


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

I would adjust the head angle to force the bars to a more level final position when hitched.

Also even if the TV has sway control which has more to do with ride height/angle and little to do with towing control. So I would recommend you investigate installing a WDH with integral sway control. Something along the lines of the Reese Dual Cam system.


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

CamperAndy said:


> I would adjust the head angle to force the bars to a more level final position when hitched.
> 
> Also even if the TV has sway control which has more to do with ride height/angle and little to do with towing control. So I would recommend you investigate installing a WDH with integral sway control. Something along the lines of the Reese Dual Cam system.


Thanks for your reply.
Sorry for the dumb question but this in my first hitch adjustment. When you say "adjust the head angle" to force the bars level. That would mean adding washers to adjust the head toward the trailer to force the bars down? If I do that, wouldn't I have to reduce a link on the chains (from 5 to 4) reducing the weight distribution or would the bars flex differently? By adjusting the head angle, how does that affect the way the weight bars distribute weight? (I searched the web for hours on head angle adjustment without an explanation)
Other than the bar adjustment to parallel, do my wheel well measurements (sag / gain) appear ok with WD bars attached?

Sorry for the confusion on the sway control. The 2011 fords have a built in trailer sway control that works with the built in brake controller in tow haul mode.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

That is correct, changing the head angle with additional washers means you change the number of links but the weight transfer will be the same. Gives better bar clearence to the frame.

As for the truck being a le to control trailer sway, I just don't see it, sorry. Maybe one of the ford experts can give details on this magic.


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

CamperAndy said:


> That is correct, changing the head angle with additional washers means you change the number of links but the weight transfer will be the same. Gives better bar clearence to the frame.
> 
> As for the truck being a le to control trailer sway, I just don't see it, sorry. Maybe one of the ford experts can give details on this magic.


Thank you, I was not sure how the angle adjustment would affect the distribution of weight, I will ad a washer or 2 and reduce links to 4. That will line the bars up better.
As far as the magic in the sway control, from the ford videos and articles, it sounds great. Not sure if it works yet but it would sure help me out.
Look at this video
crunchman


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## duggy (Mar 17, 2010)

My understanding on the built in sway control is that when the truck's stability control detects sway, it applies the trailer brakes, to get it back in line. Check your truck owners manual, and see if they still recommend some sway control on the hitch.

For adjusting your weight distribution, I think the fact that the rear of your truck raised 1/8", means you have the bars drawn up too high. Try dropping it a link or two. Even with weight distribution, you should see the rear of the truck sit a little lower than without the trailer attached. If the bars are still drawn up too close to the trailer frame, which I don't think they will be, then you could adjust the angle of the hitch head to get the bars more parallel with the frame.


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

duggy said:


> My understanding on the built in sway control is that when the truck's stability control detects sway, it applies the trailer brakes, to get it back in line. Check your truck owners manual, and see if they still recommend some sway control on the hitch.
> 
> For adjusting your weight distribution, I think the fact that the rear of your truck raised 1/8", means you have the bars drawn up too high. Try dropping it a link or two. Even with weight distribution, you should see the rear of the truck sit a little lower than without the trailer attached. If the bars are still drawn up too close to the trailer frame, which I don't think they will be, then you could adjust the angle of the hitch head to get the bars more parallel with the frame.


I might have not described the measurements properly in my first post.
The rear *unhitched* height is 39-1/2"
The rear *hitched without bars* is 38-5/8 (7/8" sag)
The rear *hitched with bars* is 38-3/4 (3/4" sag)

Front gained 1/8" without and with bars attached.
crunchman


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## duggy (Mar 17, 2010)

crunchman12002 said:


> My understanding on the built in sway control is that when the truck's stability control detects sway, it applies the trailer brakes, to get it back in line. Check your truck owners manual, and see if they still recommend some sway control on the hitch.
> 
> For adjusting your weight distribution, I think the fact that the rear of your truck raised 1/8", means you have the bars drawn up too high. Try dropping it a link or two. Even with weight distribution, you should see the rear of the truck sit a little lower than without the trailer attached. If the bars are still drawn up too close to the trailer frame, which I don't think they will be, then you could adjust the angle of the hitch head to get the bars more parallel with the frame.


I might have not described the measurements properly in my first post.
The rear *unhitched* height is 39-1/2"
The rear *hitched without bars* is 38-5/8 (7/8" sag)
The rear *hitched with bars* is 38-3/4 (3/4" sag)

Front gained 1/8" without and with bars attached.
crunchman
[/quote]

That changes things!
Now it sounds like the first thing you need to do is change the hitch head angle to get the bars more parallel to the trailer frame. I would say you need to draw the bars up one more link. These new measurements give me the impression that there isn't much weight transfer happening. Maybe once you improve the hitch head angle, it won't be as difficult to tighten up the WD bars.


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

I'd go with everyone else and tilt the head back a tad so the bars are level. They should not crash into the frame, that means you don't have enough chain. There's also a chance you could reduce one link if the ride it too rough. As long as the front of the truck doesn't raise, it should tow fine.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

If the ford sway control uses the trailer brakes that is okay but I would recommend a mechanical sway control also.


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## Bob Landry (Apr 18, 2011)

Tilting the head is not going to change the angle of the bars. That's going to be determined by the number of links used on the chain. Reese recommends a minimum of 5 links(from the bar, not the end)Eeese also recommends that the round bars be parallel to the trailer frame, so I'm assuming that Curt recommends the same. Trunnion bars can point downwards some. Once you have the bars level, then you can adjust the hitch angle to adjust WD, towards the trailer for more weight transfer, towards the TV for less.. After all of that is done, you can adjust the angle of the trailer by moving the whole hitch head up or down if your stinger allows that. Changing the angle of the trailer will not upset any your prior adjustments.


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## rsm7 (Aug 8, 2009)

Bob Landry said:


> Tilting the head is not going to change the angle of the bars. That's going to be determined by the number of links used on the chain. Reese recommends a minimum of 5 links(from the bar, not the end)Eeese also recommends that the round bars be parallel to the trailer frame, so I'm assuming that Curt recommends the same. Trunnion bars can point downwards some. Once you have the bars level, then you can adjust the hitch angle to adjust WD, towards the trailer for more weight transfer, towards the TV for less.. After all of that is done, you can adjust the angle of the trailer by moving the whole hitch head up or down if your stinger allows that. Changing the angle of the trailer will not upset any your prior adjustments.


Here we go again Bob I have to disagree.









I dont have reese so I'll give you that much. If you need more weight transfer and you have to use more links then the bars will hit the frame when applied and will not be parallel. If this happens tilting the head down will give you more clearance between the bars and the frame. This adjustment is spelled out very clearly in my owners manual.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

rsm7 said:


> Tilting the head is not going to change the angle of the bars. That's going to be determined by the number of links used on the chain. Reese recommends a minimum of 5 links(from the bar, not the end)Eeese also recommends that the round bars be parallel to the trailer frame, so I'm assuming that Curt recommends the same. Trunnion bars can point downwards some. Once you have the bars level, then you can adjust the hitch angle to adjust WD, towards the trailer for more weight transfer, towards the TV for less.. After all of that is done, you can adjust the angle of the trailer by moving the whole hitch head up or down if your stinger allows that. Changing the angle of the trailer will not upset any your prior adjustments.


Here we go again Bob I have to disagree.









I dont have reese so I'll give you that much. If you need more weight transfer and you have to use more links then the bars will hit the frame when applied and will not be parallel. If this happens tilting the head down will give you more clearance between the bars and the frame. This adjustment is spelled out very clearly in my owners manual.
[/quote]

Bob I have to disagree with part of your post. There are many variables involved to get the weight transfer correct. The parallel bars ensure swing clearance of the bars, you can point them down some but you never want them to point up. To achieve the weight transfer you must tilt the head so that when the bars are level, they are loaded to the point to transfer the weight.


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

I want to thank everyone for their help on adjusting this hitch. 
I had to go out and buy a couple new washers yesterday. I put two in first to see how that affected the hitch angle and height. The change seemed extreme so I went with one as a test. My parking area in the driveway for the TT is a mud pit and with the rain last night, it got worse. Got everything tighted up on the hitch, hooked up to the trailer and got stuck in the mud. Unhooked the TT, and tried to pull out but being so close to the trailer, I could not rock it out. I got the wife behind the wheel of the truck and hooked my Suzuki vinson 500 4x4 quad to the front of the truck and it pulled it out. Nice!
Now the trailer is too close to the house to put the rear slide out, so I could not de-winterize as planned or test the new angle.

Today, I will order a dump truck full of gravel and get that spread out.

I hope to test things out tuesday night, I will keep all posted and take pics to post.
Interesting to see the difference of opinions on head angle and chain links. This is great because we all can learn from the tips from those more experienced than me. Keep the debate going, good stuff.
Thanks again everyone,
crunchman


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Sorry to hear about the weather! When it rains it pours I guess.


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## Bob Landry (Apr 18, 2011)

CamperAndy said:


> Tilting the head is not going to change the angle of the bars. That's going to be determined by the number of links used on the chain. Reese recommends a minimum of 5 links(from the bar, not the end)Eeese also recommends that the round bars be parallel to the trailer frame, so I'm assuming that Curt recommends the same. Trunnion bars can point downwards some. Once you have the bars level, then you can adjust the hitch angle to adjust WD, towards the trailer for more weight transfer, towards the TV for less.. After all of that is done, you can adjust the angle of the trailer by moving the whole hitch head up or down if your stinger allows that. Changing the angle of the trailer will not upset any your prior adjustments.


Here we go again Bob I have to disagree.









I dont have reese so I'll give you that much. If you need more weight transfer and you have to use more links then the bars will hit the frame when applied and will not be parallel. If this happens tilting the head down will give you more clearance between the bars and the frame. This adjustment is spelled out very clearly in my owners manual.
[/quote]

Bob I have to disagree with part of your post. There are many variables involved to get the weight transfer correct. The parallel bars ensure swing clearance of the bars, you can point them down some but you never want them to point up. To achieve the weight transfer you must tilt the head so that when the bars are level, they are loaded to the point to transfer the weight.
[/quote]

Fair enough. But, after reading the Curt Installation/Setup several times, I'm not sure that we are actually disagreeing. Curt does specify a minimum of 5 links to guard against binding. After that, it's OK to adjust the amount of WD by using different links on the chain as long as the minimum is maintained. If you have to go to less links, then the head needs to be tilted towards the trailer to get more tension since less links may cause the bar to bind. I don't remember Curt saying anything about the bars needing to be parallel with the frame, only that at least 5 links were needed.

Reese is a little different. They say the round bars work best when parallel and to use the number of links to get there and also keeping it to a minimum of 5, for the same reason. After that, you want to keep the bars parallel and change the tension on the bars as needed by tilting the hitch one way or the other. I think the importance of keeping the bars parallel and leaving the chains alone after that is because of the use of their Dual Cam Anti-Sway, which Curt doesn't have. The Reese WD bars have a bend that the cam "rides" in and by not changing the elevation of the bars you are able to change WD using the hitch head and not have to do a major change on the DC, since the brackets for that are bolted to the frame and can't be moved. I think we're are both right, we're just reading different directions. I'm assuming that if you were not going to use Resse's Dual Cam setup, ot would be acceptable to adjust WD on bot hitches by change chain links, since the way both hitches work is nearly identical. These hitch threads do get interesting. They would probably be less interesting if both Curt and Reese put a little more forethought into their instructions.


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## Braggus (Aug 8, 2010)

One thing I noticed with the Ford's built in sway and I might have just been doing it wrong but it is not always on, you have to go into the setup on your dash to turn it on, then each time I restarted my truck I would have to do it again.


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

Braggus said:


> One thing I noticed with the Ford's built in sway and I might have just been doing it wrong but it is not always on, you have to go into the setup on your dash to turn it on, then each time I restarted my truck I would have to do it again.


I will be towing in a few hours, just reading this post made me look at the manual. It says "Trailer sway control can be disabled during any key cycle. Note:that regardless of chosen enable state, trailer sway control will re-enable at each new key cycle"
My 250 in a 2011 base model, maybe you have the "truck apps" installed where you can select different trailers? Maybe set up is different on your model?
crunchman


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## crunchman12002 (Jul 26, 2009)

Just a follow up...
I got the trailer set up correct,I think. After I added 1 washer to adjust the angle of the hitch head, it raised the trailer front making it un-level with the bars on. I had to drop the ball 1 hole down. Without the bars on it was 1 inch too low in the front. When I put the bars on at 5 links (not as hard to hook now) the trailer sits around 1/2 lower from front to back.
The bars are not parallel to the frame but are much better and will not crash the frame. First test will be this morning.
I will report back on how we roll.
Thank you again to all who helped with this.
Have a great holiday.
crunchman


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## Braggus (Aug 8, 2010)

crunchman12002 said:


> One thing I noticed with the Ford's built in sway and I might have just been doing it wrong but it is not always on, you have to go into the setup on your dash to turn it on, then each time I restarted my truck I would have to do it again.


I will be towing in a few hours, just reading this post made me look at the manual. It says "Trailer sway control can be disabled during any key cycle. Note:that regardless of chosen enable state, trailer sway control will re-enable at each new key cycle"
My 250 in a 2011 base model, maybe you have the "truck apps" installed where you can select different trailers? Maybe set up is different on your model?
crunchman
[/quote]
Hmmmm, just know I had to go into the select screen and it was always disabled, after I turned it on the next key cycle it would be off again.


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