Trailer ball mount

[domin8]

I could use a little help here since I'm new to towing.

At the end of June I will be towing my wife's car from Southeast Virginia to Northwest Illinois when we move. Saturday I went to Uhaul and spec'd the type of trailer I will be renting so that I could figure out how much of a drop of the ball mount I will need. The measurement came out to be 5”-5¼”. I do not have auto ride, so I anticipate my truck to squat in the rear. Looking in the catalogs here at work I'm only finding 4” and 6” drop ball mounts.

So, here's my question. Should I get the 6” because it's closer to the 5¼” drop, or should I get the 4” drop because the rear of my truck will squat under load?

 

[abright52]

I would go with the 4". You are going to get a little squat, but you want to make sure you don't have too much weight on the tongue. The 6" may give you problems with hitting the ground on driveways or similar, it would also make it more difficult to load the car if the tongue is too low, since the rear of the trailer will rise.

With just the standard hitch configuration, the limit is 500lbs on the tongue. Typically you want around 10% of the total weight on the tongue. (5000lb max without a Weight Distributing hitch). If you don't have enough weight on the tongue, you could have a situation where your rear wheels are influenced by the trailer movement....which can be very bad. On the opposite end if there is too much weight on the tongue, if can cause issues with the front wheels not having enough weight, thus causing steering issues.

---------- Post added at 10:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 AM ----------

Couple of Towing Guides:

http://www.sherline.com/lmbook.htm
http://www.uhaul.com/Tips/TowingTips.aspx

 

[domin8]

Thank you for responding. I'm estimating the total weight to be between 4,000 and 4,500 lbs. Your info is very helpful, and very much appreciated. The 4 inch drop mounts I'm coming up with are all 6,000gtw/600tw, but there are 3 different lengths. They are 8¼ inches, 10¼ inches, and 12¼ inches. Other than the obvious need to ensure the mount is long enough for the receiver, and to clear the bumper, will these different lengths affect towing in any way?

If anybody else had anything they'd like to add, I'm all rates.

 

[2007tahoe]

Yea the first time I towed my car hauler with the tahoe it was about 6500 pounds and the trip was 1900 miles. I installed a airbag kit from 4 wheel parts thinking it was going to squat a lot. I have towed the trailer many times since then and rarely put any pressure in the bags because the tahoe barely squats. The only time the bags have been useful is when your on crappy roads pulling the trailer. My truck has 3:73 gear and the pulling power of the 5.3 is not impressive but it gets the job done.

 

[domin8]

Thanks for making me cry. I have 3.73 gears and a 5.3, and I have to cross the Applachians.

The good news is that I have already installed the GM Accessories auxillary transmission cooler.

 

[2007tahoe]

Yea I didn't research about the trans cooler but i should have. I am still stuck on the older trucks where if it had an oem hitch it came with a trans cooler. I glanced at the grill and saw a cooler. On the trip i saw the trans temp go up to 236 going up hills. I wasn't to happy about that so when i got home i changed the trans fluid. during changing the fluid i found out it was a power steering cooler not a trans cooler. I am sure that mistake will catch up to me one day. I have 75000 miles and so far so good.

 

[domin8]

The auxiliary trans cooler is actually pretty easy to install. I recommend that if you wear XL gloves that you have somebody with smaller hands nearby. Getting the upper trans line in and out of the transmission is difficult when you're not able to get your hands up to it.