Fastway e2 wdh?

[Fox hunt]

Originally Posted by Fox hunt

What's a jack e up?

Never mind just googled it

[cpaharley2008]

The Jack-E-UP described here Jack-E-Up is a way to remove your tongue jack, once hooked up which allows the rear of your tow vehicle or truck tailgate to open. You remove the 3 bolts holding the tongue jack, install the bottom part to the frame using the same holes, attach the top part to your jack using supplied bolts and slip your jack down and twist to use, untwist and remove. I have been using one for years.

[Parker]

I don't know if my comment belongs here or elsewhere, but yesterday I replaced the Andersen with an Equilizer hitch, which is the original American made version of the Fastway E2. Dennis installed our Andersen at the ETI factory, and through no fault of his, it didn't have enough adjustment to get our 19 quite level, nor our softly-sprung Highlander. The 19 was about an inch low in the front, and the Highlander squatted down more in the rear than I wanted. Used with a more stiffly sprung tow vehicle with a higher hitch, I think the Andersen would have been okay. Otherwise, I liked using the Andersen and appreciated their service. We've used it for 20K miles. It's due for a new friction cone, which I intend to install and then I'll probably post it for sale.

[cpaharley2008]

An inch low is better than and inch high on the trailer but level is the ideal set up. If you had too much squat then the conventional w/d is better suited for that, whereas the Andersen is better with sway. I had good luck using air bags or adding fresh water in the trailer rear tank to eliminate tow vehicle squat.

[Parker]

Understand. I thought about air bags and decided not to go into unknown territory (for me). I think the Equilizer's sway control with the sliding bars will be more than adequate.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Parker

I don't know if my comment belongs here or elsewhere, but yesterday I replaced the Andersen with an Equilizer hitch, which is the original American made version of the Fastway E2.

Not quite. Progress Manufacturing owns both Equal-i-zer and Fastway, and sells the original Equal-i-zer design under that name, plus the E2 as a Fastway. The Equal-i-zer and E2 have the same frame bracket setup (with deliberate sliding friction), but entirely different heads: the E2 has a conventional WD head (available in both trunnion and round bar configurations), while the unique feature of the Equal-i-zer is what they call their "tri-wing" head - a setup that clamps the bar sockets (like those of a typical trunnion design) between flanges on the head to provide more frictional resistance to turning (for sway damping). They're not the same.

Originally Posted by Parker

Dennis installed our Andersen at the ETI factory, and through no fault of his, it didn't have enough adjustment to get our 19 quite level, nor our softly-sprung Highlander. The 19 was about an inch low in the front, and the Highlander squatted down more in the rear than I wanted. Used with a more stiffly sprung tow vehicle with a higher hitch, I think the Andersen would have been okay.

I don't know how an Andersen No-Sway can run out of adjustment. Were the nuts all the way to ends of the threads? This system can apply a huge amount of torque - maybe not enough to shift several hundred pounds between axles when towing a trailer with half a ton of tongue weight, but lots for any Escape.

It should always be possible to level the trailer. If the trailer was an inch low, then the head should have been moved up a position on the rack. If the rack was in the down position and the top was reached, the rack should have been flipped up. With the very low receiver position on my Sienna a ball mount must be used in the rise position, and 1.25" ball mounts with enough rise are hard to find... but with a Highlander's higher receiver (and a Tacoma's much higher receiver) this should not be an issue. There's an Andersen No-Sway rack with 8 inches of rise.

On the other hand, proper WD adjustment may not bring the back of a tug up as much as desired, if it is really soft. The solution to that is air suspension in the tug, but unfortunately the air bags (for inside the coil springs) which are the easiest type don't work with the Highlander's suspension. The Tacoma is entirely different, and add-on air springs work fine with it.

[Parker]

Hi Brian. I wasn't aware of the difference; I just went by the local, well-trusted hitch place telling me that the E2 is an Asian-made knockoff of the US Equalizer. I didn't try to verify that, but based on what you're describing about the design, I'm doubly happy with my choice.

I understand what you're saying about the Andersen installation. We have the tallest rack, and the ball housing is set in the highest position. Unfortunately, the aftermarket Reese hitch on the Highlander comes out under the body of the car, not through it like a real Toyota installation. There was no practical way to get it any higher. The chains were installed in their proper positions on frame rails, and as instructed by Dennis, I tightened until seven threads showed, resulting in considerable compression of the elastomer springs. At this point, the deep socket provided by Anderson was bottoming out on the studs. I just didn't see a practical way forward without a lot of fiddling around, so I went for the Equalizer to cut my losses and hopefully solve this problem for good. Looking at the result, I think I accomplished that. Thanks for jumping in. I appreciate your comments.

[tdf-texas]

Anybody used the Husky Centerline TS? From what I have read online, it is a clone of the Equalizer without the noise issue and less cost.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W919GLM...=IK1VQ19YBZHGG

I like that it has better sway control than the E2 - similar to the Equalizer in function.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

Anybody used the Husky Centerline TS? From what I have read online, it is a clone of the Equalizer without the noise issue and less cost.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W919GLM...=IK1VQ19YBZHGG

I like that it has better sway control than the E2 - similar to the Equalizer in function.

I agree that this looks like a copy of the Equal-i-zer. That makes this statement by Husky (posted on that Amazon page) hilarious:

The New Centerline TS has been in development by Husky’s engineering team for nearly three years. We brought advanced design, the latest in technology and materials science to a product that greatly improves the towing experience.

Yeah, right...

But why would it make any less noise than an Equal-i-zer? The only difference I see is that the frame brackets have a couple of posts that the Equal-i-zer doesn't so the L-shaped retaining clip doesn't rub on the bar:

[RandS]

Obviously a WDH has to perform several tasks well, be easy to hook up and hopefully do the job quietly. There sure is a range of opinions on which one does it the best. One of the things that made sense to me about the Andersen hitches was their weight. It seems that if one can pull 50 pounds or more off the bumper of lighter tow vehicles it has to help. That, plus when installing or removing a hitch the lighter options would seem preferable. The E2 apparently is quite light but I question Amazon's claim that model 94-00-0600 is only 30 pounds. I haven't found a site that compares the weight of hitches but the old pros on this Forum might be able to help.