I had the exact same problems, and I also went with the SuperHitch. Nothing stopped the wiggle or bounce because of the leverage of the long distance between the truck and the trailer. The way I finally fixed it was this. I had a removable hitch made that lengthened the trailer tongue. I reinstalled my original hitch on my 3500 Dodge. I then had a welding shop to make a hitch for the trailer that locked into my trailer coupler with a ball and mounted with two plates to the frame of the trailer 3 feet back underneath with 4 bolts on either side, then this hitch protruded the same distance forward as the SuperHitch protruded backwards. When I went down the road with the new set up there were zero flex, bounce or movement. I wish I had some pictures available, but I can't find them right now. I made the hitch where I could remove it when I sold the trailer, but I actually sold it to another truck camper guy.
Here is some advice on your setup. I used to pull 4 snowmobiles with a 11 foot slide in camper. My hitch was homemade and very much like yours except I only used one 2x2 extension. The secret to this working is the chains. Chains dont help with bounce when they are level with the extension. The chains only help to stabilize the sideways flex. I ran my chains just like your but ran them at an angle up the the back of the truck as high as I could put them. If the chains angle up then you get stabilization of both sideways and up down flex. I mounted hooks through my bumper to the frame and it worked great. Never had an issue. best of luck.
That's a great idea. With my stock 3" ford receiver and a custom 3" hitch I'll bet I can convince my wife we need a Buckstop rear bumper to attach chains to. You are the man!
Great video! Thorough and full of info. Thanks. Would be lying if I said that flex footage wasn't stressful to watch, though. (7:28 Rogan on the radio, eh?)
That is a tricked out system. It was very interesting to see the interaction between the truck, hitch, and trailer. You did a good job at capturing the movement!!! I especially liked the vehicle display of the speed, tachometer, temperature, mph, and the transmission temperature! Which is most important to watch. Just like the tire pressure monitoring system. You have a nice rig to be proud of. Safe travels 🙏 Toledo 💙
I'm going to share this video in one of my truck camper groups on FB. There's far too many people that think towing a big heavy boat or cargo trailer with the factory hitch and a single tube hitch extension "is just fine". :-0
I’ve towed over 500k miles using a SuperHitch with a 48 inch extension (tow bar )attached and never had a problem. I start towing with the Reese 3” hitch and a Reese 48” tow bar but they would break after a month or so of use. I also used a Curt 3” hitch and they would crack as well. The last time I used a Reese with an extension it cracked on me. I was on a mountain pass and it gave out, so luckily the roadside service I called welded braces on the sides. So I spend the money for a Torklift SuperHitch and I never looked back. I would carry a 11 foot slide in camper and attached a 24 foot travel trailer on the supertruss extension with plenty of room to make turns. Not U turns. I would also recommend a solid 2 inch none adjustable tongue from curt.
Hey Scott, I meant to write a comment when you first published this, but I got busy with other things. I too have the super hitch with a 4 foot extension. At the time I got it installed, I didn't realize I only needed the 3 foot extension. The people who installed it for me were basically clueless. The 4 foot extension is heavy, maybe 70 or 80 lbs., I'm not sure, but super heavy all the same. I have a 2004 Ram 3500 with a Lance 1181 camper with one slide & I pulled a 15 foot tandem axle Wells Cargo trailer. In the 3 years that I travelled & used the hitch, I had zero problems. One thing I can say about torklift, is they build stuff to last. So I don't think you are going to have any problem with your hitch setup. BTW, I live in Austin, TX & in June I will be heading up north for business, so maybe if you all don't mind, I'd love to swing by your campground for a night or two & a visit. Happy camping.
I agree, Toklift’s build quality is very incredible! It have no worries about it lasting, I’m just wondering if the wiggle is intentional or just because of how I have the weight distribution setup. And yes, we will be in Glen Rose for quite some time. Shoot me an email at info@stonyboot.com or message me on Facebook and we can chat about visiting.
Long time truck camper owner here. I've had the same truck since 2009 and right off the bat I installed a Torklift Superhitch on it. The truck has 75k miles on it now, which is mainly used for truck camper duties and not daily driving. I'd say that 70k miles are with the camper and towing. I first had a 24" Supertruss and an AF811. I now have a 36" Supertruss and an AF992.
Well it looks like "your moving on up" to having a very satisfying time in your life and I wish you all the prayers and blessing to keep you both safe and happy. From Cincinnati
Amazing information and video! We're also using the superhitch and super truss. Amazing build and feel way more confident pulling with the truck camper and extension.
You have an adapter sleeve in the upper receiver to drop it from 2-1/2 down to 2 inch. This is causing a lot of the movement in the truss. Also The bent pin type of hitch cross pin will cause wear and flaring of the hole. My '03 Ram has this as does my buddies 2017. In addition a guy on a discussion forum noted his excessive wear and flaring out of the hole. A Gen-Y Iron Grip pin may help and a adapter sleeve either welded to the truss or the variety that has set screws to lock it to the truss, will also eliminate points of movement. You did a lot of work though, and I enjoyed the video.
What a great comment, thank you! I had to stick it all together and hope for the best. My only issue is the wiggle. I still haven’t gotten around to talking to Torklift since we have been overwhelmed with other work. I’ll look up those pins and talk to Torklift to see what they have to say. I’ll get around to an update video in a month or two when life slows down a bit.
You might consider flipping the trailer plug mounting bracket on the far end of the Supertruss. I installed mine "up" instead of "down". Gives me a little more confidence when unexpectedly dragging my hitch extension. I do agree that the installation instructions are confusing the first time you install a SuperHitch. If you do it again you'll be fine.
What I would do if I owned your setup. Those empty brackets that appear to be part of your original hitch just under the bumper. Make 1/2” thick bar stock adapter with holes to bolt flat to the face of them. Drill a 5/8ths hole in the middle to bolt a 5/8ths forged eye bolt into. Then move your two side binders and chains put to the new mounts. This way you can tighten the poop out of them and they would keep the extension centered and also pull up on it holding more trailer weight. I did something similar years ago on a home made extension I made for a friend. Worked fabulous.
After seeing your video on the truck hitch extension I have seen the spare tire where it is how about moving your spare tire and relocate to a different place and use the space to put a longer support tongue more stability for your tongue support play won't flex too much it's like a extension to your hitch and will give you a better stabilizer than a factory hitch.
I knew that I should have done this first, but there were major delays back when I needed the parts and had to make due with what I could cobble together. Now that I have the experience, I’d just go with the SuperHitch/SuperTruss from the beginning. You are on the right path!
Good afternoon from Godley Texas, hey guys, I concur with getting a hitch tightener. That's where my expertise stops🤣 Like all things, we'll find individuals with like opinions, differing views, and the selective listeners. Life goes on. Stay safe and happy travels 😎
Thank you for this info! Not alot of vids and info on these Superhitch/truss set ups. Keep it coming. Im super curious on what Super hitch has to say about your bonce.....
I doubt you’ll get anything significantly better other than a custom hitch in which the hitch itself is extended from the pickup and reinforced to the chassis. To get it to be more stiff you need there to be something going in an angle. As long as the entire setup is parallel to the ground it would be close to impossible to make it more still without breaking something. Off course, the downside is that if/when you take the camper off you’ll have a hitch protruding a feet or two behind the pickup, but there’s a price to pay if you want it to be done right.
Same through process I went through. The SuperHitch and SuperTruss are a one of a kind product. The only other options I could ever find were custom. Thanks for the feed back, I just did some more searching and found nothing else out there.
@@Stonyboot the only other options I can think of are adding tensioning chains that would go at an angle to the hitch extension but I’m not sure where/how you’d hook them on the pickup. Going up maybe there would be a location on the bed but going down I’m now sure where/how to attach. In any case, those attachment points would need to be super strong as they’ll be under a lot of pressure when going over bumps. If anyone can solve this it’s likely Andersen. They have tons of creative products and already familiar in using chains to stabilize hitches.
Oh. Maybe if you attach some 10-20” vertical 2x2 thick square tube on right/left side of hitch receiver (ie, 5-10” from the edges of the truck), you’d be able to hook support chains on top/bottom to create triangles which would add a LOT of strength. Adding those two 2x2 would need to be custom mounted (heavy duty bolts or preferably welded) but it should be a small and easy job for a fabricator.
Nice information! Check with Torklift to see if the flexing is by design and is acceptable versus shifting those up through your vehicle or trailer suspension. Reminds me of our Morr Ryde 5th wheel hitch dampener designed to absorb some motion for a smoother ride (so they say!) One more mention, your trailer plug shouldn't be tucked between the ball. I've had them crushed during travels. Use a d-ring to lift it up out of the gap. Mind the gap. LOL
Wonder if extending the tongue of the trailer which I have done before would allow you to tow without the hitch extension and be more stable? I did this on a over landing trailer.
14:50 I was going to say something about the play where the 2" Supertruss goes into the 2 1/2" receiver, but you beat me to it. Torklift needs a 2 1/2" Supertruss.
great info once again, I have enclosed trailer that I'm placing the order so now I'm going to get the extended hitch upgrade and 16" tires while I wait on my 2024 model truck camper KS or C920 ??? So hard to pick until I can see both
I wouldn’t want to weld it. For strength reasons, but also because it works fine as is. I haven’t used it in about 6 months, maybe I should revisit the system. There have been many questions in the comments.
You said you 'didn't feel comfortable driving with it'. I can say I don't feel comfortable looking at it. There is way too much physics going on back there!
It was within spec, and survived without a problem for about 6k miles. I later upgraded to a Torklift SuperHitch and SuperTruss. Well worth it, no worries with that setup!
@@Stonyboot Just looking at the distance from the tow vehicle rear axle (the load fulcrum) to the tow ball (tow vehicle to trailer articulation point), it is physically wrong. Then I try to make sense of the physics involved in the geometry of the many load bearing linkages and moving parts, it's a nightmare. And the visible flexing of what appear to be rigid or fixed points. As you mentioned the chain adjustments required repeated tightening. There was obviously components that would have been accumulating metal fatigue. A better, and I don't doubt more expensive way would have been to lengthen the tow vehicle chassis and extend the wheelbase allowing you to connect the trailer draw bar directly to the back of the truck. Or even better get a longer truck from the start. For example, there are reasons rail trucks are connected with such a simple hitch mechanism. Like too many often unnecessarily complicated 'things' we get into, they can work fine until something goes horribly wrong.
@@Stonyboot I haven't looked at the Torklift SuperHitch and SuperTruss setup. What I did do was step back and look at the labyrinth of chains, struts, articulations and angles you used to attach your truck to the trailer. And judging by the forced movement of what were obviously meant to be fixed components, the whole 'shebang' had many points undergoing unhealthy stresses, everything seemed to be fighting each other. When engineering something that has the potential to end in catastrophic failure, I try to remind myself when it appears to be getting overly complicated, better I get back to employing the 'KISS' method, I remind myself to 'Keep It Simple Stupid'.
@@rossevans1774 I just installed nearly the same Torklift parts. I have a 36" supertruss. I bought the 30k superhitch and removed the OEM hitch from my '23 F350. The two tubes, when tied together , complement the load carrying capacity because the top tube is in tension, and bottom is in compression. The tongue weight acting downward vertically results in some of that downward force tensioning the top tube and compressing the lower tube. Since theyr'e tied together but independent tubes, it is more stable than a single tube extension. That said, it is really a beefy piece of hardware, much more so than other extensions I've used.
I have nothing against Anderson, but I don't see how those chains transfer weight back to the front tires of the truck. I'd suggest an equalizer WD hitch (or similar) to get the proper upward loading of the weight distribution. You could measure the front and rear bumper height on flat ground, then hook up the trailer and measure again, then tension the chains and measure again to see if it actually puts weight back on the front tires....or use 4 scales to eliminate all the measuring. Also, the bottom bar on the SuperTruss is a secondary truss, but also a massive spring. On your original setup, the OEM hitch and frame were acting like the spring.
The Andersen hitch transfers weight in very similar way, just with different mechanics. The real problem with the SuperTruss is the play in the pins. I just need to tighten them up.
The Andersen hitch transfers weight in very similar way, just with different mechanics. The real problem with the SuperTruss is the play in the pins. I just need to tighten them up.
@@Stonyboot I watched the video again, you mentioned it looks like it was "floating" with the Torklift and the setting on the Anderson. The WD should be putting enough upward force on the hitch to not need a hitch tightener, that is the way my WD works with my travel trailer.
I ALWAYS tow with a weight distribution hitch, even with my tiny 7x12 cargo trailer. I use a torsion bar WD hitch, not the Andersen style shown in this video.
The torklift super hitch looks awesome.. I think it is a great investment. I would for sure buy one one day.. my question is how did you get your back up cam to your stock display? Did you use a new camera with a harness or did you take the out of your old tailgate?
It was mounted into the flatbed. I did a video about it a while back. The flat bed installer just makes a mount for it, drills a hole in the bed and mounts it from behind at a slight angle down.
looks good. but what about driving up driveways? i’m sure you only have less than 5” to clear and would drag your stuff up a curb cut or driveway… how do you handle that ? or even a speed bump.
Speed bumps are no problem, and for steep driveways I just enter at a slight angle. It’s only hit a few times, no big deal. Granted, I change how and where I drive with it.
Good morning! Hope you are all doing well! Quick question for you. I just purchased a torklift extension, but it doesn't seem to tell you want to do to extend your safety chains to the truck. Or do you extend them? What did you do? Obviously the trailer chains attach to the receiver at the end of the extension, but do you run a set of safety chains from those up to the hitch at the truck? Thank you in advance!
My understanding is that the attachment system to the hitch does not need a seperate set of safety chains. It would make sense that the site support chains (the chains that run at and angle back to the hitch) satisfy this need. Keep in mind, Torklift isn't your typical company. You can simply call their support number, they WILL pick up, and will clearly answer any questions you might have. Their support is really top notch!
Wiring harness install Q: How did you get TorkLift's extension to fit into their included bracket? Obviously something has to come apart - never have I had to disassemble one of these. TorkLift's instructions make no mention of what to do.
I didn’t use the torklift wire extension, so I don’t really know. If you call them, they will help. If not, shoot me an email and maybe we can figure it out.
Answering my own question: Taking apart the "outboard" end required removing a pair of small screws and a set screw. The latter pushes a cable holdfast and it can fall out, so be sure to note what side (it's the "square notched" one) contacts the set screw. Once that's done, the cable can be pushed through and then you have the fun and joy of loosening the wire clamps for all seven wires. Pro tip: label! I used a Sharpie to write on each of the six blades "G" "BN" "BK" "BL" "R" "W" before I removed the corresponding wires. The seventh yellow wire is in the center; no need to label it. Note how "B by itself could be black, brown or blue - thus the useful two letters. That done, the entire bundle of seven wires can be slid out the 'back' of the terminal, and thus separated, it can be passed through the TorkLift bracket. Now to reassemble: for my clunky fingers this is pretty difficult but, by dint of perseverance, I got it done. Yellow first, then each of the others. I found that by separating the strands into two more or less equal halves, then bending them around a narrow diameter screwdriver, I was able to approximate what it takes to insert them into position yet still be able to pass their holddown screw into position. Hope this helps others -
@@elyssalanehome8840 I started down the same path, but then found that the plug mounting bracket will bend at the 'split' enough to pass the cord through, and then bend back. I was surprised, but it is just mild steel I guess so pretty easy to deform a flat piece like that, and malleable enough to bend back. I was happy I didn't have to undo all of the wire connectors !
Well, what's wrong, @@gentleSlopeLiving, with your response is that it comes 8 months too late! To all others: I second Ray's suggestion. Simple, effective, and obvious in retrospect.
In your view I see that you do need to extend the receiver hitch more in the frame where your spare tire is for more stable than you have it now, I wish that I could show you but it is very cold 🥶 in Michigan, Detroit Michigan and I don't like putting my address in this comment so everyone can see it.
Dumb question here. I have seen these hitch extenders before and there is always a lot of flex. The leverage is huge. Have you ever seen someone extend the tongue of the trailer with something solid? I know this would effect tongue weight that would have to be addressed with movement of cargo and possible movement of axles. But in your case you are setting this up for this truck with this trailer long term. So if your extender now is 4' and distance to outside of rig is only 4', to clear corner on turns would be under 6'. Just food for thought here or something to give you a laugh....
I’ve looked at that option. And while I could extend my trailer setup, I would also have to do the same for any other trailer I chose to tow. Also, when talking to some trailer guys, there are limits on how far you can extend the tongue before you need major modifications to the trailer tongue and frame. So it wasn’t worth it to me for this particular trailer. Both would work, but this is more of a universal fix.
@@Stonyboothere is some math for the difference extending the tongue by 4 feet makes vs extending the hitch by 4 feet. If the center of your load in the trailer is 1.5' in front of the center of your trailer axles and your then end of the tongue is 12 feet from the center of your trailer axles that means 1.5'/12' gives you 12.5% tongue weight, so 7000lbs X 12.5% = 875lbs. If your wheel base of your truck is 13' and your hitch ball is 9' from the center of your rear axle 9'/13' = 69% of the tongue weight will be taken off of your front axle and added to you rear axle, so 875 X 69% =604lbs + 875lbs = 1479lbs is the total weight being added to your rear axle. Now if you extend the trailer tongue 4 feet instead. Your tongue weight would equal 1.5'/16' = 9.4% X 7000lbs = 658lbs. The amount of weight being taken off your front axle of the truck would be 5'/13' =38% X 658lbs = 250 lbs total weight being added to the rear axle is 250lbs + 658lbs = 908 lbs. So the difference in weight on the rear axle of the truck from extending the hitch vs extending the tongue is 1479lbs - 908lbs = 571 lbs.
You can my opinion I'll be changing them change of get the free 38 Shane I think it is for heavy-duty for semi your links won't stretch out too much but that cheap chain I seeing there that's a cheap chain I wouldn't use that all use a different heavy heavy duty chain I think it's a 3/8 or something that's what I use still in my flatbed semis when a horn still and that's the best chain yearly by cuz it leaks don't stretch out because that's a cheap chain link so that stretch have a good day
Could do this with your bolts and your nuts air get a red marker or black marker marker at there where your nuts is that we tie them all the way up me and check if it back off if that Mark has been moved you won't Mark a nut and where the washer metal plates at or soften washer I wouldn't do that because washer turn on you faster was not would but that's what I do when both sides of your bowl and you're not there then you know if it's backed off any more stretched out some have a good day
I got a comment if nobody said anything on your comments about this me I'll put some grease on in or drill some holes where your goes in your hitch there to put some grease fittings on it and keep it all Greece there because metal against metal you know it's going to wear it out because it's going around in there and metal against metal butt grease it up my opinion have a safe one because that messed way in my opinion do have a good day sir
Why would you say they sent you a super hitch free without any obligation that’s a lie your obligation is to advertise for them on RU-vid or you would have to pay like everybody else you people get free stuff all the time then lie about it like I have no obligation to them
Not sure what you’re talking about. To quote myself “Torklift did send me their SuperHitch and SuperTruss for free, in exchange for making some videos about the system” There is no contract or agreement. They get exposure and I get a hitch. I never said anything about obligation. Are you just trying to troll?
His only obligation is to make videos about the hitch and extension. He can say its the best thing since sliced bread or he can say its a piece of cr@p, as long as he does not slander them or mak false and misleading statements, he is free to do what he wants.
@@Stonyboot No, retired 31 year aircraft airline mechanic. You have to be a Philadelphia lawyer to read and understand heavy aircraft maintenance manuals.
