Oliver Towing Setup Guide

[topgun2]

HERE is a new video from Oliver featuring Aaron Wolters.

Bill

[Mike and Carol]

He doesn’t use an Andersen hitch on his Tundra?

[DanielBoondock]

I found towing and the setup easy. With the Anderson for me simply adjusting via the bolts to slack or tighten the chains far easier and faster than the 'lift the truck' method. 

The only puzzling thing is weight distribution. I don't see how this is providing any. The Oliver techs put 5 threads on it and recommended that the chains be slightly slack with a bit of play. This isn't distributing any weight, at that point it's just a receiver on the ball with sway control. If the truck inclines up relative to the trailer then that should add some tension and WD, but otherwise no. 

What's the thinking here?

[CRM]

4 minutes ago, DanielBoondock said:

The only puzzling thing is weight distribution. I don't see how this is providing any. The Oliver techs put 5 threads on it and recommended that the chains be slightly slack with a bit of play. This isn't distributing any weight, at that point it's just a receiver on the ball with sway control. If the truck inclines up relative to the trailer then that should add some tension and WD, but otherwise no. 

What's the thinking here?

Chains have to be tensioned to distribute weight, and I don't think you'll have any sway control either without the tension. 

[DanielBoondock]

22 minutes ago, CRM said:

Chains have to be tensioned to distribute weight, and I don't think you'll have any sway control either without the tension. 

The sway control comes from the resistance from the inner plastic hub that the ball rides in. So as long as the chains are 'engaged', meaning little play (not slack), than if the trailer fishtails that resistance will mitigate it I believe. So I do think the sway is always active. For my rig I think it's a non issue. The truck weighs more than the trailer, has rear steering (the rear wheels steer for a fantastically tight turning circle) and sway control. That means they'll use that rear steering to counteract any sway. But the Ollie doesn't serve up any sway I can tell so it's all moot AFAIK. 

The tension rod systems provide WD because the bars are always tensioned. But without tensioned chains, no WD. It's a two axis system - yaw control is provided by the ball insert friction. WD is provided by a negative pitch force which is nonexistant here, if you know what I mean. 

Edited Saturday at 04:00 PM by DanielBoondock

[jd1923]

Beef up the leaf springs on the Oliver and ditch the Andersen ASAP 😎 (given a 2500+ series truck). Yes, as Chris noted, only with proper tension is it a WDH. And if OTT is still installing Dexter 1750 LB springs, the hulls waddle like a duck! 🤣

Edited Saturday at 05:26 PM by jd1923

[topgun2]

There are numerous videos on YouTube showing how to setup the Andersen Weight Distribution hitch - like THIS ONE FROM ANDERSEN.

Bill

[ScottyGS]

On 4/18/2026 at 1:24 PM, jd1923 said:

Beef up the leaf springs on the Oliver and ditch the Andersen ASAP 😎 (given a 2500+ series truck). Yes, as Chris noted, only with proper tension is it a WDH. And if OTT is still installing Dexter 1750 LB springs, the hulls waddle like a duck! 🤣

Yes.... Given a 3/4 ton truck ditch the Anderson.  Have to mention for folks using a 1/2 ton that you need to read your manual very carefully.  Most half tons will require a WDH if the trailer weight is over 5k lbs.   Hopefully no one finds themselves on the wrong end of a lawyer trying to take their house, but if you do... you'll be glad you had the WDH installed.  

Quack Quack!    Oh no.. wait... I got the Alcan springs.  

Scotty 

[Galway Girl]

Usually the 1/2 Ton Trucks are limited by the 'dead weight" or weight carrying capability. 
The receiver unit on the truck you have should have a sticker like this one (from a 2018 F150) either on the actual receiver hitch or on the door frame.

 

Notice that on this unit the max  Tongue weight capacity is 500LB.  
(Weight carrying the case where you don't have a WDH and is essentially the dead weight from the trailer tongue down on the ball.)

An Elite II tongue wt when loaded is easily above this 500lbs, and requires a weight distribution hitch to be safe and legal.  

In this F150 case, once a weight distribution hitch is applied, the F150 can then handle up to 1220 Lbs of direct tongue weight. 

The towing guides for most vehicles state the method for determining how much adjustment is needed from the WDH.  

Most have you:
1) Measure the unloaded truck's front wheel well height through the center of the front wheel.  
2) Measure the wheel well height after loading the unit and attaching the trailer.  
In most cases the amount of weight distribution needed is set to bring the front end back down by at least 1/2 of the total difference in those two measured heights.  

Example:  Unloaded measures 37"   Loaded measures 41" (4' total rise).  
Apply enough WDH force to lower that front measurement by least 2" ....or 39" when loaded.  
Each manufacturers towing guide states specifics by vehicle make and model.

CS

 

 

[DanielBoondock]

Well I was originally making the point that WD only comes from properly tensioned chains. My question is why do OTT techs install and recommend taut chains. 

At any rate there are also new options in trucks. My Sierra EV is interesting, despite the very heavy battery giving a total truck weight of 9k (which is a benefit as the truck weighs more than the trailer), but it still has a tongue max of 1k, and a payload capacity of over 1700 lbs. GM requires a WD hitch over 7k lbs and recommends it below that. So technically I don’t need WD, and as the truck has 785 HP and 885 ft-lb of electric torque it has full towing authority. 

On the leaf springs, we were discussing this on another thread. In my first 4k of towing I didn’t see an ounce of roll bounce, and little porpoising. Perhaps that’ll change as they age, or maybe not, but I’m still curious about these differences.