After you set the Toad up and have everything ready for that first "road test" here are a few things to be aware of.

1. After you drive a short distance try to find a level parking lot you can pull into to get a good look at how level the trailer is and if the frame of the Trailer Toad is slanting down toward the tow vehicle approximately 1 inch.
   Sometimes your driveway or where you set the Trailer Toad up at may not be as level as you thought. This can casue a couple minor, easy to remedy problems.

2. If the trailer is slightly to high in the front this will put additional weight on the rear trailer tires. This will cause excess sway. You can try loosening the equalizer chains one link and see if that helps. If it is still too high you should lift the trailer off the ball, lower the hitch head one hole and then hook up again. The goal is to end up with the trailer frame sitting level. If the adjustment made the front of the trailer a little to low, tighten the equalizer bar chains one link at a time until it is level.

3. Now that the trailer is level make sure the Trailer Toad frame is tilted downward toward the tow vehicle about 1-inch. If it is more than 2-inches low in the front you can continue your road test but you should bring the front up an inch or so before your next trip. If the frame is higher in the front than the rear and the frame runs down towards the trailer it is recommended you lower the front before you travel at highway speeds. With the frame high in the front it reduces the Trailer Toads ability to reduce sway.

The extra time taken in getting everything set at the correct heights is time well spent. Your towing experience will be improved by making these final adjustments.

If your Trailer Toad came with the Reese round-bar hitch (with no spring-clip retainers) you have probably noticed you had to have the equalizer bars on the hitch head when it was installed and it seems you can't remove them because they hit the tires before they release. I have the same setup on my motor home. The only way to get the equalizer bars off is to remove the tires. I just strap mine in place when I take the motor home to the dump station or to wash it. Some guys are just unhooking the Trailer Toad from the receiver, which also is another way to do it. We feel the Reese hitch is an improvement over prior equalizer hitches so this little bit of a hassle is worth having the best quality hitch we can find. Besides, you don't have to worry about the equalizer bars coming off by accident with this Reese assembly!

In almost every case that we hear back from a customer that tells us he is feeling some sway, it is that the front of the trailer is simply higher than it should be. Most of us with heavy trailers have spent a lot of time trying to balance the trailer BEFORE we had the Trailer Toad. Now you can put that weight back in front, we like to see 15% of the gross weight of the loaded trailer on the ball, it let's the Toad do what it was designed to do, "carry the load".