Reese Round Spring Bar Recommendation for Towing 2018 Coachmen Clipper 17BH

Question:

I recently just purchased a 2018 Coachmen Clipper 17BH lightweight camper. My tow vehicle is a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan. with a Drawtite Class 2 inch receiver hitch rated at 4000 lbs tow capacity. My old trailer is a Jayco Pop up and all we used to tow that was a standard tow bar with a 6 inch rise. Since were switching to a much heavier trailer everyone said to go with a weight distributing set up. So we purchased a used one from a friend that was in new condition. He used it for one summer. Its more than we need being rating at 1,000 lbs tongue and 10,000 lbs overall. My concern is whether or not the rise is high enough on the new set up for our new trailer. I have a few weeks before I take delivery so Ive been doing a lot of measuring and I keep coming up with 21 inches from the ground to the top of the ball on the new set up and 21 inches from the ground to the inside of the coupler on the new trailer. Ive heard that the ball should be at least 1 inch higher than the coupler to allow for squat on the vehicle. Not sure if this is true. Just want to make sure Im all squared away before we pick up in a couple of weeks.

asked by: Michael Z

Helpful Expert Reply:

If you have a Draw Tite hitch part # 75579 which is a Class III 2 inch hitch you are good to use a weight distribution system as it is rated for that. The thing about weight distribution systems is that they need to be properly rated for the trailer they are going to be used on. If your system is rated for up to 1,000 lbs tongue weight it's going to be rated too high. This would mean you'd have a ride quality that is very rough. So you'll need a lower capacity setup. Looking at your picture you have a Reese round bar setup so to swap out to the correct spring bars you need the part # RP58114 which has a tongue weight range of 400 to 800 lbs

Sounds like the amount of rise/drop needed to allow your trailer to be towed level is pretty minimal though. You want to measure from the bottom lip of the coupler down to the ground when trailer is level and then measure from the top of the hitch opening to the ground and the difference between these two dimensions is the rise/drop you need.

expert reply by: Jameson C