Building one of these tonight with $71 worth of scrap steel tube from metalsupermarket here in Houston. The Top tube will be 53" long when complete. The production Superhitch is reported to have a solid chunk of steel inside the top hitch segment that extends 10" into the 2.5" wide tube (then it is welded in by boring holes in the outer to make it one chunk. The bottom tube is just 2x2 square steel tube. I am told that everything is 1/4" thick on the OEM one. Pretty straight forward design and with $25 in safety chain, $15 in turnbuckles and a $45 drop hitch you can't go wrong for saving that much $$. They want just under $700 for the 48" right now on etrailer :(
Hello Mike I built my own also I have two hitches one on top of the other on the frame of my truck it's a 2005 Dodge 3500 heavy duty 4 wheel drive crew cab. My camper is a 11.5 Skyline camper. I tow my Mako 224 behind it. My stock hitch is a two and a half inch receiver then I mounted a 3 inch hitch receiver underneath it. My hitch extension is 42 in. I installed chain with tensioners on each side going to the outside of the hitch.. my upper tube is 2 1/2 in my lower tube is 3 in. I noticed a small drop at the end of the extension when I was loaded. I solved the problem of the drop by running a table loop around my gooseneck ball hanging underneath the truck all the way back with cable to the extension. It solved my drop that I was having with such a long extension and did not put any more stress on the back of the truck since it is hooked up to the ball on the gooseneck worked out great.
Very nice, that's a good idea with the gooseneck. What year is your 224? That's one of my favorite models. I had one a few years ago and I regret selling it every day lol. Thanks for watching and the comment!
The factory hitch wasn’t designed to take on the weight over an extended distance like the Torklift hitch and extension is. When a hitch is designed they put the weight where a ball mount would sit for their rating testing and certifications. Torklift designs their hitch and extension with the weight and distance in mind. The cross tube, side plates and double receivers are designed for the extra leverage. You also want to make sure the connecting collars between the tubes do not slip or move since having both tubes locked together adds to the strength of the system as a whole. Your weakest point is the factory hitch imo. Plus Torklift uses a solid shank on the upper tube that looks to be plug welded in some spots but doesn’t use a full length solid shank to save weight on the extension while still offering structural rigidity. The lower tube also uses a thicker sidewall tubing. The chains on the sides help to keep the extension centered and solid. Torklift recommends that they be hand tight when setting up. Dynamic load can sometimes double or possibly triple the tongue weight in some cases due to a teeter totter effect. My .02, stay safe out there! My family may one day be driving next to you😳
Are you trying to sell me a torklift hitch? Lol thanks for the info but I know all this, I have plenty of experience in towing and hauling and I stay well within the limits for what I'm towing.
Lots of flex on the hitch in that intro shot. You can see it twist . Got the dually, the toys, probably tons of other shit, and then you go cheap on the hitch.
I made my own version of a superhitch also with integrated camper tie downs that you can actually jack the truck up from , but today I am removing it all and installing the actual Torklift hitch, so I can have proof of capacity and avoid any law enforcement problems
@@MikAnda no issues and I loved my oem modified unit but the 06 OEM ford hitch had some low rating of well under 10k the supertruss original I bought on craigs has a 17,000 lbs and 20k with a WD hitch ,, OEM was probably ok but the new dump trailer I bought is 14k and I was worried about LEO
I doubt you will carry a 14k or more load on that , so like my DIY extension I bet it is never a problem , i have a company graphic on my tailgate so LEO may look at me harder than when i have my camper and no tailgate lol
Yeah true, the heaviest thing I have to pull is 8k and the hitch I made seems to work pretty good but I've only used it once so only time will tell. Thanks for sharing and watching!
Extending the tow ball distance does many un-stabilizing things, like reducing the load on your front axle and increasing the load on your rear axle, your rear axle is the load 'pivot point'!
Hey Mike! Great video. How did you connect the locking quick links (under your truck) to your hitch to connect the turnbuckle chains? Did you drill a hole in the steel tie-downs for the locking quick links?
I like the hitch truss only issues is that without the added receiver metal and mounts you could break or bend your stock receiver I would invest in a bigger receiver
Need to tighten chains up. That keeps the hitch from moving side to side that far out and creating sway. I tighten mine tight evenly. I have the actual super hitch. I have a 48 inch extension. They are a pain to get inserted. That worse part of loading camper. I would agree on the hitch. The super hitch has some extra bracing on the bottom tube. And It’s heavier than the top one. They are very expensive. Be safe. You have air bags on your truck the ones I have air up separately. That help with side to side sway from being too heavy with camper on and the hitch dropping that far out.
Ok will do. We drove down to Destin Fl with it and it did fine so I think it will do good. I might do a little more too with the flex but I'm happy with it. Always, thanks for watching and for the comments
Mike those turnbuckle chains should be tight and also they make receiver locks to take out the play in where the extension plugs into the receiver.....get a set of those
Hey Mike excellent video! I’m considering doing this to my truck as well. Are you still running this same set up? How did everything hold up? Would you change anything about how you did it? Any info will help my decision. Thanks again
Thanks! Yeah I'm still using the same setup, haven't found anything to change yet. It's held up really good so far, probably have around 3-4k miles on it and no stress marks anywhere.
@@MikAnda awesome! Thanks for the info! Already have the hitch now just need to find a welding shop to add the 2nd receiver. Great video thanks again 👍🏻
Hey Mike, That was a great idea to make your own Supertruss. Funny we have a video coming out on our camper, trailer and hitch setup but we don't have a Supertruss. For whatever it's worth I do have some concerns about the factory hitch supporting all that. I believe the actual Supertruss hitches are much heavier duty with additional support for the lower support extension. I've noticed my factory hitch flex much like yours did in the video with only around 500lbs on it. There's a lot of leverage on those long extensions. On our extension if I use a weight distribution hitch with the extension it raises the tongue weight capacity from 500lbs to 750lbs. If you have one, maybe try using that as well. Just a thought. Your new boat is beautiful but very heavy. Thanks for the video. ~ Todd
Thanks. Yeah I had some concerns as well with the factory hitch bc like you said that's a lot of leverage weight but I looked at the rating on it and it was 20k which would mean 2k tongue weight max. We made a trip to Destin Fl with the setup and had no issues at all. I checked quite often and there was no stress or signs of bending, worked perfect. I will probably do a little more to it for more peace of mind, but overall I'm pretty happy that it worked as well as it did. Thanks for watching and looking forward to your video.
Building one of these tonight with $71 worth of scrap steel tube from metalsupermarket here in Houston. The Top tube will be 53" long when complete. The production Superhitch is reported to have a solid chunk of steel inside the top hitch segment that extends 10" into the 2.5" wide tube (then it is welded in by boring holes in the outer to make it one chunk. The bottom tube is just 2x2 square steel tube. I am told that everything is 1/4" thick on the OEM one. Pretty straight forward design and with $25 in safety chain, $15 in turnbuckles and a $45 drop hitch you can't go wrong for saving that much $$. They want just under $700 for the 48" right now on etrailer :(
Yeah, way over priced for what it is. Good luck with your build. Like to see some pictures of it when it's done.
Hello Mike I built my own also I have two hitches one on top of the other on the frame of my truck it's a 2005 Dodge 3500 heavy duty 4 wheel drive crew cab. My camper is a 11.5 Skyline camper. I tow my Mako 224 behind it. My stock hitch is a two and a half inch receiver then I mounted a 3 inch hitch receiver underneath it. My hitch extension is 42 in. I installed chain with tensioners on each side going to the outside of the hitch.. my upper tube is 2 1/2 in my lower tube is 3 in. I noticed a small drop at the end of the extension when I was loaded. I solved the problem of the drop by running a table loop around my gooseneck ball hanging underneath the truck all the way back with cable to the extension. It solved my drop that I was having with such a long extension and did not put any more stress on the back of the truck since it is hooked up to the ball on the gooseneck worked out great.
Very nice, that's a good idea with the gooseneck. What year is your 224? That's one of my favorite models. I had one a few years ago and I regret selling it every day lol. Thanks for watching and the comment!
The factory hitch wasn’t designed to take on the weight over an extended distance like the Torklift hitch and extension is. When a hitch is designed they put the weight where a ball mount would sit for their rating testing and certifications. Torklift designs their hitch and extension with the weight and distance in mind. The cross tube, side plates and double receivers are designed for the extra leverage. You also want to make sure the connecting collars between the tubes do not slip or move since having both tubes locked together adds to the strength of the system as a whole. Your weakest point is the factory hitch imo. Plus Torklift uses a solid shank on the upper tube that looks to be plug welded in some spots but doesn’t use a full length solid shank to save weight on the extension while still offering structural rigidity. The lower tube also uses a thicker sidewall tubing. The chains on the sides help to keep the extension centered and solid. Torklift recommends that they be hand tight when setting up. Dynamic load can sometimes double or possibly triple the tongue weight in some cases due to a teeter totter effect. My .02, stay safe out there! My family may one day be driving next to you😳
Are you trying to sell me a torklift hitch? Lol thanks for the info but I know all this, I have plenty of experience in towing and hauling and I stay well within the limits for what I'm towing.
Lots of flex on the hitch in that intro shot. You can see it twist . Got the dually, the toys, probably tons of other shit, and then you go cheap on the hitch.
Yep, that's me. But it works just fine.
Great video..I see your post is 2 years old..how is it holding up with all that weight? TIA
Thanks! It has been holding up great. I've put a few thousand miles on it and no bending, wrapping or stress marks.
I like it im going to do the same im not towing near that weight.
I made my own version of a superhitch also with integrated camper tie downs that you can actually jack the truck up from , but today I am removing it all and installing the actual Torklift hitch, so I can have proof of capacity and avoid any law enforcement problems
Have you run in to any issues? And what are you towing?
@@MikAnda no issues and I loved my oem modified unit but the 06 OEM ford hitch had some low rating of well under 10k the supertruss original I bought on craigs has a 17,000 lbs and 20k with a WD hitch ,, OEM was probably ok but the new dump trailer I bought is 14k and I was worried about LEO
Oh ok, yeah that's understandable. Mine is a 20k factory receiver so all I really need to worry about is my homemade monstrosity hitch lol.
I doubt you will carry a 14k or more load on that , so like my DIY extension I bet it is never a problem , i have a company graphic on my tailgate so LEO may look at me harder than when i have my camper and no tailgate lol
Yeah true, the heaviest thing I have to pull is 8k and the hitch I made seems to work pretty good but I've only used it once so only time will tell. Thanks for sharing and watching!
Extending the tow ball distance does many un-stabilizing things, like reducing the load on your front axle and increasing the load on your rear axle, your rear axle is the load 'pivot point'!
Hey Mike! Great video. How did you connect the locking quick links (under your truck) to your hitch to connect the turnbuckle chains? Did you drill a hole in the steel tie-downs for the locking quick links?
Thanks! Yes I did drill a hole on the end of my truck camper brackets and I just leave the locking links on there.
I like the hitch truss only issues is that without the added receiver metal and mounts you could break or bend your stock receiver I would invest in a bigger receiver
It's a 20k lb receiver and I'm nowhere near that
Need to tighten chains up. That keeps the hitch from moving side to side that far out and creating sway. I tighten mine tight evenly. I have the actual super hitch. I have a 48 inch extension. They are a pain to get inserted. That worse part of loading camper. I would agree on the hitch. The super hitch has some extra bracing on the bottom tube. And It’s heavier than the top one. They are very expensive. Be safe. You have air bags on your truck the ones I have air up separately. That help with side to side sway from being too heavy with camper on and the hitch dropping that far out.
Ok will do. We drove down to Destin Fl with it and it did fine so I think it will do good. I might do a little more too with the flex but I'm happy with it. Always, thanks for watching and for the comments
Mike those turnbuckle chains should be tight and also they make receiver locks to take out the play in where the extension plugs into the receiver.....get a set of those
I'll look into that, thanks!
Hey Mike excellent video! I’m considering doing this to my truck as well. Are you still running this same set up? How did everything hold up? Would you change anything about how you did it? Any info will help my decision. Thanks again
Thanks! Yeah I'm still using the same setup, haven't found anything to change yet. It's held up really good so far, probably have around 3-4k miles on it and no stress marks anywhere.
@@MikAnda awesome! Thanks for the info! Already have the hitch now just need to find a welding shop to add the 2nd receiver. Great video thanks again 👍🏻
Welcome, hope it all worksout. Love to see yours when you get done!
Hey Mike, That was a great idea to make your own Supertruss. Funny we have a video coming out on our camper, trailer and hitch setup but we don't have a Supertruss. For whatever it's worth I do have some concerns about the factory hitch supporting all that. I believe the actual Supertruss hitches are much heavier duty with additional support for the lower support extension. I've noticed my factory hitch flex much like yours did in the video with only around 500lbs on it. There's a lot of leverage on those long extensions. On our extension if I use a weight distribution hitch with the extension it raises the tongue weight capacity from 500lbs to 750lbs. If you have one, maybe try using that as well. Just a thought. Your new boat is beautiful but very heavy. Thanks for the video. ~ Todd
Thanks. Yeah I had some concerns as well with the factory hitch bc like you said that's a lot of leverage weight but I looked at the rating on it and it was 20k which would mean 2k tongue weight max. We made a trip to Destin Fl with the setup and had no issues at all. I checked quite often and there was no stress or signs of bending, worked perfect. I will probably do a little more to it for more peace of mind, but overall I'm pretty happy that it worked as well as it did. Thanks for watching and looking forward to your video.
@@MikAnda That's awesome I'm glad to hear it work well on a long trip. You did a nice job making the extension. Safe travels!
Thanks!
why is your passenger chain loose?
I just had it loose when I was testing it for stress marks, I tighten them normally.
Horror show.