Need some hitch info/help

[PGDriver]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

What should one use to drill out a broken titanium drill bit?

A carbide drill bit maybe.

Cheers
Doug

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by thoer

Oh in that case....

I think your little fella there needs a bit of a time out.

[thoer]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

I think your little fella there needs a bit of a time out.

He can't he's missing a bit

[Jim Bennett]

Groan......

[Brian B-P]

Turning angle

Originally Posted by MyronL

I thought added distance when executing a jack-knife maneuver would help keep the tow bumper from crunching into my tongue box. It helped, but not enough to Trump (sorry) the overall towing experience.

That's a reason that I don't want a wide tongue box... or propane tanks overhanging the frame. A much more effective (and much more difficult) solution than extending the ball mount, which also improves stability and reduces hitch load (instead of making them worse), is to extend the tongue of the trailer. I note that Bigfoot has an even bigger body-width storage box than Escape, but they extend the trailer's frame to compensate so turning clearance is not lost.

Tailgate clearance

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

You can also use the Jack-E-Up up removable jack, that way you can use the shorter stingers for better towing. Jack-E-Up

Good point. Another option is to use an Ultimate Jack, which can be raised for towing and lowered for tailgate

[thoer]

Well, after killing a couple of drill bits, (that WDH is HARD, my Dremel and round file came in handy) and following all the instructions for the Pro Series with the trailer hooked up and the WDH adjusted I took it out for a test run over to our local COOP for some weighing. Felt excellent, and no sway with trying some very fast lane change type maneuvers.

As Iowa Dave reported about his setup, I had to switch orientation of the large adjustment area from pointed down to pointed up to get the ball to the setup height the instruction listed = 3/4" higher than the top of the trailer ball lock in point before hookup.

I'm able to get the front of the HIghlander back to almost precisely its loaded but unhitched height as the instructions specify but the front the trailer is up above level. From trying to read more about this on the web, I've concluded that for a single axle trailer too high is better than too low. The rationale is that in any heavy braking need, that the weight is shifted to the front of the trailer and putting more downforce on it - thus pushing down more on the ball.

Ideally I'd get it perfectly level, but with the available adjustments it seems I can only get either a bit too low or a bit too high if I keep the WDH bars close to level- so for now unless someone has a good reason to switch I guess I'll leave it that way. Comments more than welcome!

[cpaharley2008]

Agreed, with single axle there is no issue with high or low impact on tires, just towing experience. The tandem axles should be level when towing.

[thoer]

Thanks Jim.

[Iowa Dave]

By George he's got it, Eric's really got it. Yes he's got it. Your rig for your Escape on your Highlander looks just like my rig for our Escape on our Highlander. Imagine that. How much you got hangin, three or four? Once you get 5 or 6 cases of beer and 50 lbs of ice in a BIG cooler in the back of the Highlander, she might squat down to level. Best of luck,
Dave

[thoer]

Hey Dave - you're surely right about not having the beer weight yet - will need that soon and for sure for the Midwest Rally.

I've got 4 hangin' now and it goes up pretty easy. I've decided that the Highlander has stronger rear suspension than the Tacoma did based on all this WDH changeover. When we started considering a new tow, one of the very interesting facts was finding out that the 2016 Highlander has a larger passenger/cargo load capacity than the 2016 Tacoma. The Tacoma has larger GCWR due to larger tow rating.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

By George he's got it, Eric's really got it. Yes he's got it.

You sure about that?

[Iowa Dave]

With apologies to Professor Higgins.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by thoer

Well, after killing a couple of drill bits, (that WDH is HARD, my Dremel and round file came in handy) and following all the instructions for the Pro Series with the trailer hooked up and the WDH adjusted I took it out for a test run over to our local COOP for some weighing. Felt excellent, and no sway with trying some very fast lane change type maneuvers.

Looks good!

Originally Posted by thoer

I'm able to get the front of the HIghlander back to almost precisely its loaded but unhitched height as the instructions specify but the front the trailer is up above level. From trying to read more about this on the web, I've concluded that for a single axle trailer too high is better than too low. The rationale is that in any heavy braking need, that the weight is shifted to the front of the trailer and putting more downforce on it - thus pushing down more on the ball.

I would say the opposite. Raising the tongue shifts the mass of the trailer rearward and upward, making it less stable. As a result, slightly nose-down is always preferred for single-axle trailers. As a minor side-effect, nose-down would help clearance between the Highlander's hatch and the Escape's tongue jack, in case that is an issue.

Yes, during braking there will be more load on the tongue, but at the same time the tow vehicle is shifting load (for the same reason) from rear axle to front axle, so there is no problem with the trailer tongue pushing the ball down too much under braking.

[thoer]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

Looks good!

I would say the opposite. Raising the tongue shifts the mass of the trailer rearward and upward, making it less stable. As a result, slightly nose-down is always preferred for single-axle trailers. As a minor side-effect, nose-down would help clearance between the Highlander's hatch and the Escape's tongue jack, in case that is an issue.

Yes, during braking there will be more load on the tongue, but at the same time the tow vehicle is shifting load (for the same reason) from rear axle to front axle, so there is no problem with the trailer tongue pushing the ball down too much under braking.

Huum - good food for thought. But I measured the tongue weight with the tongue at very close to its height when all hooked up and the WDH installed. It was right at about 11 - 12%. If the nose up angle were shifting the load enough to matter wouldn't that show in tongue weight? 17's are pretty tongue heavy and a tongue down angle could potentially get it over 15%. I've had more instances with almost too much tongue weight rather than too little with it.

I'm having trouble visualizing how tongue down could help clearance between the jack and hatch - seem like tongue down would angle to top of the jack closer to the hatch? But there is plenty there anyway on ours.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by thoer

Huum - good food for thought. But I measured the tongue weight with the tongue at very close to its height when all hooked up and the WDH installed. It was right at about 11 - 12%. If the nose up angle were shifting the load enough to matter wouldn't that show in tongue weight? 17's are pretty tongue heavy and a tongue down angle could potentially get it over 15%. I've had more instances with almost too much tongue weight rather than too little with it.

That makes sense. 11 - 12% while tilted slightly up does mean that it will be greater when level or lower; the effect is already showing, but you can't tell without tongue weights at each height. Fortunately the rate of change with tilt is not as great with a single-axle as it is with a tandem-axle.

While the Escape 17 tends to be high in tongue weight (although not as bad as the similarly sized and proportioned Casita 17, due in part to the rear battery placement), high hitch weight is often an issue. It would be interesting to measure the hitch weight at both heights, to see how much difference it makes.

Anyway, the trailer is apparently not unreasonably nose-up now.

Originally Posted by thoer

I'm having trouble visualizing how tongue down could help clearance between the jack and hatch - seem like tongue down would angle to top of the jack closer to the hatch? But there is plenty there anyway on ours.

Maybe I wasn't so clear...
The improvement wouldn't be from the slight change in tilt angle of the trailer (which I agree would make interference worse), but simply from attaching the trailer's tongue a couple inches lower on the Highlander.

Doesn't matter in this case, anyway. My hatch just barely clears my tongue jack, and some people find that it hits... depending on tow vehicle, jack, and hitch setup. It's just something to check for.

[thoer]

I'll just put those cases of beer Dave talked about back there and it will probably be level!