I am in need of a much higher weight rated hitch for my 02 X. Just scared myself by taking it and the toyhauler to the scale - came in around 2,000 lbs! YIKES! I am not willing to push the stock receiver to that extent, the Eckhart custom hitch is not an option as they are in CA and I am in Michigan....but the Pull Rite is made for the X, and it is rated at 2,000 lbs.

I understand the Pull Rite hangs down pretty low however, as it goes below the stock receiver (this is how they get past the legal concerns of the stock unit being part of a safety feature is my guess).

So...if you have a Pull Rite on your X - can you email me some pics of it so I can see how low it hangs down?

Thanks in advance!

Mike

 

That is pretty light for a trailer, I have the stock hitch on my 00 ex and my atv trailer weighs more than that when it is empty. Let alone with all 4 atv's and gear. Plus I have a camper too that weighs in around 7300 lbs, unloaded. I think you will be alright at 2000 lbs.

 

He's talking about tongue weight, not total weight.

 

Ya, my bad, just read the other post.
Thats alot of tongue weight though. I should check mine, It brings the rear of my ex down about 5" . I know I have alot of tongue weight, I hope it isnt near 2 g's though.

 

I am in the process of installing my new Equalizer hitch and got the one with the 1200# bars.. I have a draw-tite 1000# w/d hitch that I have been using with my TT and with about 1000# tongue weight,it's been dropping about 3 1/2 inches with 80# in the Ride-rite air bags (the suburban dropped 1 1/2" with 40#)...I am changing because I need the dual cam type set-up for my 34' Cougar.. I used to have a single sway bar that I brought over from my 27' Wilderness and have never been happy with the handling,soooo when it froze up,I got the new one...
Man,if you've got a 2000# tongue weight,you are way overloaded in the front.. How much was the weighed loaded total weight of the trailer ?????This is not hooked up to your TV,but with everything you are gonna be carrying on a normal trip...Then you've gotta figure your total gross weight with the trailer and the TV loaded with a full tank of fuel,your family and any items that you normally take in the "X" with you..Of course you know that most Exs only have a tow rating of 10,000#...

 

Your rear drops 3 1/2 inches with airbags? You might want to recheck that tongue weight bigdog....

 

Tongue is the same as when I last took it out with the Suburban.. It has always dropped that far..Hitch height is 21" and when I hook up ,it drops to about 18" or less w/o the w/d bars..It drops to about 19" with the bars hooked up and the 'Burb didn't..I bought this rig as I thot it was a "big honkin' towing animal",but now have discovered that you gotta do all these mods to get it to be "a big honkin' towing animal"..I will say that I get better mileage and it gets down the road better,but till I get the sway bars installed and the steering box tightened it's all over the road...I have already put the air bags on and new shocks and am getting ready to get the tires changed from those cheap Pirellis to something with a decent tread and sidewall strength..My buddy wasd following me down the road the other day and told me that my rear tires were flexing from side to side and that's with 60# and NO trailer...
I do love that diesel tho..

 

How much does your front end drop? Or does it get higher? If it gets higher then your WD is not strong enough for the tongue weight. You REALLY need to take it to a cat scale or your local land fill and drop that tongue on the scale, then drive off. You will probably be VERY suprised at what they tell you the tongue weighs, I was...Dealer told me that the tongue was 1100 to 1200lbs. NOT. It ended up being 1800lbs without water or any bike loaded. Mine is a toy hauler so I knew the tongue was going to be heavier than a normal TT but not that much.

 

Hey guys - looks like I really messed up when I determined my tongue weights.! this is GREAT news for me! - and Rush I am wondering if you might of made the same mistake I did? I posted my results at that link on RV.net - got some good news back.


When I weighed my rig, I weighed it still hooked up, WD bars OFF - compared the resulting rear axle weight to the rear axle weight I got weighing the truck only. Made sense to me! My mistake is sorta where rush is going with his last post - my method was essentially including how much my front axle lightened into the tongue weight - and yes while it was on my rear wheel - it is not tongue weight. The proper thing for me to have done was to take total combined weight (truck and trailer) minus truck only to get total trailer weight. Subtract from that the weight for the axles of the trailer only - result is tongue weight.

End conclusion on my rig - my highest tongue weight was really 1440, lightest was 1280 (depending on how I had it loaded for each weight). In some configurations, I actually need to ADD tongue weight to keep my tongue % high enough!

On topic of how much that rear end drops - with mine set up at a 1440 tongue weight - bars hooked up, I would say it squats less than 1" (that is an eyeball guess) . Bars off, it squats about 1 1/4" (I actually measured that at the top edge of wheel well) I have timbrens installed btw. This was with bars way under-rated though - my bars are only rated at 1,000 lbs. I did however adjust my hitch set up, angled the hitch head such I got more transfer.

My guess is, your hitch needs to be set up a bit differently - ie - angle the head - as your bars are rated better than what I was using. I do suspect you might really need to go with a 1400 lb set up though - Equal-I-zer (BRAND) is available in a 1400 lb tongue rating (dont confuse that BRAND...with what is often refered to generically as "equalizer" hitchs. )

On your tires - are those load range E tires? If not, and if you plan to tow heavy, load E tires are a better choice. Also, anytime I tow, I run 80 PSI so I know I am getting maximum weight capacity (that is what is specified on my tires).

 

I have some pics of my Pullrite hitch in my pics below. This hitch was off my van and I made up the brackets to fit the X. The Pullrite I have is only a 1000/10000, I don't know if they make a 2000/20000 for the Excursions.
Excursion Pics

 

Mastertech...thanks for the link to the pics. That actually does not compromise ground clearance as much as I expected. I had come across a guy selling a used Pullrite he had done some mods to as well - like you, using one from a Van - that had modified it such you removed the stock receiver, and did not loose so much ground clearance. Long story short, I decided agains the Pullrite, and bought a used Hensley Arrow. Key factor was a great deal on the Hensley, and not finding any used 20k Pullrites for sale. Having now finally seen pics of one installed - if I had came across a good deal on one, I likely would of went with Pullrite. Oh well... I also found a local shop that will make a custom reciever hitch "tow beast" sized. Oh, FWIW - Pullrite does sell them in a 2,000/20,000 rating for the X.