# Trailor Hitch Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailor-hitch-question/180587>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 9, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailor-hitch-question/180587 "2003-06-09T04:10:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailor-hitch-question/180587/1 "2003-06-09T04:10:44Z")

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As the title implies, I have a question about a trailor hitch I saw today. Let’s see if I can explain it clearly enough. First off, I should mention that I saw this hitch on a minivan/jeep something or other, so I’m not talking about anything huge here. Anyways, on the back of this vehichle was a standard two inch receiver. But…what was plugged into it, was the odd thing. Basically, the piece came out far enough to clear the rear fender, then split into two 1 inch receivers each 45 degrees from center. There was a plate mounted on top of this assembly with a basic ball hitch mounted on that. Now the ball hitch I can understand, but why the two receivers? and why offset like that? It seems rather odd. I did some breif looking around and couldn’t find anything on the web, but I’ll keep looking, if for no other reason, to find a picture to make this clearer.

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailor-hitch-question/180587/2 "2003-06-09T04:17:44Z")

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I think I figured it out, I think it’s a weight distrabution thing. It seems that you’d connect bars into the two receivers that would go back to the trailer and help support it.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailor-hitch-question/180587/3 "2003-06-09T04:31:57Z")

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I believe you saw a special hitch made by Reese. It has leaf springs on the outer two beams. The point of this rig is to even out the weight borne by each axle of a light truck/trailer combination. Without it, the rear axle of the towing vehicle would bear a much larger portion of the total load, perhaps even an illegal per-axle load.

I’ve been trying to remember the name of the hitch, but I cannot do it right now, unless it’s load leveller.:smack:

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**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trailor-hitch-question/180587/4 "2003-06-09T05:40:46Z")

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I think you’re right about weight distribution, **Joey**. Is it the “Square Bar/Trunnion Style Kit” [here](http://www.hitchesonline.com/WD/wd_main.htm) ?