Reese swappable trailer ball setup

[Wallythacker]

Reese has this interesting interchangeable Towpower kit
https://www.amazon.com/Reese-Towpowe.../dp/B0008FUHPA

Where a single shank on the receiver accepts multiple balls. I linked to the 2 ball kit there is a 3 ball version with 2 5/16" added to the mix but with a 1" shank. So talking 2" square receivers only.

Back to the 2 ball kit. Anyone here used it? Some of the comments on various forums are fearful the ball will pop off if the coupler moves around as apparently you can swap balls without tools and it's only a 1/10 turn to mount or remove a ball. For not much more than the price of 2 balls you get a lot of versatility. It would be nice only needing to move a single drawbar with ball and an additional ball when going from car to car and wanting to be prepared to tow anything you encounter.

When I recently bought a trailer I hopped in my Mirage and drove the 2 hours to get there only to realize I left my 1 7/8" ball drawbar attached to my other trailer (long story/tweaked coupler) and only had my 2" ball equipped drawbar with me. of course the trailer was 1 7/8" ball. Buddy offered me a free drawbar but it was 2", not 1 1/4". We had to haul ass to Canadian Tire (the only CTC I've ever seen close at 8pm, on a thursday, the week before Christmas!) and I had to grab a drawbar/ball/pin clip. Ugh.

Ya. so I like the idea, 1 pin, 1 clip (I usually carry spares of those), 1 drawbar and the 2 balls. A neighbor offered me a galvanized Drawtite bar with a 4" rise so that I could leave locked in the receiver with a light coat of grease. Leaving just the balls in my tool box. Seems too easy.

[klroger]

I have no advice on these as I just have 1 trailer & 1 ball & just keep the draw bar in the garage until I need it... I don't know if it's just me being OCD, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't leave your draw bar in the receiver... Even with a coat of grease, it will seize in the receiver unless regularly removed & serviced . It takes you no time to remove & store it, & it gives you an opportunity to use MOTOR OIL on the draw bar every time you use it. You'll only crack your shins once on it to make you wish you had regularly removed it... Sorry, just my thoughts...

[Mark]

Ya. so I like the idea, 1 pin, 1 clip (I usually carry spares of those), 1 drawbar and the 2 balls. A neighbor offered me a galvanized Drawtite bar with a 4" rise so that I could leave locked in the receiver with a light coat of grease. Leaving just the balls in my tool box. Seems too easy.

My 4' x 8' tilt bed trailer & my log splitter uses a 2" ball. If I bought something new, it better use a 2" ball or I am not buying it. Reason -

I have a 2" ball each on the following items 24/7 -

2011 Subaru Forester - fits in rear hitch receiver
1978 Bolens G174 4WD compact diesel tractor (drawbar for 3-point hitch)
1993 John Deere LX176 riding lawn mower
2006 Kawasaki Mule 610 4X4
1996 Honda TRX300 4x4
2" x 4" x 4' board - I attach this board across my trailer & hook the log splitter on to it for longer trips.

I use my trailer a lot. I use my ATV, Mule, or riding lawnmower to tug it around the yard all the time. I will tug the log splitter into the woods with my tractor, Mule, or Honda ATV. If I am tugging trees (when cutting firewood), I will throw a heavy rope loop over the 2" ball and attach my logging chain to it.

I would say every 2" ball was used multiple times this past year, except for the one mounted on the 2x4 board. I use them enough to justify buying the cheapest 2" balls I can find.

I know it may seem like I own a bunch of stuff, but I own 72 acres of woods behind my house. I hunt & cut firewood to help heat my home. Most everything was bought used, except for the Mule. It's a small Mule ($6,700 brand new back then). I traded a small fishing boat for it & sold an extra Honda ATV to my friend at the time. Thus, even that didn't cost me all that much. Most of my stuff is quite old, but they work great for me!

If something came with a 1 7/8" ball, I would sell it or change it tomorrow!

[Mark]

I have no advice on these as I just have 1 trailer & 1 ball & just keep the draw bar in the garage until I need it... I don't know if it's just me being OCD, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't leave your draw bar in the receiver... Even with a coat of grease, it will seize in the receiver unless regularly removed & serviced . It takes you no time to remove & store it, & it gives you an opportunity to use MOTOR OIL on the draw bar every time you use it. You'll only crack your shins once on it to make you wish you had regularly removed it... Sorry, just my thoughts...

This is good advice! I have a friend who left her rear hitch bike rack on year round (Honda CR-V). Her bike rack is frozen into the receiver. She can't remove it to use a draw bar/ball on her vehicle.

I left a draw bar receiver in my 2000 Honda CR-V for too long of a time. I could not get it out myself. I had to remove the entire hitch & have a mechanic/tire shop remove it for me. I'm sure they had to heat it with a torch and press it with something. I used a full size sledge hammer on the thing, and I got nowhere with it.

I had the opposite problem as her. I couldn't use my rear bike rack without fixing this problem.

Never again! I don't leave receiver hitches on for very long. The same would go for a rear bike rack carrier, too!

[Wallythacker]

I have no advice on these as I just have 1 trailer & 1 ball & just keep the draw bar in the garage until I need it... I don't know if it's just me being OCD, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't leave your draw bar in the receiver... Even with a coat of grease, it will seize in the receiver unless regularly removed & serviced . It takes you no time to remove & store it, & it gives you an opportunity to use MOTOR OIL on the draw bar every time you use it. You'll only crack your shins once on it to make you wish you had regularly removed it... Sorry, just my thoughts...

You'd think a galvanized drawbar would fuse to a steel receiver but it takes a lot before it does. If, big if, I were to leave the drawbar in place it would be slathered in grease and only left in during the summer and then removed every time I clay or wax the car. At one time I had a European style mount which had a good 6" rise and protruded out the back of the car a good 12". I banged my knees on it twice before I traded it off. I didn't like the ball was permanently in place either. I'm amazed at the number of rusted balls on thoroughly rusted drawbars I see. I'm sure they are not coming out as like you guys have experienced.

My 4' x 8' tilt bed trailer & my log splitter uses a 2" ball. If I bought something new, it better use a 2" ball or I am not buying it. Reason -

I have a 2" ball each on the following items 24/7 -

2011 Subaru Forester - fits in rear hitch receiver
1978 Bolens G174 4WD compact diesel tractor (drawbar for 3-point hitch)
1993 John Deere LX176 riding lawn mower
2006 Kawasaki Mule 610 4X4
1996 Honda TRX300 4x4
2" x 4" x 4' board - I attach this board across my trailer & hook the log splitter on to it for longer trips.

I use my trailer a lot. I use my ATV, Mule, or riding lawnmower to tug it around the yard all the time. I will tug the log splitter into the woods with my tractor, Mule, or Honda ATV. If I am tugging trees (when cutting firewood), I will throw a heavy rope loop over the 2" ball and attach my logging chain to it.

I would say every 2" ball was used multiple times this past year, except for the one mounted on the 2x4 board. I use them enough to justify buying the cheapest 2" balls I can find.

I know it may seem like I own a bunch of stuff, but I own 72 acres of woods behind my house. I hunt & cut firewood to help heat my home. Most everything was bought used, except for the Mule. It's a small Mule ($6,700 brand new back then). I traded a small fishing boat for it & sold an extra Honda ATV to my friend at the time. Thus, even that didn't cost me all that much. Most of my stuff is quite old, but they work great for me!

If something came with a 1 7/8" ball, I would sell it or change it tomorrow!

I'm kind of opposite here. My 3 small trailers are all 1 7/8" couplers. The hitch I had on my stolen Suzuki Burgman was 1 7/8", my garden tractor has 1 7/8" ball on it and my little yard trailer is the same. All of my hitches, except the Saturn are Class I, 2000 lb. limit, 200 lb. tongue weight. As you know most 2" balls are Class II good for 3500 lb. and 350 lb. tongue weight. I actually have a 2" Reese ball around here marked 6000 lb. ! I must say that surprised me. The problem is thinking just because you have a 2" ball you think it might be OK to move that 3000 lb. trailer just that short little trip you have in mind, because, hey, you have the 2" ball mounted and are good to go. We all know if anything happens on the road with a trailer beyond the class limit of the hitch you have no legal defense. None.

I get there are quite a few small trailers well under 2000 lb. with 2" balls for convenience for the owner, like you Mark. If any of my friends in the same boat needed a hand or I wanted to perhaps borrow their low deck tilting 4x12 trailer to move some 4x12s for a deck project I better have a 2" ball available. I personally hate the job changing balls, especially in winter. I'm not keen on adding another 10-15 lb. of dead steel of another drawbar and ball stored in the back just in case.

Remember the days drawbars didn't exist and near every vehicle had a hitch? My Dad owned a 69 Mustang coupe and one day while he was pulling his trailer he was pulled over by the MOT boys for no trailer lights. They proceeded to give him a really hard time because he had a 2" ball, rated for 3500 lb. His hitch was fabricated at a shop and welded on. The Ford dealer told my Dad the car was OK to pull 2500 lb, beyond the 1 7/8" limit. He had a 2" ball because he didn't like the idea of loading a 1 7/8" ball to it's limit of 2000 lb. even though our loaded trailer was at that. (My Dad worked at a place with commercial scales so he knew the weight of our trailers.) MOT made him hit their weigh station and the trailer was 2000 lb. but then they wrote him a citation anyway for having the wrong size ball on a car too small for it, It was like $12 or something back then. I'm sure no stasi goons would do that these days but it's the legal aspect some lawyer will seize on.

I see forged aluminum drawbars are now out there. Nice and light, no rusting. Same thing with stainless steel balls, Pricey but they should not corrode. Before I remount my Curt on my 2014 there's a hot dip galvanizing place 30 minutes from me. I have to get some prices but it might be affordable.

[Fummins]

Reese has this interesting interchangeable Towpower kit
https://www.amazon.com/Reese-Towpowe.../dp/B0008FUHPA

Where a single shank on the receiver accepts multiple balls. I linked to the 2 ball kit there is a 3 ball version with 2 5/16" added to the mix but with a 1" shank. So talking 2" square receivers only.

Back to the 2 ball kit. Anyone here used it? Some of the comments on various forums are fearful the ball will pop off if the coupler moves around as apparently you can swap balls without tools and it's only a 1/10 turn to mount or remove a ball. For not much more than the price of 2 balls you get a lot of versatility. It would be nice only needing to move a single drawbar with ball and an additional ball when going from car to car and wanting to be prepared to tow anything you encounter.

When I recently bought a trailer I hopped in my Mirage and drove the 2 hours to get there only to realize I left my 1 7/8" ball drawbar attached to my other trailer (long story/tweaked coupler) and only had my 2" ball equipped drawbar with me. of course the trailer was 1 7/8" ball. Buddy offered me a free drawbar but it was 2", not 1 1/4". We had to haul ass to Canadian Tire (the only CTC I've ever seen close at 8pm, on a thursday, the week before Christmas!) and I had to grab a drawbar/ball/pin clip. Ugh.

Ya. so I like the idea, 1 pin, 1 clip (I usually carry spares of those), 1 drawbar and the 2 balls. A neighbor offered me a galvanized Drawtite bar with a 4" rise so that I could leave locked in the receiver with a light coat of grease. Leaving just the balls in my tool box. Seems too easy.

I've seen interchangeable balls before but not like that. Most of the ones I recall have sort of a roll pin that goes through the center of the ball and stud.

I personally just change out the drawbar even though most trailers I tow use the same size ball I often need different drop heights to keep the trailer level.

[Wallythacker]

I've seen interchangeable balls before but not like that. Most of the ones I recall have sort of a roll pin that goes through the center of the ball and stud.

I personally just change out the drawbar even though most trailers I tow use the same size ball I often need different drop heights to keep the trailer level.

That's the Princess style with a roll pin. I'd give theirs a go but it's 1" shank, so no go on a 1 1/4" drawbar. I ordered the Reese and if something seems off I'll send it back. I'm trying to streamline things around here. I know I needed to sort it all out when I arrived to take my new trailer home and realized, oops, nothing to connect it to the car. I got lax because my brain told me with 2 drawbars and a ball of each size mounted I was fine no matter what. Well, that only works if both the drawbars are in the back of the car.

Strangely enough, all my trailers are outfitted with 4.80-12 tires and 3 leaf springs so they are within millimeters of requiring the same rise to be level, about 3 1/2". I picked up some clearance 4.80-8 wheels from Princess today for $36/ea and I'm going to drop those on my mini 4'x4' aluminum trailer which has 4.80-12. The 4.80-8 tires are rated 590 lb. , trailer gross is 1180 so a match. Besides, the 4.80-12 are marked clearly "Do not exceed 55 MPH" . I've never seen a tire rated so low for speed. I think it's purely CYA for them. I'll just hang one of the 55 mph 4.80-12 on my 5x8 AL trailer as a spare. Put the other away and never see it again.

[Wallythacker]

It turned out the Reese hitch wasn't available for some reason and in the meantime I learned about the Convert A Ball hitch system. It's really flexible and affordable when comparing total costs.

I ordered the two ball 3/4" shank nickel plated kit from Amazon US for $32 US
I ordered the stainless steel 1 7/8" ball from Amazon for $31 US.

So for $63 US I have the 3/4" shank, a stainless and nickel 1 7/8" balls and a nickel 2" ball.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What I really like is the ability to change to a SS shank if needed on my primary drawbar and use the existing nickel shank on my backup bar and keep 1 7/8" balls on both with a 2" in the kit if needed.

I don't think I'll ever venture into the realm of towing using 2 5/16" balls under any situation. I don't plan on ever buying any more balls/drawbars ever again unless I lose or things or stuff gets stolen.

[Mark]

I've seen interchangeable balls before but not like that. Most of the ones I recall have sort of a roll pin that goes through the center of the ball and stud.

I personally just change out the drawbar even though most trailers I tow use the same size ball I often need different drop heights to keep the trailer level.

My dad does the same thing. Now that he's 82 years old, I find myself helping him more. He had three different draw bars for his pickup truck. Each draw bar/different drops are designed for the 3 different trailers my brother & him share (4 trailers if you included my brother's boat). Each draw bar has whatever ball it needs for that trailer. The draw bars get changed, but the ball on them remains.

[Wallythacker]

My dad does the same thing. Now that he's 82 years old, I find myself helping him more. He had three different draw bars for his pickup truck. Each draw bar/different drops are designed for the 3 different trailers my brother & him share (4 trailers if you included my brother's boat). Each draw bar has whatever ball it needs for that trailer. The draw bars get changed, but the ball on them remains.

I must admit I lucked out. All 3 of my trailers have (as of now) 4.80-12 tires on 3 leaf spring axles with the same frame hangers, I only need 1 drawbar as to the drop (3.5 rise) and ball size of 1 7/8. I should still be OK changing to 4.80-8 tires, My rise might be a little high but if I go full OCD regarding the trailer level I have a drawbar with a 2" rise.

I bought two Reese universal fit couplers on clearance for $6. My existing factory coupler has the frame holes about 5/8" off from the Reese holes. I could elongate the frame as it's aluminum but don't like the idea of having a slot for one of the tongue bolts. Oh well. $6, if I decide to add a longer tongue to this trailer I'll use the Reese couplers and drill the holes properly.

Mark, I remember helping out Dad with all sorts of stuff as he got on in years. It's been 10 years and I still get very sad at times.