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Bosal Hitch Adapter Loosening

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New model X owner who just upgraded from an S. Many reasons for the change, one of which was the ability to hitch bikes and snow gear in the back. Now that I have the car, I’ve been toying around with the idea of towing a trailer, a 16’ Airstream. This discussion has been quite informative, being a novice at trailers. Questions for the experts here. Seeing as WD seems to be a no go and that towing a 22’ seems to be challenging without WD, would a 16’ Airstream be much easier to tow? Would the shorter by 6’ and lighter by what 800 pounds or so make a big difference?
My opinion is that the 22' is a better fit for the X for a couple of reasons. First, the 16 footer has a 8' width, whereas the 22' is 7'3" wide. That makes a difference when it comes to consumption at highway speeds, and based off of some notes from a single (somewhat unreliably consistent) source towing a 16' Sport with their X, consumption is as high on that camper as it is on my 22'.

Second, I still think you'll want some kind of sway control, and most sway control comes with a weight distribution hitch. Many people tow without WD. Tesla is towing their 22' Airstream mobile showroom as a weight bearing setup. I'd love to get a photo of that, by the way, and see if they upgraded the Bosal. But the point is that many people tow with just the ball, and swear they don't have trouble. I am a bit risk-averse, and the more you read about this topic, the more you'll see that experts definitely suggest some form of sway control.

There is a WD hitch option where you could get the benefits of anti-sway without putting strain on the receiver. That would be the Hensley Cub. In hindsight, I think it would have been a much better choice than my Equal-i-zer.

In the end, just my opinion - if you're towing anything with reasonable weight, you should consider upgrading the hitch on the vehicle.
 
My opinion is that the 22' is a better fit for the X for a couple of reasons. First, the 16 footer has a 8' width, whereas the 22' is 7'3" wide. That makes a difference when it comes to consumption at highway speeds, and based off of some notes from a single (somewhat unreliably consistent) source towing a 16' Sport with their X, consumption is as high on that camper as it is on my 22'.

Second, I still think you'll want some kind of sway control, and most sway control comes with a weight distribution hitch. Many people tow without WD. Tesla is towing their 22' Airstream mobile showroom as a weight bearing setup. I'd love to get a photo of that, by the way, and see if they upgraded the Bosal. But the point is that many people tow with just the ball, and swear they don't have trouble. I am a bit risk-averse, and the more you read about this topic, the more you'll see that experts definitely suggest some form of sway control.

There is a WD hitch option where you could get the benefits of anti-sway without putting strain on the receiver. That would be the Hensley Cub. In hindsight, I think it would have been a much better choice than my Equal-i-zer.

In the end, just my opinion - if you're towing anything with reasonable weight, you should consider upgrading the hitch on the vehicle.
The Hensley hitch looks very interesting; thanks for sharing that. I'm going to see if there's a dealer nearby where I can get some more information or try it out. Looks like it would be faster to hitch/unhitch at a supercharger once you practice a bit.
 
Does this mean you don't have any faith in the in-car sway control that is supposed to be included with the tow-mode? I haven't heard anything either way so I'm curious to your thoughts.

Curious about feedback on the anti-sway performance too. Could this be a good alternative to WD? Not crazy about the idea of replacing the hitch on a new vehicle like that.
 
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Curious about feedback on the anti-sway performance too. Could this be a good alternative to WD? Not crazy about the idea of replacing the hitch on a new vehicle like that.
Sway control isn't any worse or better than it was on our Tundra, but I wouldn't forgo a physical anti-sway if you have a large surface area trailer like our camper. There's only so much differential braking can do, and it's noticeable going under overpasses with a crosswind. Some day perhaps the world will add more pins or a CAN signal to the trailer so its brakes can be differential as well.

Everyone is different, but after installing it I have no concerns about the draw-tite hitch. It looks like it belongs after everything is together and is comparatively a skookum choocher--as is the parlance of our times.
 
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Sway control isn't any worse or better than it was on our Tundra, but I wouldn't forgo a physical anti-sway if you have a large surface area trailer like our camper. There's only so much differential braking can do, and it's noticeable going under overpasses with a crosswind. Some day perhaps the world will add more pins or a CAN signal to the trailer so its brakes can be differential as well.

Everyone is different, but after installing it I have no concerns about the draw-tite hitch. It looks like it belongs after everything is together and is comparatively a skookum choocher--as is the parlance of our times.
I agree that differential braking from the tow vehicle isn't going to be terribly effective, but combined with the trailer as well it could probably eliminate most sway issues on the trailer scale we're discussing.

I will be hooking up my Equal-i-zer hitch to the new receiver for a quick 5 day trip out to Lassen next week. I've got to reset the tension in the bars with the new offsets and get everything dialed in before the trip.
 
I agree that differential braking from the tow vehicle isn't going to be terribly effective, but combined with the trailer as well it could probably eliminate most sway issues on the trailer scale we're discussing.

I will be hooking up my Equal-i-zer hitch to the new receiver for a quick 5 day trip out to Lassen next week. I've got to reset the tension in the bars with the new offsets and get everything dialed in before the trip.
Looking forward to hearing about your experience. Weather permitting I'm going for a test tow with the new setup tomorrow in case I need to adjust anything before the weekend.
 
Seeing as WD seems to be a no go and that towing a 22’ seems to be challenging without WD, would a 16’ Airstream be much easier to tow? Would the shorter by 6’ and lighter by what 800 pounds or so make a big difference?
I am definitely not an expert, but suggest you consider this 17ft trailer which weighs less than1,600lbs dry Safari Condo

TMC member @fortytwo has towed it across the country with his X90D without a WD hitch, just the standard Bosal. He has not reported any hitch problems.

I am taking delivery on an Alto F1743 trailer next February.
 
This has been a very informative read! Thanks ohmman!

For those of you using this Bosal hitch for bike racks, have you ever carried more than the "max 2 bikes"? If so, have you noticed any issues? I'm considering loading up a 4-bike rack with weight to simulate 4 bikes, and driving around in a deserted place to see what happens... I'll look for some signs of the issues see here, as well as possible issues in the receiver itself.
 
This has been a very informative read! Thanks ohmman!

For those of you using this Bosal hitch for bike racks, have you ever carried more than the "max 2 bikes"? If so, have you noticed any issues? I'm considering loading up a 4-bike rack with weight to simulate 4 bikes, and driving around in a deserted place to see what happens... I'll look for some signs of the issues see here, as well as possible issues in the receiver itself.
FWIW, I've driven a couple of hours with 3 mountain bikes (2 carbon, 1 steel). I didn't weigh the total, but I would guess it would be 130 lbs including the Thule Apex rack. This was with 20" wheels. Absolutely no issues.
 
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I’m a very late comer to this thread... I’m trying to figure out the limitations of the Bosal receiver. Both the Model X manual and right on the Bosal receiver show a maximum of 8 inches between the pin hole and ball hole centers, and NO drop permitted, and a maximum of 3/4 inch rise. In my X with 20” wheels and set at Standard height this puts the top of a 2 inch ball at about 17 inches.

Did the people finding loosening troubles stay within these limits? Has anyone found a light travel trailer with this ball height? Or do we have to ignore the limits? Image is from the manual.
 
I had this Bosal Hitch welded together so it fits nice and snug (tight), no movement in hitch. Think of it as one piece. It weighs as shown with keys 18.5 lbs.
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I have pulled our 3500 to 4000 lb traveltrailer over 10K miles with it and no problems. In the photo I tried to show the distance your diagram recommends. Up/Down mine is 4.5 Inches & Length is about 9.5 inches. Of course I did not have this diagram when I had this done. If I could do it over again I would try to reduce the length as much as possible. I have MX, 20" wheels and this keeps my trailer tongue level. Not saying this will work for you, just sharing my experience.
 
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Well, after reading through all this and discovering the trailer we want has a loaded weight that will likely exceed(or get uncomfortably close) to the 500lb tongue/hitch weight rating of the Bosal, we've ordered the Draw-tite as then we have a 750lb tongue weight rating which gives us the breathing room we need. Feels wrong to swap this out on a 1 year old car, but we didn't feel like rolling the dice.

Edit: We also plan to use a weight distributing hitch since the worries about the Bosal hitch being damaged have ceased, and although nobody seems to have a proper answer, when we are setting it up we will set to standard, then engage jack mode to ensure we aren't fighting the air suspension.

Based on what I've read this seems to be the best scenario. Our trailer is only 4,500lbs fully loaded, but with the tongue weight and the trailer place really wanting us to use a WD hitch I think this is the best solution. That or order a Cybertruck. :)
 
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Well, after reading through all this and discovering the trailer we want has a loaded weight that will likely exceed(or get uncomfortably close) to the 500lb tongue/hitch weight rating of the Bosal, we've ordered the Draw-tite as then we have a 750lb tongue weight rating which gives us the breathing room we need. Feels wrong to swap this out on a 1 year old car, but we didn't feel like rolling the dice.

Edit: We also plan to use a weight distributing hitch since the worries about the Bosal hitch being damaged have ceased, and although nobody seems to have a proper answer, when we are setting it up we will set to standard, then engage jack mode to ensure we aren't fighting the air suspension.

Based on what I've read this seems to be the best scenario. Our trailer is only 4,500lbs fully loaded, but with the tongue weight and the trailer place really wanting us to use a WD hitch I think this is the best solution. That or order a Cybertruck. :)
Jack mode will automatically disable above 4 MPH.
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