Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Trailer load leveler hitch

The Huge RV dealer here offers free install of the E qual izer Hitch. Installed its like 600 bucks. These guys probably do 1000 a year? they understand the function and the setup so I'm thinking it's likely a good thing for them to undertake.

They have two designs that they peddle there. Both the same company, but one has chains and the other levers. The service guys recommends the lever model and being a better overall system. It's a few bucks more, but does look like the better design.

Have any of you guys used these on your trailers? What do you see as the improvement? Worth the investment? I'm gonna pull this trailer about 10,000 miles in the next 8 months!

Ha ha..... After that I'll have all the answers on what works and what does not, towing this back and forth through the rockies all summer and fall!

Yes, get the spring bar hitch over the chains. Equalizer brand is the way to go and worth every penny.

I have had both and it is an accepted standard that the bars are better than the chain. I continue to use the bars on my 30 foot toy-hauler...

Scanning through this site's offerings, one notices their statements on various brands and models with distinction on capability to back up or not. Seems to relate to the design of the friction anti sway control. http://www.etrailer.com/

Mine uses chains and was sold and installed by the trailer dealer. They have worked great. The accompanying anti-sway style they bundled together is described above as "no backing up." They just warned me not to back up and turn too short or it will plunge too deeply and bend when hitting the stops and be ruined. Don't know if there is more to it than that??

No experience to establish preference over chains or levers. Defer to others.

Seriously, Equal-I-zer or nothing. Built in sway, easy to hook up, lasts forever, back up all day long.

Equal-i-zer

Get the Equal-I-zer and install it yourself.

My dad uses one on his 35' travel trailer.

If your truck has a receiver hitch, the only thing to install are the brackets on the trailer tongue.

They work great. Most people think the only have to worry about the trailer weight and tongue weight,but what is in the bed of your truck adds to it.

There are different weight distribution hitch classes depending on the bed load and tongue weight.Too much is just as bad as not enough. Not enough and they do no good. Too much and your trailer will bounce. You also need to know how to correctly adjust them for varying loads and what your truck axles and spring specifications are.

Basically the weight of the load in your truck bed, from the axle back and the tongue weight of your trailer will determine the specs on the weight distribution system. Your receiver hitch will be determined by the total weight of the trailer and your trucks pulling capacity.

Go to etrailer.com and study up on them. Assuming you have the correct class of receiver hitch, II,III,IV or V already installed, all you have to do is install the brackets on your trailer to accept the torsion bars.I prefer the torsion bars.

Don't have the shop install one until you understand how they work and what you need.

Pretty much what RC said here, however, if you have a receiver already mounted make sure it is rated for what you will be towing.
JMHO, I would never be without one and have used them for 30+ years.

I have had to help guys get out of some slimy areas though when they had their equalizer bars hooked up tight and weren't getting enough weight to the rear of their truck. All said that they never even considered doing it.

Taking the pressure off the bars until you get to terra firma has never let me down.

Thanks guys, I have the standard factory receiver hitch on my Dodge 2500 truck.

I'm pretty sure it will handle anything I can legally connect to it for the vehicle capacity.

It does not look to complicated to hook up, however I'm not sure how much pressure I should have on those bars? There must be some type of weight setting or tension level to use.

I see they are typically snapped in place with a cheater bar specifically made to pry them into place.

Oh.... Driving or backing up is no problem with these. They work just fine either direction

Pretty easy to adjust properly.

On a flat surface, you measure from the ground to the center of the wheel well opening on the front of your truck. Just take the tape measure up past the center of your wheel. This is without any load in the bed, or a trailer hooked up.Record that measurement for both sides of the truck.

Load what ever you will be carrying in the bed and hook up your trailer.

Usually your torsion bars have a short piece of chain on the torsion bar that connects the bar to the trailer bracket.
The adjustment is what link you hook on the chain to on the bracket. Some systems vary in this respect,but they all have some type of adjustment in them.


Some systems also have adjustment on the tow bar to get the proper angle to the trailerand there are different heights of the bar that holds the ball that you select depending on the height of your receiver vs your trailer tongue .

Once you have the bed loaded and trailer hooked up.Remeasure that front wheel well,

Using the trailer jack on the tongue,to take take pressure off, jack the tongue up.(but make sure the trailer hitch itself is locked on). You will be picking up the back of the truck and the tongue of the trailer.

Adjust the links on the chains so that when you let the trailer jack down, that front wheel well measurement is the same as the original non-loaded measurement.Some systems vary as to how this adjustment is done.

Don't assume your receiver hitch is adequate.There should be a label on the cross bar of the receiver mounted on your truck telling you what Class it is.It will give the permissible tongue weight and trailer towed weight with and without a load leveling system.

To repeat, the amount of weight in the bed of the truck aft of the rear axle gets added into the tongue weight when deciding what capacity you need for the load leveling device.Don't forget to include all the things you will add to the trailer like water, propane, gear,etc. A fairly good rule of thumb,assuming the trailer is designed right is that the tongue weight is 10% of the total trailer weight. That can vary on how the trailer is loaded .

Yes it puts weight on your stear tires...a must with any bumper trailer with any kind of size...

Well, an update on this hitch, I've pulled the trailer now 1800 miles with it. Yesterday on the way home wind was blowing 20-30mph with gusts in the upper 30's low 40's. My 8000lb diesel truck and this 7000 lb trailer were feeling the power of the wind when the gusts would hit us solidly.

At no point did the trailer sway out of the lane, not even one time. The gusts would push the truck pretty good, but with my attentive steering control if I kept the truck in the lane the trailer stayed there as well. There was absolutely no sway on this trailer.

The wind was so powerful at a rest stop, that we had to really stand behind the truck doors and hang on with both hands to keep them from slamming open when the wind caught them. I'm sure the camper door would have been blown open and seriously damaged if it were not held with two hands.

I cannot praise the benefits that this device brings to trailer control enough. I would never own a trailer without this or an equal to this device. I wish there was a better way to hook up, a less effort method. That's the only one thought I would change.

Once the trailer is dropped and I need to use the truck, that unit gets slid out of the receiver, it's heavy, not sure how much weight, but I'm guessing 80 plus pounds? Then I need to secure it so it does not grow legs when I'm away with the truck. I can cable lock the unit to the chain that is on the trailer for the hooks. Clearly nobody will be running off with this on foot!

I was at 15.7MPG crossing the flats towards the columbia river. The wind along the river was so strong I dropped to 13.5MPG when we began getting pounded. Then leveled off to 14.2MPG once away from the canyons wind.

I think the wind is more devastating to MPG then hills are!

What brand? With Equalizer brand you hook up as follows.

1. Drop ball on hitch and lock in place.
2. Raise trailer tongue with jack until you can rotate spring bars into place
3. Rotate spring bars into place and secure with clips
4. Raise jack and you are GTG

The only time I ever have to use the provided bar to lever the spring arms on is if I am trying to hook up at either a severe twist (one side lower than the other) or if I am parked in a big swale. 90+% of the time I don't even need to touch the lever.

Also, be sure to grease hitch surfaces with white lithium spray grease and check ball and hitch head tightness, especially after the first couple of tows.

Most like I do mostly.

Concerning wind. I get great mileage going east thru Kansas. Coming back west with a head wind and climbing a little in elevation,I drop 3MPG not towing, 5 MPG+ pulling a trailer.

It's not so much the connection and disconnection, it's the " where do I put the whole mechanism" when I disconnect it from the truck to use the truck.

Luckily I can lock mine up in the horse trailer

I'm gonna just set it down on the ground, and cable lock it to the chain on the trailer hitch.

It is kind of a pain to lift it into the bed of the pickup and then having it chew up the bed liner when bouncing down gravel roads. Nobody is going to run off with it on foot. Locking it to the chain that has the hooks should make it tough to steal it

Lock the hitch ball onto the trailer and lock the tongue of the trailer with a locking pin. If you also lock the pin you use to secure the hitch to the truck in the hole on the drawbar, no one can back up and hook up your hitch to their truck and take the trailer.

"I think the wind is more devastating to MPG then hills are!"

I completely agree with you!