|
 |
What You Should Know About the Couple-Mate® Self-Aligning Trailer Hitch Guide
Couple-Mate is built to withstand a minimum impact of 2.5 tons. It is not built to smash a SUV into a trailer during hitch-up. It is designed to automatically align some very large trailers out of their wheel ruts to directly over the tow ball.
Couple-Mate is probably not suited to small trailers as they are easy to lift without any problems.
Couple-Mate uses the vehicle weight to move the trailer out of its wheel ruts.
Jack stand and jockey wheels will be damaged if they are push back any significant distance. We recommend that you push the vehicle back until you feel the weight of the trailer. At this stage the trailer coupling is directly over the tow ball and the jack can be wound down. ( significant distance is more than 1 foot.)
There is no need to push the trailer past the chocks. Once you feel the weight of the trailer, you are finished. All you need to do is wind down the jack.
The wing can and should be detached after hitch-up. The wing can also be used as a wheel chock.
Do not detach the wing until the wheels are chocked. The trailer may move forward and cause damage to your car. Leave the wing in base plate until you have your chocks in place, then detach the wing.
Aligning is not a problem on inclines or declines as long as your wheel are chocked. Remember as soon as you feel the weight of the trailer, you are finished the hitch-up because Couplemate has pulled your trailer to be aligned with the tow ball.
There are a few things to remember as commonsense plays a big role when towing trailers:
a) Get out of the car and look at the setup about 3 feet before you are ready to engage the trailer and make sure you have the correct height and the trailer is going to hit the wing.
b) If you are using safety chains, count how many chains were on the ground when you first unhooked the trailer. Make sure the same number of links are on the ground when you are re-hitching. I got tricked once when the young bloke played with the jack and raised it.
When the base plate is installed, align the trailer over the tow ball before tightening the nut as the base plate has an elongated hole for adjustment, move forwards and backwards to suit most trailers. This allows an exact setup.
It is common for folks to leave the wings in place when travelling and of course they fall off on very rough roads. New wings are available from www.durasafelocks.com or your dealer.
It is also common to sell you car and forget about removing the base plate. New base plates are also available.
Larger boats over 3 ton need careful attention. Ease the vehicle back until you feel the weight and you will not have a problem.
The worst thing that can happen is you'll up too fast and you’ll either bend the wing or more likely, cause the base plate to swivel. Or you'll forget to check the high of the coupling and miss Couplemate because the kids have wound up your jack.
If your base plate is swivelling due to the old age of your tow ball then pin it to the tongue with a nut and bolt. Some folks have even been known to weld the base plate to the tongue.
Some override couplings need a spacer washer under the base plate for a flat bed. This is quite OK as long as you are using an overrated tow ball. Eg. Most tow balls are 2 / 2.5 ton. Use 3 / 3.5 ton if you raise the towing height even slightly.
When aligning the base plate make sure the tow ball is tightened so the tongue on the coupling does not sit on top of the tow ball when the jockey is wound down. If this is the case then loosen tow ball and move the base plate backward until the tongue is clear of the tow ball.
|
|
