Andersen WDH question

Question for those that pull a TT and use Andersen WDH...

1-How many inches are you lifting the rear of the truck before tightening chains?
2-How many full rotations are you tightening before lowering the TT?

Trying to dial mine in properly on a leveled 2015 Tundra OR with a mid height camper shell, and a NOBO 19.3 (5000ish lbs). I sit completely level without my TT, and trying to get no squat. Concerned that my 3-4" lift and 3 rotations on the chain are too much? Sags 1/2"-3/4" when doing that. Considering lots of options before a 5,000mi road trip this summer (different WDH and/or RAS are the top hits thus far).

 

That depends on a couple of things, such as where your brackets are mounted to the trailer and how the hitch drop is set. I use an Andersen and like it a lot - no bouncing like a spring bar setup, and it does great with sway. My brackets on the trailer frame were originally setup to expose a few threads before engaging the urethane bushing. Then I tighten down 4 turns or so for a total of 7-8 threads showing. Per the scale, this restores almost all of the weight back to the front axle.

Ideally, that is what you want with any WD hitch - restore the weight on the front axle and possibly a bit more, push some weight back to the trailer axles, but keep weight on the rear axle of the tow vehicle. You don’t want less than 2/3 of the tongue on the rear axle, so removing ALL the sag from the back axle means you’ve removed all the weight as well. If you are seeing 1/2-3/4” of drop in the rear, you are doing an admirable job

What does the front fender height look like before and after hitching up? You can run across a scale a couple times to check weight and how much is being transferred.

 

Bad pic but this is a mostly empty bed on the most recent trip.

From my notes it looks like my wheel well height was 38 7/16 without the TT, and 38 1/2 with it…so not much difference in the front.
Back measurements were 38 1/2 without TT, 38 3/16 with, for a total sag of 5/16” unloaded. But loading the bed gets me to 1” sag.

mainly concerned because I’ve noticed severe wear on my front tires on the outside after a 4,000mi trip. K02’s. 1” sag didn’t bother me until seeing that, so now wondering if I need to put more weight on the front axle. Or just rotate tires more. Or diff tires! Always something.

 

Ha. Ya, always something!

What is your front fender height without the trailer hitched yup compared to it hitched?

I usually drop the hitch on to the ball, lock it, then raise the hitch an inch or so with the Jack before I crank down the nut on the chains. Once those are tensioned nice and tight, I drop the jack down all the way. Years ago, I learned that was the easier way to tension a WD hitch after I bent a tire iron trying to latch the spring bar on the frame bracket. You can go so far as lifting the back of the truck 2 or 3 inches before tightening the chains.

Also, have you looked in to airbags? I’ve used them for years with and without a WD hitch. After setting up the WD hitch same as you would without air bags, you can air up a little to raise the back end up. You retain the weight on the rear axle but get your ride height back and increase the rear spring rate to combat the increased weight. I know this is a bit controversial and others will have differing opinions and methodologies to setting up a WD hitch and using bags, but this has works well for me.

 

Not sure about front fender height before and after, will hitch up next weekend to check that...Ive only measured the wheel wells in the past (those figures are in my response above)

 

I ran an Andersen for many years and discussed the setup with an Andersen engineer face to face. His recommendation was considerably more tension than I was using.

My normal operation was to lift up the truck 3+ inches with the jack and tighten chain by hand then 4 more revolutions. Then drop down. The Andersen guy told me to ensure the red puck is compressed. It's not a washer, it's a spring and it needs to be squished. If it is not squished where you can see it a bit compressed you haven't set it up right.

With that said I switched to a Blue Ox on the new trailer. It isn't as easy and quiet, but I prefer the way it distributes weight.

 

Interesting. That's how I assumed it worked in the first place, so I always have some squish in the urethane bushing. Heavier load and I add some more squish. I've used it on three or four different vehicles and have found it to be the simplest to setup and evaluate on all of them. I also find it's much easier to teach a sibling or spouse to use compared to conventional spring bar or tension bar setups. I do hear good thing about the Blue Ox setups, though. But I don't have much reason to replace the Andersen.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. There is cat scales close to me, I will fiddle with it before the next short trip and see up. Will update!

 

I think the biggest reason to choose an Andersen is weight. If you are towing a light trailer with a mid size SUV it's the perfect choice and you save some payload. The only big problem is with single axle trailers - I have found that they can cause bounce if you don't have it just perfect.

 

I use the Andersen hitch with our Airstream GT 27ft. I purchased the hitch for the advantages it has over the spring bar setup which mostly comes down to hitch weight and antisway. I find the actual weight distribution capability to be limited. But my Airstream is tongue heavy and the Tundra leafs are pretty soft. I also have the RAS HD kit installed. I like the hitch overall for what it is, it took a good while to dial in and the weight distribution could be better. Eaz-lift TR3 also looks like a good option. Weigh Safe Medium, or B&W Continuum. Video of my setup and thoughts here if you are interested. Edit: FWIW I Compress the red bushings to 1.75", I read somewhere that is the sweet spot, uncompressed they are 2"

https://youtu.be/CXcuCBueWc8

 

cat scales trip after fiddling with the WDH. Camper is basically level, 21” to ground on the front, 20.5” back.

Andersen red washers compressed to 1 5/8” (3 rotations for that).

Front and rear truck wheel wells to ground 39” before hitching up. After hitching up, front 39” (no change from without camper), rear 38”. Back went down 1”, and this is unloaded.

 

Looks like you had one of the trailer axles on the drive axle scale (1700 lbs on the trailer and a 3000 lb tongue weight aren’t realistic, haha). But you can see that you are within 60 lbs of your unloaded front axle weight, meaning you have things distributed well. You could try another turn on the hitch chains but I’d be happy pulling that setup.

 

Are these scale numbers also unloaded? If so, I bet you're going to be further off than you realize when headed out for a trip.

 

A year ago, I emailed Andersen and asked how the polymer springs used reacts in very cold temperature, like -40F or -40C, as I use the trailer in winter. I did not get a proper answer from them, and so chose another WDH.

 

95% of travel trailers would rattle and crack apart at -40C. What are you towing?

 

gotcha, I didn’t check…just pulled my truck up to where I was told. I’ll go back after I get airbags installed.

yes, this is all unloaded. Travel with my wife, two kids under 10, and all the normal gear bikes, coolers food, etc. Probably will start loading more stuff in the camper itself and not my truck bed.

 

My truck with no trailer weighed in exactly 200lbs more on the front axle than yours. Front at 3,600 and Rear 2740. It was over a year ago when I did the initial weigh, I do recall it was myself, passenger, hitch was inside the cab in a box (60lbs) and the tri fold tonneau, lift, tires, etc. 2020 platinum from the video above. On your first weigh in, assuming you had the campershell and the sidesteps? Any other people or gear?

Great info, I'll be interested to see the reweigh with all the gear loaded.

 

Loading the truck bed is definitely a tricky component. You gotta setup your wdh with the load in your bed. Otherwise you’re adjusting the load on the wdh when you hook up vs the empty you set it for.

The root cause of the issue doesnt sound like a wdh issue. It sounds like a leveled truck issue. Adding tension to the wdh to take out the sag caused by a load of stuff in the bed doesn’t sound like a correct hitch setup imo

A level truck will sag when you fill the bed anyways. The RAS sounds like the ticket here

 

nice. My initial truck only weigh was with no passengers, nothing in the bed. But yes camper shell (200-250lbs), side steps, myself (185lb) and whatever gear/tools I always have in the under seat storage.

I do think RAS is my answer here, but doing airbags because…FIL. Hard to argue with a lifetime truck driver / boat and camper hauler. Oh well!

airbag install soon, and short trip first weekend in may so I’ll reweigh everything then.

 

Update with airbags…25-30psi seems just right, ran 50psi in truck tires. 600mi total weekend trip.

Truck front 39.25, rear loaded 39.75

Camper front 20 5/16, rear 20 1/4

Cat scales look good, front axle within 60 lbs of original weight without camper.

 

Nice! Glad it worked out. The truck and trailer combo looks spot on - not squatting or nose high. I imagine it pulls like a champ.

 

The truck looks like it is riding nice now! The airbags made a nice difference and should complement the Andersen hitch well. I took a similar path with the RAS + Andersen combo.