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Old 05-07-2021, 06:33 PM
thstone thstone is offline
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Location: Los Angeles
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bdc101 View Post
Do the trailer rental companies give you the WDH along with the trailer? I've never heard of renting a trailer before, so I don't know what they require you to do. You should just buy your own WDH if you intend to eventually. You'll probably find that it makes towing much more stable when it's properly adjusted, even on straight/flat roads. It seems odd that the trailer rental company would require you to use their WDH, but let you drive off without adjusting it properly. Though like I said, I know nothing about renting that sort of thing.
Renting a travel trailer these days works a lot like AirBnB: there are national websites where private trailer owners post their trailer for rent and renters (like me) use the website to reserve the desired dates, make payment, get insurance, etc.

RV Share - Rent RVs Direct from Local Owners

Almost all of the trailer owners provide a WDH that comes with the trailer rental. So when I arrive to pick up the trailer, we just insert the WDH into my receiver, couple up the trailer, hook up the chains and 7-pin, do a safety walkaround, and I'm ready to roll out.

There are two parts to a WDH: the portion that has the ball that inserts into the receiver of the tow vehicle and the portion mounts on the trailer frame and provides an attachment for the weight distribution/anti-sway bars. The portion that mounts on the trailer frame is somewhat permanent because it is mounted in a very particular location (according to the hitch manufacturer's directions) and is held on with numerous heavy bolts.

Therefore, its not practical for a renter to bring their own hitch and spend an hour bolting it onto the frame of the rental trailer and then having to spend time removing it when the trailer is returned. Also, the frame heights vary from trailer to trailer so a renter may have to own more than a single set of mounting brackets to be able to mount the portion of the hitch that attaches to the trailer frame to a wide range of trailers. It's much easier for the renter and the owner to simply use the hitch that the trailer owner provides.

Proper adjustment of the WDH often takes multiple tries. Its not as simple as just following the installation instructions and you're done. Usually the WHD is installed according to the hitch manufacturer instructions and then the owner adjusts it until its set just right.

This iterative adjustment process isn't something that most trailer rental owners are willing to spend time doing (if they even know how). Thus, if the trailer looks "pretty good" when its hitched to the tow vehicle, then the expectation is that the renter will use it "as is" and not waste an hour of the owners time trying to adjust it "perfectly".

I use "quotes" because everyone (each renter and each owner) has their own definition of what is "good enough". Thus, what justifies taking additional time to make a hitch adjustment is somewhat arbitrary.

Taking a conciliatory approach seems to avoid any conflict with the trailer owners who might consider a request to make further hitch adjustments to be "nit picking" and upset them.

In practice, this system works pretty well even though it's not optimal. Since the sag on the X5 is minimal and the trailers tow perfectly fine, the baseline hitch settings for the trailers that I have rented seem to be "good enough" for me to use without any concern for safety and provide a very comfortable and confident towing experience.

However, in the instance of the white GeoPro trailer, the trailer owner's hitch was clearly not set up to tow with my X5 and the owner and I both saw this. In this case, the owner readily agreed to take the time to make a hitch adjustment to get it "good enough".

As I said in my earlier post, when I purchase my own trailer and hitch, then I will take the time to adjust the hitch perfectly to dial out any sag. In the meantime, I'll use the air bags to fine tune the rear ride height. Its not a perfect solution but that seems to be one of the trade offs for using rental trailers.

Last edited by thstone; 05-07-2021 at 06:41 PM.
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