I just bought an 18 ft car hauler and it was delivered to my house. I now need to get a ball and mount for my 2000 3/4 ton Silverado. All I have seen on the internet about selecting the right amount of rise or drop is to select whichever mount gets the trailer level. This is done with no load on the trailer. My question is what if after loading the trailer there is enough weight on the tongue of the trailer to compress the rear suspension on the truck? The trailer will now dip lower in the front requireing a different ball mount. Am I off base here?

In my experience most trailers dont deflect that much within their load limits. There will be a little wieght on your truck suspension because you want to load a trailer tongue heavy. Try measuring the tongue height with the trailer loaded and unloaded. It probably wont be very different. If the trailer puts too much weight on the rear of the truck,I.E. it squats way down with a normal well balanced load then you would have to address the trucks rear suspension.

With the trailer loaded properly most of the weight should be on the trailer tires. Typically 10% of the trailer weight, loaded/unloaded, should be on the tongue. So if you add 4000 lbs to the trailer the tongue weight should increase by 400 lbs. Seems like a lot but 400 lbs should not drop the rear of 3/4 ton pickup much. You just need to make sure you position the load in the trailer at the right spot, not too far forward or back.

bill, i would say get a 2' drop reciever, when you load your car on the trailer get the back bumper of the car even with the trailer & the truck will pull the trailer easy & not over work the truck.if you load the car to far forward then the trailer will nose down & the trucks frt end will raise making it hard to steer & brake,if you put the car to far to the rear the trailer will nose up & raise the rear end of the truck causing hard brake & steering control of truck & trailer.:thumbsup: bill

Just get one of these!!!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dskvn4S4L._MotorBoats_.jpg

level the trailer-empty.measure from the ground up to the top of the coupler. now measure the truck empty on level ground from the ground to the top of the 2" receiver .the difference is your rise or drop.remember to take in account the height of ur ball in the final equation due to the height diffs in them. now before you purchase add 1 inche to the height. if your towing more than a few miles then you should consider a weight distribution package for peace of mind and better trailer handling

My 2000 3/4 ton Silverado with 18' trailer was good and level with a 2" drop hitch. Yours will probably be fine with the same.

When towing it's very important to have the proper load distribution to get the correct weight on the tongue. Too light and your trailer may start fish tailing when you get up to speed. Too heavy and you risk busting something. The manual for your truck will give you the acceptable range of tongue weight, (assumes you have the OEM trailer hitch/receiver). I measured mine by setting two basic bathroom scales on the driveway side by side, with a piece of 2x12 pine across them. You'll need two scales to measure this much weight, (just add the two readings together). Then with your car on the trailer and the trailer stand on the 2x12 you can roll the car fore & aft to adjust the weight on the tongue. When you find the right position that gives you the desired tongue-weight mark the position on your trailer at the centerline of the front wheels. After that you can just roll onto that mark and you know you're good. This also helps since your tie-downs won't have to be re-adjusted for different positions each time you load up.

All great posts, Thanks! It's has got me thinking about how to strap a car down. Maybe I'll post that as well.