Getting Hitched

Yeah, I know this is off topic… This is not about trailer hitches, towing, or bike racks, but it is a resource sorely needed and what better place to put it than here.

My iPhone dropped out of my pocket onto some rocks the other day. It only fell about 2 feet, but it smashed the screen to smithereens. The screen still worked and I put packing tape over it to protect my face while I considered my options for fixing it. There were some vague tutorials out there on this subject, and I was a little apprehensive, but decided to give it a go. Apple wants almost $300 to fix the screen, which seems steep for a $400 phone. I ordered a replacement glass face off of eBay for about $25 and it arrived in about 10 days.

This morning I did a run to the local hardware store and Radio Shack to pick up the required tools. I bought an X-Acto knife with a flat, stub-nosed blade for prying the glass off the LCD, some Goo-Gone for helping to loosen the glue holding the glass to the LCD, some cotton swabs for applying the Goo-Gone, some Windex for cleaning the LCD, and some Elmer’s rubber cement for glueing the glass on.

In the image above you can see how I’m using the blade to gently lift the glass shards while using the q-tip to apply Goo-Gone to loosen the adhesive. It takes a long time… Set aside 2-3 hours if you want to do it right. I recommend applying the Goo-Gone liberally before lifting the glass so that any air pockets created will be filled with the solvent. Be very slow and deliberate and let the glass lift itself as much as possible. If your screen is not shattered as badly as mine, it will be more difficult or nearly impossible, as the larger chunks are very hard to remove. I thought about trying a hair dryer to soften the glue, but didn’t have one handy.

Once the glass has been largely removed, I used the same blade to scrape off the adhesive. I think I went a little overboard with the Goo-Gone. More on that later… You can also see some O-ring sticking out of the sides of the phone. That o-ring was damaged pretty badly getting this apart since it was glued into the adhesive in places. I’m not sure how important it is, but I’m not going to worry about it.

Above you can see the pile of debris I’ve created and the tools I was using. The replacement glass is shown, too. The LCD is now ready to be cleaned with Windex.

I applied a little rubber cement to each of the four corners under the black portion of the glass and stuck the face on. I decided not to try putting glue between the LCD and the glass, as it would be almost impossible to do without bubbles. I cannot tell the difference between a phone with glue and a phone without glue, so other than sealing it up, there is no visible need for it.

Pressing the button and watching the phone come on was a great relief. However, when I tried the touch panel, it didn’t work at first. OMG, I destroyed my phone!!! Fortunately after waiting a few more minutes it was working just fine. It must have been the windex evaporating off. The touchscreen now works just like new. However, there is some strange shadowing on the screen that is new. I think I must have applied a little too much goo-gone and had it go behind the LCD. It doesn’t affect the performance, but you can definitely see a slight shadow. That said, it is 50X better now than it was before and I saved $250, so I can live with the shadow. Maybe it will go away, too over time.

This was a difficult and time consuming process, but I’m happy with the result. If I had destroyed the phone in the process, I was planning to buy an LCD/Glass unit for $165 as my backup plan. Fortunately plan A did the trick.

**** UPDATE 06/23 ****

The shadowing that appeared on the screen seems to be slowly healing itself.  I think the adhesive remover is slowly evaporating out from between the backlight and the LCD.  The pattern has changed substantially and is getting lighter and lighter.  Hopefully it will disappear all together.  I’m thinking about leaving it in the sun for a while to see if it speeds the evaporation.  

Also, the lack of the o-ring is noticeable.  Some lint has already made it behind the screen.  At some point, I’ll remove the glass again and do a better job of sealing it.  I think a large gauge syringe could be used to squirt a small bead of rubber cement all the way around the screen to take the place of the original o-ring without getting it under the visible part of the screen. 

We’ve always been fans of hitch bike racks, but we came across another reason that we hadn’t thought of. One of our customers recently did an experiment with gas mileage while carrying bikes. We were surprised at the results and thought we’d share them.

Brian Johnson drives a 2006 Toyota Prius and was looking for a solution for carrying two bikes. He started with a roof rack and measured the resulting impact on mileage. The empty bike racks on his roof caused his mileage to drop between 1-2 mpg. When driving with his bikes on the rack he found that the mileage dropped by nearly 10 mpg!

He does a lot of driving and decided to try a hitch rack to see what the impact would be. He bought the Toyota Prius Trailer Hitch and a Softride Versa hitch bike rack and started tracking the mileage. The impact of the rack without bikes on it was not measurable, as it is in the wind shadow of the car. When the bikes were on the hitch bike rack, the mileage only dropped by about 4 mpg, a savings of 6 mpg!

Now, it’s not as if you’re going to retire on the savings, but at $4 per gallon, every mpg matters! We decided to calculate a scenario to put into perspective. Let’s say you go on three 250 mile family biking trips per year. Plus, you drive your car 15k miles a year and get 45 mpg on average.

That give 750 miles driven with bikes for a savings of 3.1 gallons of gas by using a hitch bike rack. The extra roof rack drag adds an additional 15.5 gallons of gas over the 15k miles. At $4 a gallon, having the hitch rack would save $75 per year, or $375 over five years of ownership. Not bad! Who knows what it would be with a car that is less efficient than a Prius?

If anyone else out there has a knack for science and wants to log some miles, let us know what you come up with.

This post is dedicated to our customers. Our site provides a reviews system for customers to share their experiences. The 2007-2008 Honda CRV Trailer Hitch is a popular model and is a great example of how powerful customer feedback can be. Here are some an excerpt from one customer’s review:

This hitch fit our CR-V perfectly and looks great. When you start to lower the muffler, a little dishsoap and water makes the temporary removal of the muffler mounting pins from the rubber bushings much easier! Just wipe the solution on the pin tips and they slip right out.
Also, prior to positioning the hitch, be sure to clean the mounting holes on the frame and test fit the bolts … a little grit or a small blob of undercoating in the threads isn’t something you want to discover later!

You’ll also notice a great picture of the hitch installed on the Honda CR-V. That picture was submitted by one of our customers.

With hundreds of reviews coming in, we want to take this chance to say thank you! As you look through our site, look for customer reviews at the bottom of each product page for a more personalized experience.

In our never ending quest for new products, we’ve recently added the Torklift line of trailer hitches, known as the “Superhitch”. Torklift has a wide range of products, mostly focused on accessories for truck based campers. The Torklift Superhitch was one of the products that caught our eye.

At first glance, the Superhitch appears a little odd. Instead of one 2″ receiver opening, it has two of them. The design serves two main purposes… First, if you just want one of the toughest, highest capacity trailer hitches in the industry, it offers two positions to place your ball mount. This gives you a little more flexibility with different trailer tongue heights and varying drops on your ball mounts. Second, and more importantly, the Torklift Superhitch has an accessory called the Supertruss, that is basically an extension that allows the trailer hitch to be extended back from your truck up to a whopping 48 inches. The two receiver design is what gives it the strength it needs to position the ball mount that far back from your truck.

Many of today’s campers are as long as 12 feet. At 12 feet, you’ve got about four feet of camper hanging off the back of your truck. If you want to tow a boat, a car, or any other toys you might think of towing, the Torklift Superhitch and Torklift Supertruss are your ticket.

The Superhitch provides strong vertical support by using the two receiver design. In fact the Superhitch is the highest rated hitch that we’re aware of. With a weight distribution system, it can tow an amazing 17,000 lbs of trailer weight! The Supertruss extensions come with a chain system that provides good lateral stability and overcomes the massive torque that is generated when leveraged out at that distance. Even with the maximum extension, the Superhitch can tow 6,000 lbs of trailer weight without a weight distribution system.

With a weight rating of up to 17,000 lbs, the Torklift Superhitch is not for everyone. It is only available for trucks that can take that kind of abuse. You can use our Torklift Superhitch Finder to find the hitch for your truck.

We’ll have more on Torklift’s product line soon. Happy towing!

It’s great to get the bikes out when the weather turns nice. We finally had a chance to get up to Post Canyon with dry trails and the sun shining. Finally some shorts weather in Hood River! They’ve done a lot of work on the trails this year and have added some fun new “obstacles” for us play with.

Luckily I survived this unexpectedly large jump without a scratch. If you could see my face, you’d see the fear of imminent death in my eyes. After a controlled crash landing, I was checking to make sure all my body parts were in tact when an other guy came screaming through and made it look easy. It gives me a lot of respect for the guys we see jumping some of the other obstacles up there.

Does anyone else have some biking or towing pictures they’d like to share? Shoot us an email!

Follow this link to view Towed Vehicle Supplemental Brake Systems


Like every other law of physics, the second law of motion isn’t open for debate. “Mass” (the weight of the towed vehicle) times “acceleration” (65 miles an hour, in the examples above) equals “force.” Always. Which creates, in effect, a 3,000- to 10,000-pound battering ram aimed directly at the back of the coach.

Motorhome brakes aren’t built to stop an additional 3,000 or 4,000 (or 10,000) pounds of towed weight. They’re built to stop the weight of the coach and its contents. But even if you had an extra two or three tons of braking capacity, the weight of a towed vehicle isn’t over the motorhome’s brakes. It’s pushing on them from behind.

It’s the “battering ram” effect of the towed vehicle’s momentum (mass times acceleration) that adds braking distance to a towed vehicle-motorhome combination.

So it’s not surprising, that safety is the number one reason most people add a supplemental braking system. Supplemental brakes take the load off the motorhome. The motorhome and the towed vehicle brake in tandem, taking significantly less time and distance to come to a controlled stop approximately 34 percent less, according to a study* by ROADMASTER

Supplemental brakes also relieve stress on the tow bar and the mounting brackets. an emergency stop without supplemental brakes is a leading causes of tow system failure. Towed Vehicle Supplemental Braking Systems also keep the combination straight as you brake, so there’s less chance of a “jackknife.” A Towed Vehicle Brake System will also prevent catastrophic failure caused by sustained braking on a decline.

Safety notwithstanding, there are several other compelling reasons to add supplemental brakes…

It’s required — To one degree or another, every state and province in North America has recognized the significant benefits. Which is why supplemental brakes are required in virtually every state and province. The majority of states, plus many Canadian provinces, specify 3,000 pounds as the maximum weight which can be towed without supplemental brakes, according to the American Automobile Association.

There’s currently no national standard, and the towed weight limits vary from state to state (and in Canada, from province to province) — 4,500 pounds in Texas, 10,000 pounds in Massachusetts, and 3,080 pounds in British Columbia (again, according to the American Automobile Association).

There is, however, that universal standard — “force equals mass times acceleration.” Whether you’re in Texas, Massachusetts or British Columbia, every towed vehicle combination is always in compliance with the second law of motion.

Chassis warranty and liability — Some motorhome chassis manufacturers will void your warranty (and insurance adjusters will void your policy) against damage claims if you tow without supplemental brakes. Workhorse will void your chassis warranty if you tow more than 1,000 pounds without supplemental brakes; Ford stipulates 1,500 pounds.

Wear and tear — Supplemental brakes cut down on everyday wear and tear — on the tow bar and the bracket, and on the frame of the towed vehicle. So they last longer. And because they aren’t braking for two vehicles, your motorhome’s brakes last longer, also.

It just makes good sense — Every other trailer on the road today has supplemental brakes — fifth wheels, travel trailers, semi-trailers — they all have their own braking systems. When you’re towing a couple of extra tons — or more — shouldn’t you have a supplemental braking system to stop it?

* Test data — Motorhome: 34-foot 1996 Winnebago Adventurer, Ford Superduty chassis with a 460 gas engine; GVWR: 17,000 pounds; brakes: hydraulic four-wheel disc. Towed vehicle: 1995 Oldsmobile Aurora; GVWR: 4,690 pounds (actual test weight: 4,110 pounds). Braking pressure: 80 pounds of force directed to the brake pedal representing a “hard stop.”

Welcome to the HitchSource.com blog.  This blog will be used to provide tips, introduce new products, and talk about hitch related topics.