I don't see any reason why you can't assemble it yourself. I have assembled and set up my Equal-I-Zer hitch by myself. To me, the Weigh Safe looks to be a whole lot easier. You need to get familiar with the adjustments anyway. It's mostly about having a good level working area and getting accurate measurements. The Weigh Safe requires many more measurements which you enter into the app. Take extra care getting your measurements and the rest is pretty much just manual labor.

Bob

Since the OP is looking for a hitch for a toy hauler which may not always be loaded in the garage area, I would recommend a hitch that can be quickly adjusted.

Jim

Thanks all. The four WS boxes are now in the back of my truck, to be assembled by me tomorrow. I probably will make an appointment to drop by the dealer (who is thankfully right next door to the park) for an inspection. Thanks for that suggestion.

At the moment, I don't have a toy to put in the hauler, but eventually will have a 2-seater RZR. Since the 30G has tons of space, I can park it either at the very back or ~five feet forward, over the axles. I could actually park my 2004 Miata in this thing (I'd have to drain the tanks and put most of my stuff in the truck, but still). It will be cool to see how the hitch scale works with everything loaded up.

If anyone in the Tucson area wants to lend a hand, I'll buy.

The Weigh Safe is assembled and on the trailer, but not without an issue that has to be worked out.

The assembly was actually pretty easy. The most difficult part was adjusting and re-adjusting the Tow Ball on the Head Assembly to get the proper height. A second person would have been helpful here. The rest is attaching the spring arm brackets and the spring arms, then adjusting them via the Lead Screw on the hitch, and attaching them to the trailer brackets.

The UVW of the trailer is 9,038 lbs. It's got about 90 gallons of water, no propane, and one 12v battery. There isn't much additional weight on the inside yet, just some tools, a couple computers, and clothes. There are some things in the front storage, maybe 100 pounds. There is nothing in the rear other than the stock couches and bed. So we'll call that 10,500 pounds. For that weight, which is probably high, the app wants me to be at max 1,575 lbs TW.

I did the measurements per the manual, and updated the app, but missed something. In the initial position I tried, the TW was close to 2,000 pounds. I moved it up, then up again, then finally switched it to the rise position as high as I could go before maxing out the tongue height (which is already on a block). The closest I could get was about 1,600 lbs TW. I went ahead and attached the swing arms and put them in position, which put me at 2,000 lbs.

I'm now officially in trial and error mode. No thanks. I'll call WS tomorrow to see what I'm missing.

JH2112 I have never been around one of the weigh safe hitches so I am just speculating here. All that seems a little uncertain on the numbers. I have read up a little on the system on line. I recall seeing where the numbers the app provides are not the actual tongue weight when the bars are set. Actual tongue weight shows prior to bars being set? Something about the total load/pressure on the ball with bars set. I hope you can get a clear answer from weigh safe. As for setting up the hitch and ball height, is your whole rig, truck and trailer, level when hooked up with those numbers being reported? I am thinking it should be something simple to make it all work out. I am interested in the answer you get as the system seems interesting.

Dave

Thanks, Dave. I'll call them this afternoon. I'm going to reset and do another initial weigh first... make sure the rig is level, measure all around, set the hitch where it's theoretically supposed to be, then connect the trailer and see what the scale says. The UVW TW according to GD is actually right at 15%, so it's likely that it's just higher than usual. But, I'll verify the numbers and see what WS has to say.

The unloaded tongue weight that GD has provided on you weigh sheet is prior to propane and battery that is supplied by the dealer. The propane tanks are supplied by GD but filled by the dealer. This along with any other item that was added by you or the dealer will increase the tongue weight compared to the document that GD provides with each RV.

Brian

Dave,

Looking this over, I believe the weight on the hitch without the bars would be the actual raw tongue weight. The weight as measured with the bars would actually be measuring the tongue weight plus the downward force on the ball as applied to the hitch as a result of the moment (torque) from the bars. This downward force would not be applied to the back of the truck but this torque would be applied to the front of the truck.

Jim

Guest Jim, thanks that is more clear than what I wrote but is what I was thinking. It is interesting that the WS hitch provides the actual torque/pressure applied to the ball to distribute the weight forward with the bars set and the actual tongue weight prior to the bars being set. The numbers are really high when the hitch is set, I never thought those numbers would be as high as I have seen in a video and looking at the manual on line. It is an interesting piece of equipment and seems to be quite variable/adjustable.

Dave

Well that was amazing. I re-measured all around, got the same results, took some pictures and called WS. I'm prepared to go to "choose-an-option" hell and eventually leave a message, when a gal answers the phone. I explain that I have questions about what I'm seeing, and she says, "sure, what's up."

I explain it all, we chat a bit, and she basically tells me to add weight to the back of the trailer (sort of what I expected but I wanted to hear it from them).

I probably won't run out and buy a RZR tomorrow, but a few 5-gallon containers of water ought to do the trick for now. Stay tuned.

Update: The propane tanks actually were full so I moved them to the garage. I went to Costco and bought 250 lbs of water and about 40 pounds of Diet Pepsi. Put all my tools and a few other odds and ends in the garage. There may be 500 pounds in the rear that weren't there before, and 60 or so that came off the hitch. The tongue weight moved from over 1600 pounds to slightly under 1600. Better. but most likely still over 15%.

I don't know how much difference empty fresh tanks would make since they are positioned right in front of the axles. The black tank and one gray tank are in the front. so I'll empty those. The other gray tank, the kitchen sink I presume, is in the back. I'll leave that one with whatever is in it.

The final verdict tomorrow.

Update: I ended up getting four more cases of water for more rear ballast. 9 cases of water got me down to 1500 lbs TW, which was the top end of the target weight. I felt like that was close enough to get me from Tucson to Mesa. I don't think anything I'm explaining here is unique to Weigh Safe, but it sure was nice to see the numbers right there.

The truck handled great. I felt like maybe there was some porpoising, but that could have been road conditions. Some of the I-10 in that part of AZ are bumpy and uneven. No sway issues at all. I did make a last minute setup change, though. I originally validated the setup with the Draw Bar in the Rise position and the Head Assembly at 1-1/2 holes. Then I lowered the tailgate and...ug. it just barely sat on top of the Head Assembly, so I switched it down and the top hole. On the next trip, I'll put it back and see what difference that makes. None of this is set in stone because I'm not going to be driving around with ~70 gallons of water in the garage forever.

Side note: the truck threw errors on the trailer brakes, and didn't use them. I feel like this probably warrants a call to GD unless anyone has clues. I might open another thread on it.

JH2112 Jeff, hopefully you are multi meter familiar and can test simple circuits. You may want to check the brake circuit for a short. Simply OHM the brake circuit first. Since all of the magnets are wired parallel the resistance should be extremely small. If you get no resistance then you have a wiring issue where the blue wire is most likely shorted to ground or one of the magnets is bad. If you get no resistance, then plan on cutting the wiring to each magnet and testing the circuit again. If still no resistance (not open circuit) this will confirm a blue wire short. If open circuit, then test each magnet individually.

JH2112 It sounds to me like you are getting the hitch issues figured out. One thing I would suggest, if you have not already done so, is weigh the rig on a CAT scale, the truck by itself, and the truck/trailer combination both with and without Weight Distribution bars engaged. Then see how your tongue weight from the scale compares to the tongue weight on the hitch gauge. The better understanding you have of how all the numbers compare, the more confident you can be in your set up.

I hope this helps.

Bob

Jlawles2 - I'll test the wiring and see what I can find. I'll have to get comfortable with these kinds of things eventually. It's one thing to do this stuff in your garage. It's quite another when you're troubleshooting the brake system on your 35' trailer.

RJAPCOK.- that's definitely on the roadmap (literally) for my next trip. I'll do it again once I have the SxS as well.

Thanks guys.