Setting Up an Anti Sway Hitch to Steady Your Tow Trailer
George VondriskaDescription
An anti sway hitch can make your towing life a more secure and a whole lot less stressful. By reducing the amount that a trailer can move side to side with crosswinds as you head down the road, an anti sway hitch is a must-have for RVers with especially tall trailers. Luckily companies such as Blue Ox make weight distributing hitches that can give peace of mind and a smoother ride. In this free video lesson George Vondriska introduces the SwayPro™ Weight Distributing Hitch from Blue Ox and shows you how to get it set up quickly and effectively.
Why your trailer could use an anti sway hitch
A weight distributing or anti sway hitch helps to make your towing ride more comfortable by doing a better job than a standard hitch of distributing the payload between the tow vehicle and the trailer. As such, your towing is going to be stabler with less side to side movement regardless of the unpredictable conditions you might face.
George discusses the mechanics involved in hitches that distribute weight and walks you through the process of installation in just a few minutes, explaining along the way what happens when you properly install an anti sway hitch. The SwayPro™ from Blue Ox works by using adjustable spring bars and tension to distribute the load of the trailer tongue (the static force the trailer tongue exerts on the hitch ball) to the trailer and the tow vehicle axles.
Additional information from the Blue Ox website
Here’s a bit more info about the SwayPro™, which is available in various tongue weights and shank sizes:
Features
– Evenly distributes weight over axles of the tow vehicle and trailer
– Noise-free sway prevention never stops working, even in rain or snow
– Caster in the hitch head constantly centers the trailer
– Spring bars augment the suspensions of the tow vehicle & trailer
– Rotating latches with clamp-on brackets for quick and easy setup
– Powder-coated steel construction
Specifications:
– Tongue weights available: 350, 550, 750, 1000, 1500 & 2000 lbs
– Gross Towing Weight 20K maximum
– 2″ receiver or 2-1/2″ (BXW2000) receiver shanks dependent on model
Components:
– SwayPro Hitch Heads
– SwayPro Hitch Shanks
– SwayPro Spring Bars
– SwayPro Latches
– Weight Distribution Pole Tongue Adapter
– Wrench and Parts for SwayPro
I've invested a lot of time and money in this camper, and I want to make sure towing it comes off without a hitch. Get it? 'Cause what I want to talk about is a hitch. You want to match up the tow vehicle and the thing that you're pulling no matter what. You can make your towing life a whole lot easier by using an anti-sway hitch.
I've got the Blue Ox hitch here, and I've got one component on the truck. I got a component on the trailer. Let's look at hooking this whole system up now. The directions that come with the SwayPro are great, and they're gonna help you get the hitch on the truck right. The position here on the trailer right for these components, and you want to make sure you follow those directions accordingly.
My first use of a anti-sway weight distribution hitch was on a horse trailer, and I couldn't believe the huge difference it made in the ride of that whole rig. Got a couple things going on here. Anti-sway, that's self-explanatory. Tall trailer like this, that's gonna help, especially if you get in a crosswind and the trailer wants to move, it's gonna keep everything more stable. Weight distribution, you'll see when I torque on this bar in a second.
It helps distribute the load better between the tow vehicle and whatever it is that you're pulling. So, here's how this comes together now that we're all put together here on the truck and the trailer. This bar goes in here. Let this relax. Count links according to the directions.
Use the wrench they provide, and we're gonna torque this up, which puts pressure up on that bar. Then when I relax the jack, it's gonna distribute the pressure between the trailer and the truck. Three, two, one, go. When you do this in reverse, you want to take everything apart. Same thing, we want to get just a little bit of tension under that jack.
Take a little bit of the load off. Get in the position that we are now. Get the wrench on here. Pull that spring loaded clip out, pin. Let that back down, and we'd be ready to disconnect.
It's a really good insurance policy to add to your vehicle and your trailer to make sure that when you're going down the road, like I said, comes off without a hitch.
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