# WD hitch probs



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

I went out today to practice backing up with the horse trailer attached. I don't know if I didn't notice it before, but at some point during the turning I started noticing an ominous metallic grinding sound. It seemed to be coming from the hitch. I got out and inspected, and I'm wondering if the chains aren't up too high. The guy at the hitch place said four links, but I'm wondering if it maybe should be five. It seems like when I turn, the arm comes up and it's scraping against the tongue of the trailer.

The three pictures show the trailer completely straight, in the middle of a right turn, and in the middle of a left turn.

Any ideas?


----------



## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Our bars sit lower than that on our trailer.
Sorry, this is one for your trailer dealer... Show them the pictures you posted here in a text or email for accurate information specific to your hitch and adjustments made they did.

Other thing that comes to mind.. _Did you grease your hitch ball before connecting??_
They creak, groan and make terrible sounds if dry and grinding parts together.
You will damage your hitch with excess wear if you not grease it...hubby does the ball with marine grade bearing grease as it is water resistant.
Again, baggies are your friend...cover the hitch ball so dirt *not* get in the grease on the ball and make more mess than you want to ever know about!!
🐴...


----------



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

"Well there goes my Monday," I said to myself. 

I went out there this morning to see if I couldn't just take the chains down one link and that would solve the problem. I carefully measured the front wheel well height so I could see how much / if it changed when I moved the link. Then I jacked up the rig as I had heard that it will release the tension on the WD bars and make them easier to mess with. I wasn't sure I'd know when I had jacked it up enough, but at a certain point I could feel the tension change, so I stopped there. First I got the tool and tried to pull down the bars that connect the chains to the trailer, but it wouldn't move. And then I remembered there was a pin in there, duh. So I went to remove the pin, but I couldn't. I took a closer look at it, and you can see what I found in the picture.

Bear in mind that it's first thing in the morning, and I'm pretty new to trailering, but that didn't look quite right to me. So I looked at the other one and it was completely straight. The pin had bent and wedged, and there was no way to take it out.

Luckily my husband was around, and he got his pliers out and worked at the pin until it could be removed. I then took off both bars and put the jack back out. So tomorrow I'm going to have to go back to this place again and have them try to figure out what happened. I don't know, they were really nice, and this guy walked me through all the measuring he had done to determine the correct set up, but he obviously did something really wrong. I'm not sure how much more I want to trust them with this.

And @horselovinguy I did use the wheel bearing grease as instructed. I'm honestly not sure if I used enough, or too much, or what. But... I think it's probably safe to say that was not the main problem here LOL.

This whole thing is just taking so long. I keep telling myself, "You're not in a hurry," and that's true, but the way we're going now, by the time I get everything ready to go and me confident with the trailer, it's going to be August, and I don't want to do anything outside in August.


----------



## trailscout (Nov 23, 2020)

Question: Approximately at what angle was the trailer and pickup when you heard the noise. I'm wondering if you exceeded the maximum allowable angle when backing. Easy to do. Sometimes referred to as "cramping" the trailer.

As important as all this stuff is, has there been any discussion about actually driving while towing a trailer with live cargo?

The most important thing, if it hasn't been mentioned, is looking and scanning much much farther down the road in front of you for anything that could possibly cause the need of applying the brakes in order to start slowing more gradually than one would in ordinary driving.

This to me, tops the list of everything else.


----------



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

This didn't happen when I was backing up, oddly enough, only when I was going forward and turning. I can't tell you the exact angle of the turn, but I tried making some really wide turns after I started noticing it, and I still heard the same sound.

Don't worry, I'm a cautious driver who already knows what's going on three cars in front and two cars behind, at all times. I'm even more cautious with the trailer attached.


----------



## trailscout (Nov 23, 2020)

Well something, (like that clip), didn't like the turn radius. May be the clip was too high and if re-oriented there'd be no problem. Is your back up camera wide angle enough to see what's going on? If not, someone could watch from the back of the truck (if legal where you are).


----------



## Elessar (Dec 28, 2011)

I hope you were able to get this worked out.


----------



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

Yes I did! I talked to the trailer manufacturer, to etrailer, and finally to the hitch manufacturer, and I took it to a place that actually knew what they were doing with WD hitches (the guy who installed it told me "this is the third one of these I've done this week," as opposed to the guy at the first place who basically said, "well, I'll try it and see"). So yes it was a bit of an epic, but it all worked out in the end. I love love love the hitch.


----------

