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installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Today we are going to do an install of part number 66067 we have a full size van and an enclosed toy hauler and as you can see here it is kind of sloping down pretty bad. We will go ahead and install weight distribution to help straighten things out. To begin our install we have to uncouple the truck and trailer, get the trailer level and get the measurement off the ball mount. At this point we can go ahead and pull the van out of the way and get a little more working room. We will go ahead and take out the ball mount and then then go ahead and measure for a rise or if needed for the shank for the weight distribution. What we are going to do is measure from the bottom of the coupler to the ground and that is 22 inches. We will do the same thing for the vehicle. We will measure from the top of the hitch on the vehicle to the ground. Roughly it will round off to 18 inches so we will need to raise it 4 inches.
Now we just pick out a shank with a 4 inch rise to it. Next we will go ahead and loosely install the head assembly on our shank and adjust it as close as we can to the couplers 22 inch height. We will go ahead and install our adjusting washers. To adjust the tilt of the head you just turn these washers here to make it go up or down as needed. Once you have the hitch set the height you want, if it is in between always go with the next higher slot up. Because it is better to have it up to take care of any vehicle squat when you put the weight on the trailer hitch. Go ahead and install the ball on here. Turning it sideways will make it easier to tighten down. We will go ahead and tighten up the bolts that hold down the head assembly. Next we need to get a few measurements on the van before we put the weight on there. We will measure from the top of the wheel wells then down to the ground and note those. Ideally we want to have about a 1/2 inch of sag overall and the rear measurement should not sag more than 1/2 inch. Looks like the back wheel is 36 and the front wheel is 35. We will go ahead and attach our chains to our spring bars here. They just attach them with a U bolt. Go through a couple of washers and lock nuts. It does not have to be super tight either just tighten them down a few threads past the nut will be fine
The next part is to go ahead and put the trailer back on the truck and get it back to original ride height. We will go ahead and install our swing bars and locate where our lift lock brackets need to go. What you want to do is go ahead and pull up the chain as straight as possible until it gets vertical. Then line the lift lock bracket just with it. That will give us plenty of clearance for this little ferrying here. Once we have our alignment set we will go ahead and put a few marks on here just so we know where to place it when we put it back. We will take it off and then put our set bolts back in and reinstall it. Once you have it set you want to tighten down your set screw tightened right until it touches then about a half turn it will fall into place. Then go ahead and repeat for the other side. Now at this point you have the trailer and the van coupled up. We will go ahead and raise both of them with the trailer jack. Rise it back up to original trailer height. Then we will install our chains and see how our dimensions come out on the wheel wells. One note is you should have a minimum of 5 links showing. So I think we will be on 7 maybe. We will go ahead and pull it up and repeat for the other side. Now we will take the tension off of the jack and let the bars do all the work and check our measurements. Go ahead and measure here 35-1/2. About a 1/2 inch difference which is just fine. Then 35-1/4 which is pretty close. The rear was okay but the front did not settle like it was suppose too, in fact it went up just a little bit. Also one detail we will look for is that the spring bars if you notice should be parallel to the bottom of the tongue.
Post time: Jun-13-2017