I'm driving a 2002 GMC Sierra 2500HD crew cab dmax, pulling a Northwood Nash 26X, with a GVWR of 10,000 #, an unloaded weight of around 6,668 #, and a brochure tongue weight of 1,020 # unloaded. I haven't weighed it loaded yet, but I expect it'll be a bit under 1,200 #. My Equal-i-zer hitch is the 14,000 # model, which can take a tongue weight of 1,400 #. I just had a Putnam XDR receiver put on the truck this week. It can take a tongue weight of 1,500 # so I'm not overloading the truck or its hitch receiver, or the hitch itself. But I can't get the amount of truck compression in front and back with the hitch installed, like the hitch directions say I should get. The mfr says I should achieve approximately equal compression of front and rear ends of the truck when the hitch is installed correctly, but no matter how I adjust the hitch, I seem to get about 2" of squat in the back end and almost nothing at all in front. On another board, someone told me that the HD models have some sort of stops that limit the amount of compression in the front end. Is that correct? I'd like an official answer from GM but I know many of you are experts even if you aren't officially affiliated with the "mother company", so please enlighten me! Second question: if it's true that the stops exist, I guess that means I'll never get equal compression in front and back, since I'll always get something in back and almost none in front. Right?
The front ends have rubber bump stops that the lower control arms contact to keep from bottoming out. Some trucks contact them all the time if the front torsion bars are sagging. I don't know exactly what kind of distribution hitch you have but the last one I had I could almost lift the back of the truck up when I had it cranked.
