Reese 30921 hitch for 397

[Oldcow]

I am in the process of purchasing 397 and will have to tow it home 2000 miles. It is equipped with a gen y pin which is nice but I think I will want to have a gooseneck system. So, to get the RV home I am looking for a deal on a used hitch. This Reese 30921 has come up like new at half the price of a new one. Does anyone have experience with this hitch and it being rated for 20,000 lbs (the 397 GVWR), is that an issue?

Oldcow

 

[triplethreat]

I am in the process of purchasing 397 and will have to tow it home 2000 miles. It is equipped with a gen y pin which is nice but I think I will want to have a gooseneck system. So, to get the RV home I am looking for a deal on a used hitch. This Reese 30921 has come up like new at half the price of a new one. Does anyone have experience with this hitch and it being rated for 20,000 lbs (the 397 GVWR), is that an issue?

Oldcow

My opinion, so take it what it's worth....I would never tow a 20K GVWR rated trailer with a 20K rated hitch, but then again, I like not being at the total capacity rating of something like that. I prefer to have some "cushion" room. And to that end, I use a B&W Companion 25K hitch for my Momentum that has a 20K GVWR. That 397 is/can be very heavy on pin weight.....think in the 4500/4600 lbs of pin if the trailer is loaded up to the GVW. Some of the 20K hitches simply do not have the pin weight capacity for that amount of pin weight the 397 can put down. It's something that is certainly worth checking out BEFORE purchase.

Edit....I just looked up that hitch and it says that the pin weight rating is for 5000 lbs.........your call

 

[Oldcow]

My opinion, so take it what it's worth....I would never tow a 20K GVWR rated trailer with a 20K rated hitch, but then again, I like not being at the total capacity rating of something like that. I prefer to have some "cushion" room. And to that end, I use a B&W Companion 25K hitch for my Momentum that has a 20K GVWR. That 397 is/can be very heavy on pin weight.....think in the 4500/4600 lbs of pin if the trailer is loaded up to the GVW. Some of the 20K hitches simply do not have the pin weight capacity for that amount of pin weight the 397 can put down. It's something that is certainly worth checking out BEFORE purchase.

Edit....I just looked up that hitch and it says that the pin weight rating is for 5000 lbs.........your call

The specs do put this at the edge for sure. It handles 20,000lbs and 5,000lbs pin. And yes the 397 has a heavy pin weight.

I have since found 2 Reese that come with the Superduty with 26,000 GVWR and 6,625 pin weight. I'll see about snagging one of these.

Oldcow

 

[triplethreat]

The specs do put this at the edge for sure. It handles 20,000lbs and 5,000lbs pin. And yes the 397 has a heavy pin weight.

I have since found 2 Reese that come with the Superduty with 26,000 GVWR and 6,625 pin weight. I'll see about snagging one of these.

Oldcow

Yea, my Companion 25K hitch has a 6250 lb vertical rating on it.

 

[Wileykid]

I recently switched from that hitch, to a B&W Companion. The Reese is "sloppy" and you get more noise and clunking. After about 15,000 miles on it, the jaw would not release properly, and I had to take a pry bar to move the jaw out of the way. Reese was great on that, and after a couple of pictures, sent me a new head under warranty. If price is a concern, I would have no problem with the Reese, but otherwise there are better "tighter" fitting hitches that would not clunk and make noise as much. One positive thing on the Reese is, it has more lateral movement than any of the other hitches.

 

[Oldcow]

I recently switched from that hitch, to a B&W Companion. The Reese is "sloppy" and you get more noise and clunking. After about 15,000 miles on it, the jaw would not release properly, and I had to take a pry bar to move the jaw out of the way. Reese was great on that, and after a couple of pictures, sent me a new head under warranty. If price is a concern, I would have no problem with the Reese, but otherwise there are better "tighter" fitting hitches that would not clunk and make noise as much. One positive thing on the Reese is, it has more lateral movement than any of the other hitches.

I have read the same but many do like it just fine. For me, I need something to get my new RV home from Florida (assuming the deal goes thru) and then I will probably go to a gooseneck system.

Oldcow

 

[poohbear]

We just towed our " new to us " 2021 397TH home yesterday(207 miles). It was not loaded and for what it's worth I wouldn't use a 20K hitch on this RV. I use a 25K AirSafe airride hitch and my other 5er only had a 14500 GVWR and we usually were pretty close to that. Any of the airbag hitch's are good and with those big RVs I just would not use any other style but that's me.

 

[Oldcow]

I ordered a B&W 25K hitch last night. Thanks for the input.

Oldcow