my hitch is to low

[Ron Dickey]

My trailer has a very long tung and is made from an old boat trailer. Not made of light iron but 2 long beams and a rather heavy hitch. We pull it with a Carolla and get very good gas milage. When I attach the hitch and detach the hitch I have to jack up the car at the hitch. to attach and deattach the trailer. other wise it pull very well.

When I go up steep driveways from the streets the muffler scrapes.

we want to get a small suv but cash is not there now.

got any ideas to offer.

Ron D.

[Juneaudave]

How much higher do you need? Assuming your Corrola has a Class I hitch, you can get a drawbar with some rise pretty inexpensively. Here's one from etrailer 4" rise Class I. It does look like that tongue is pretty heavy from what I can see from your pics. Any chance of cutting that out and welding in a lighter tongue?

[Ron Dickey]

this give me hope

yes I can because it is a boat trailer the bar (tong) is bolted on and I will talk to some folks to see if I can get on made lighter.

having a long tung, I have been told makes backing much ezyer then other trailers.

And the 4" draw bar might fit the ticket for my class 1 hitch.

I do not know if that will keep the muffler from draging but it should help the ride. I almost thought of putting a wheel under the car hitch part like you see under large RV's.
Ron

[doug hodder]

Ron, what's your tongue weight, and what percentage is that of your total tear weight? Doug

[madjack]

Ron, how far does the TD lower your tow vehicle..maybe you just need to add some sort of helper spring on the TV...much like Danny did on his Blazer................
madjack

p.s. shortening the tongue is not going to effect the weight dist between the trailer axle and the coupler by any significant amount other than the weight of the steel removed...the only way to have a significant effect on the weight distribution is to move the axle..........MJ

[Alphacarina]

You can also buy some spring rubbers and install them on the rear coil springs on your Corolla - I use a pair on the rear of my Protege 5 when I pull my 1500 pound enclosed motorcycle trailer

Don

[SmokeyBob]

Ron
I had the same problem. I couldn't get the jack to swing down to a vertical position so like you I would have to jack up the car.

I went to a jack that has a foot plate. The wheel made the jack to long. This is a Bull Dog jack that is 10" long, they do come in longer lengths, with the flat plate. Some styles will allow you to change out the plate with a wheel. I got this one at Northern Tools.

The rear of my car is still low so adjustable air shocks or helper springs should help that but in the meantime I can take off the trailer without jacking up the car.

[brian_bp]

A taller ball mount (more rise) will only raise the trailer tongue, and make very little difference to the car. So which has the height problem: the trailer, or the car?

From the dragging muffler comment, I assume that at least one problem is that the car is dropping too low under the trailer's load. In this case, my first question is the one which has already been asked: what is the tongue weight? If that weight is acceptable for the car, and the resulting rear axle load is acceptable, then boosting up the car's rear springs in some way is the common fix.

My Sienna would drop lower than I would like under my trailer's tongue weight, even though the tongue weight and Sienna's rear axle load are within limits. My solution is air bags inside the Sienna's rear coil springs.

I almost thought of putting a wheel under the car hitch part like you see under large RV's.
Ron

Those "wheelie" wheels are used because the long rear overhang causes the tail to hit the ground in situations such as entering driveways; they are not a response to an overloaded rear suspension. Any car which seems to need this type of fix needs a real solution instead... I assume that's what we're looking for here.

[Frog]

Ron:The long tongue makes the trailer respond more slowly when backing and therefore gives you more time to make corrections.  If your tow vehicle has a trailer tongue load rating of say 200 lbs, and you put 175 lbs in the trunk, your tongue load has to be reduced to account for the trunk load or you will be down in the rear.If you have leaf springs in the rear, you could have a spring shop add another leaf or you could use air bags as suggested.   Coil spring boosters over shocks would also help, however, shock mounts are not really designed to be load bearing.  You might also be able to replace the passenger car springs with those for the same year station wagon springs if such a model exists.Using a hitch bar that has the necessary lift as suggested would be a cheap fix.  If you don't want to get the higher hitch bar, you could just drive the rear wheels up on some 2X6's when you go to unhitch which might raise the tongue enough so the jack works.  Neither of these will fix the dragging muffler.

[halfdome, Danny]

Ron, like Jack said I put Super Springs on my Blazer and even though they did the job I removed them since they require removal of the rubber dampeners which makes the tow vechicle bounce when not towing. I have since installed Monroe® Sensa-Trac® Load Adjusting Shock Absorbers on the rear and I'm very pleased towing and not towing. Danny

These units also include a heavy gauge calibrated spring for extra control and comfort. A new pair of Monroe Sensa-Trac load adjusting shock absorbers can assist in maintaining ride height when up to 1,200 lbs*. of additional weight is loaded. These units are ideal for light trucks that carry varying loads or tow trailers.

[mikeschn]

I had my tow ball bar made from scratch. My hitch ended up right at the exact spot I needed it.

Mike...

[Rigsby]

How about fabricating a couple of small ramps to drive the rear of the car onto before coupling up?
steve

[brian_bp]

The Super Springs are just extra leaves; if they don't hit at the centre until there is some suspension compression, then they add a progressive spring rate effect, like all of the factory "overload" leaves. The shocks with coils do the same thing, except they never have slack so they are always having some effect, and can be progressive or not. Of course, the Corolla doesn't have leaf springs, but some of the various shocks-with-springs might be applicable.

I think the problem with any permanent spring addition is that it will make the car's rear suspension overly stiff when not loaded with the trailer, and may boost the ride height up.

My concern with any permanent progressive spring addition is that it may allow too much sag before it has a useful effect.

Air springs address both issues, by being active only when inflated as required.


Ron, when you get a chance to respond to the tongue weight question, I have one more for you:
what year is the Corolla?
(Corolla rear suspensions changed completely a few years ago, changing the available options).

[Ron Dickey]

http://images.automotive.com/reviews/im ... orolla.jpg

The carolla is a 2001 I had a hitch installed class 1. this is what it looks like but tan. Struts are what is underneath with spring around them.

http://tnttt.com/album_ ... c_id=34295

the original trailer was a boat trailer I am unsure if I can move the axel it also has bars attached to the body to stablize the axel, but I can remove the tung. I could not make it appear here?? so click on it.

I would do better to build a 2nd trailer and frame know that I know how to do that but that will be years away.



I maybe did not explain right about the muffler it drags on steep driveways and I have to put down a plank when I drive down my own asphalt slightly angled curb.

the quick fix for hitching up of adding a riser for the car tires to sit on so I am raised up higher might work.

I will weigh the tung after I get it back from Steve B.'s (putting on new doors).

I do think a raised hitch might do a little because more weight would go to the rear. but it is true the axel is farther back and inexperience not experience is why it is so.

Thank you very much for your answers. I hope of have answered some of your questions.
Ron D.

[brian_bp]

The corolla is a 2001 I had a hitch installed class 1. this is what it looks like but tan. Struts are what is underneath with spring around them.

Thanks, Ron. The coil-over strut setup works well, but is not convenient for adding spring assistance, such as air bags. The control arms of that suspension are not intended to take vertical loads, so nothing can readily be added to them, either.

I would measure the height to some reference point (such as the top of the rear fender opening) without load, hook up the trailer and measure again, and see what the difference is. If it is not dropping a lot, and the muffler dragging only happens in sufficiently severe dips, then the suspension might not be much of a problem.

If the muffler is sticking out rearward more than other stuff at the same height, or downward more than other stuff that far back, I wonder if a muffler modification might provide more clearance (a better "departure angle" in automotive terms) and avoid problems?