My Casita hitch is 1" too high

[whoot]

I got the "stinger" and all that goes on it, plus an aftermarket anti-sway adapter. Without the anti-sway adapter, the top of the 2" ball is 20.5 inches. Casita says it should be 20", or 22" if you have a high suspension. With the adapter, mine is 21". I have a Nissan 4x4 Frontier crewcab, which sort-of has a high suspension. It's not "jacked up", but it can go through puddles okay. My truck bed is empty, when it is filled, I assume it will be a little lower.

Should I be okay towing my Casita 17SD with my hitch ball's top at 21" ? I'm paranoid because it is not exactly 20".

[MCDenny]

Hook it up, load as you would to actually go camping. Park on level paved surface. If the trailer looks level you are good to go. Being an inch off "perfect" sounds fine to me.


Denny Wolfe
Wanderingourway.wordpress.com

[mary and bob]

Hook it up and see how the trailer sets. You want level or a little low in front. And for "filled" truck bed, when we went to get our Casita from the seller our truck had nothing in the bed so it sat nice and level. Then we added a fiberglass cap, then loaded the truck for our 4 month trip, and what a difference in the way it sat, much lower than originally. Trailer towed fine though. Thinking about a set of air bags.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by whoot

Should I be okay towing my Casita 17SD with my hitch ball's top at 21" ? I'm paranoid because it is not exactly 20".

The numbers the trailer manufacturer gives are only a general guide line. The only way to tell how it really works is to hook it up. You want the trailer to be level or slightly down on the tongue. One you hook up the truck it will drop a little bit - even with the PRO4X extra shocks on mine it drops a little when the trailer is hitched. If you load up the trailer and truck and hook it up and its still sitting with the noise a bit up I would buy a stringer with a bit more drop to fix it. I know my Frontier tows much better when the trailer is down on the tongue and at least 12% of the total weight on the tongue.... actually the more weight the better. With the tongue up you are actually taking weight off of it.

[tractors1]

Trailer tongue weight will be 300-350 pounds right on that ball when hooked up. It won't be too high any more!

[whoot]

Thank you for all the advice. On Saturday, I will temporarily hook up the hitches, and see how it looks. If it looks good (slightly sagging), on Sunday I will tow it to a campground.

[vanvan]

With the truck and trailer loaded and hooked up, park on a Level surface and if the truck and trailer are lined up horizontal, you're good to go. If not, adjust your drawbar or ball to make everything level.

[CampyTime]

I just went through all this with my Scamp 13 and chevy express 1500 van.

In my case, I had the ball mount on 1" rise side. Too high. Turned around to 2" drop, it was 1" too low. Found perfect solution for me: ETrailer had a Curt 2" ball with a 1" rise in the shank. Put that baby on the ball mount (stinger) and voila! Perfectly level and couldn't ask for better.

I hope this may help some, although I can't be sure as I don't know what the drop or rise of your stinger is or how you have it set up.

Carol also taught me that manufacturer recommendations are just that: recommendations. Each vehicle setup will be unique, and in my case for the 13, Scamp recommended 16-18", but sitting perfectly level, I'm at 14-1/2".

Best wishes,
Wendy.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Jack L]

It's nice to be perfectly level when you stop someplace where you are not going to disconnect the tug from the tow but towing with a 1" low hitch might actually make the trailer tow better.

[ArtWrangler]

Keep in mind that you can get another stinger of almost any rise/drop for about $20 at Home Depot or U-haul. If you have a tiny ball for your anti sway bar, it is easy to remove it and have it welded to your new stinger, or order a second 'sway ball' from Curt for your new stinger. That said, it all about towing a level trailer, whatever ball the ball height. Some times that will vary due to how much water you have in back and how much propane you have up front, not to mention the rest of your load.
Welcome to the Casita Family!

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by Jack L

It's nice to be perfectly level when you stop someplace where you are not going to disconnect the tug from the tow but towing with a 1" low hitch might actually make the trailer tow better.

Level without unhitching not only requires the right-height stinger, but level ground to stop on. In my experience, odds of that are low, so I wouldn't spend too much effort or $$ getting it perfect. Also, if it's slightly low, you can likely crank the tongue jack up to level without disconnecting for a quick overnight stop.

[Radar1]

Once you put stuff in the bed of the pickup, and add the 300 or so pounds of tongue weight to the ball, your ball should be a bit lower than when unloaded. For a quick test you can measure empty, and then stand on the bumper and measure again. That will give you an idea of how "X" amount of pounds affects the ball height.

[Roger C H]

Trailer height is like horse shoes and hand grenades, close is good enough. It all depends on how it trails. I thought my Trillium was too high, so I bought a drop stinger. Then I started bottoming out on sharp driveways. Now I am using the drop stinger on our new 2014 which is higher than our 2000 was. Homelet looks more level, but there is no change in tow characteristics. Lots of the stuff they sell you are for big, heavy trailers. That is one advantage of FGRVs, they don't need all that stuff.

[ArtWrangler]

You will soon get the hang of hitching as well as backing up. You may wish to invest twenty bucks in a hitch alignment kit. (My car has a back-up camera, so I'm pretty lucky.)

[ArtWrangler]

Two other bits of advise. (Learned by hard experience.) Always, always, always remember to place your wheel chocks before beginning to unhitch. Never, never, never unhook your safety chains until after you are unhitched from the ball.

(Backing a trailer is not intuitive. The first trick is, put your hand on the bottom of your steering wheel, hand to the left, trailer to the left, hand to the right, trailer to the right. That's all I've learned so far. I am looking for more instruction my self.

[whoot]

Originally Posted by ArtWrangler

You will soon get the hang of hitching as well as backing up. You may wish to invest twenty bucks in a hitch alignment kit. (My car has a back-up camera, so I'm pretty lucky.)

I have two neon poles with magnets on the bottom, I put one on the ball and one on the stinger. When the pole on the ball gets knocked off, I know the hitch is over the ball. Works great! I would never be able to hitch it by myself without them. It still takes me a while to do it, though.

[ArtWrangler]

I know what you mean!