Suspension advice to deal with squatting while towing a 4300 pound trailer?

[Shootist]

Please don't get me started on the Carolina squat, drives me crazy see that crap.

Have a heart guys! The poor things could only afford half a lift kit.

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[eaglerugby04]

Yes, Raising by the ball. I will be hooking up and towing this Friday. I will take pictures with measurements.

Awesome. Thank you. There might be something off on mine for sure

 

[eaglerugby04]

Have a heart guys! The poor things could only afford half a lift kit.

I wish that was the case. I really do, I might be able for partially forgive these morons. Its like everytime I see an angry grill I like to pretend that they destroyed the OEM one offroading and this was the cheapest they could get. I will just pretend the other half of their lift kit is on order or layaway or something.

 

[wvyankee2]

Do you mean you are actually raising the back of the jeep by the ball? If so my bars are for sure not set right.

OK here are the measurements when hooking up my WDH with sway bars. I am measuring all pics to the line between the black fender trim and fender paint.

Truck without trailer attached is 42" front and 43 3/8" rear. A 1 3/8" rake with 2" Mopar lift and 35's.

OK, Now here are the measurments with trailer on ball with no bars attached.

Front-42 1/2"
Rear- 42"

Front end comes up about 1/2 inch, Rear drops about 1 3/8".

Now to attach bars without a helper bar, I need to raise my bed with ball attached to hitch. I raise it with my power trailer jack. It has to go up to 45 3/4" to slide my bars on without a helper bar.

Now here are the measurements with bars attached and trailer loaded to go.

Front is 41 1/2" and rear is 42 1/4". This is withapprox 600-650 pounds of tongue weight. This is a great set up WDH. From no trailer to trailer attached my front dropped 1/2" and my rear dropped 1 1/8".

 

[eaglerugby04]

OK here are the measurements when hooking up my WDH with sway bars. I am measuring all pics to the line between the black fender trim and fender paint.

Truck without trailer attached is 42" front and 43 3/8" rear. A 1 3/8" rake with 2" Mopar lift and 35's.

OK, Now here are the measurments with trailer on ball with no bars attached.

Front-42 1/2"
Rear- 42"

Front end comes up about 1/2 inch, Rear drops about 1 3/8".

Now to attach bars without a helper bar, I need to raise my bed with ball attached to hitch. I raise it with my power trailer jack. It has to go up to 45 3/4" to slide my bars on without a helper bar.

Now here are the measurements with bars attached and trailer loaded to go.

Front is 41 1/2" and rear is 42 1/4". This is withapprox 600-650 pounds of tongue weight. This is a great set up WDH. From no trailer to trailer attached my front dropped 1/2" and my rear dropped 1 1/8".

Thank you so much for posting this. I played around with mine the other day and I think I am close to this, but I am going to re-mesure again using how you did. I feel like I am very close, the raising it by the ball trick ended up helping me a ton in my first attempts the bar position was way off to the point they were not doing anything.

I do have one question about the washers and the ball angle. How do you have yours setup. The directions were a little confusing as to how many washers I should put in and the criteria for increasing/decreasing them.

 

[wvyankee2]

I do have one question about the washers and the ball angle. How do you have yours setup. The directions were a little confusing as to how many washers I should put in and the criteria for increasing/decreasing them.

Here's pics. Looks like the bottom bolt is in about 1/2", and there are 6 washers on top. This is a 10000# Equalizer hitch.

 

[eaglerugby04]

Here's pics. Looks like the bottom bolt is in about 1/2", and there are 6 washers on top. This is a 10000# Equalizer hitch.

Thank you. I might need to play around with the washers a bit more on mine. I noticed yours has a slight lean backwards. According to the docs its supposed to have more washers to lean back more with the additional tongue weight. I think my trailer probably has more.

I think mine is also a 10k with 1000lbs bars.

Thank you for all the help on this. I am excited to be taking mine out next week since it should be ready. Camera system is in. Hitch is almost ready. Installing EMS system this weekend.

 

[EugeneTheJeep]

Here's pics. Looks like the bottom bolt is in about 1/2", and there are 6 washers on top. This is a 10000# Equalizer hitch.

I have a very similar setup (same hitch, same load) but with less weight distribution. My front gets back to the original height, but not lower like yours. My back squats a little more. This puts me at the highest amount of weight distribution the hitch manual suggests (wants front halfway back down to all the way back down). With you going further, I am wondering whether or not this has any advantage. Specifically, is there a difference with the softer off-road suspension that more weight distribution is desirable?

 

[wvyankee2]

I have a very similar setup (same hitch, same load) but with less weight distribution. My front gets back to the original height, but not lower like yours. My back squats a little more. This puts me at the highest amount of weight distribution the hitch manual suggests (wants front halfway back down to all the way back down). With you going further, I am wondering whether or not this has any advantage. Specifically, is there a difference with the softer off-road suspension that more weight distribution is desirable?

Can't say because I never towed with the stock suspension. I will say that the truck felt to me like the lift actually made the suspension stiffer. (My JT is a Overland with tow package.) I did not set this hitch up. It was done for me by my Camper dealer. This hitch set up was on my 2018 1500 GMC Sierra that I traded for the JT. The set up did not change with the Gladiator after the switched out my Shank. Had to go from a 3" drop to a 6" drop shank because of my lift. They said the set up was perfect and no adjustment was needed. I will say this. I towed it about 10 miles to the dealer on the Interstate without the bars attached, for them to switch my Shank and set the hitch up. This JT with 600-650 pounds on the ball without bars was scary. Road walked all over the place. After set up and bars attached, I barely know there is a trailer back there as far as suspension goes. I do as far as motor goes. LOL

 

[Texops]

I’m glad i went with Rockrawler 3” lift it has a built in rake so when i hook up my 5,000# camper it’s still a little higher in the rear perfect and that before i use my weight distribution set up

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