Hmmm; guessing your F350 must be a dually with 4.10 gears in order to have the 3" hitch. As others have said, there is no 2 7/8 ball and a pop up is a very light load so it must be 1 7/8"......while you could certainly use an adaptor at that weight, slop is a bad thing and will eventually wear out the receiver. I use a 3" GenY torsion hitch with a standard WD head on mine. You have more options since you don't need a WD head.

Cheers,
Dave

 

Not sure what adapters you've used that give you slop loud enough you can hear it on all but the heaviest bumps, but I have been running an adapter for 7 years now with no issues and minimal noise unless I hit some very rough bumps.

I am running the 7" drop and leave the 2" ball down most of the time (it is NEVER turned sideways) and have NEVER had it hang up on anything. The only things it has ever touched as been a snow bank and trailer hitches.

Unless you have a 2WD truck or don't tow your trailers level, a 5" drop will NOT accomodate all trailers. I find that I need the 7" drop to pull my flatbed and two different enclosed trailers for work. The only trailers I raise it up for are my boat trailer and my travel trailer, which doesn't get pulled on it that often. Granted I may have a Ram but because I'm apparently 'Like That' I parked next to my FIL's F250s (current and previous) and found the hitch receiver heights to be within 1/2" of each other.

All that said, if I were pulling 75% of the time or more at weights over 10k, I'd upgrade hitches. I don't, and it sounds like OP doesn't either, so there's no need for him to spend money on new setups when an adapter will work just fine.

Long story short, OP is not pulling much weight or very often, so an approximately $50 adapter would work fine instead of a $250+ hitch.

 

I run the 2.5" Curt drop hitch with an insert to fit my 3" hitch. Add an anti rattle and it works just fine. It does stick out a bit but i call it my Kia Catcher. I've been rear ended 3 times in multiple trucks and each time the hitch poked a hole in the little cars radiator and I was able to drive away and wipe the paint off the hitch. I would never drive around without a hitch.

 

Get a 3” super titan if you can adjust the hitch height on the trailer. Cheapest and highest rated.

 

SteveSBD, WeighSafe does make a pintle hitch attachment and I have one. Fits in place of the ball and retains the scale function. It only works with the steel hitch, not the aluminum versions.