Fastway E2 Review

This is for those of you who may be considering purchasing a weight distributing hitch. A little background….

I’m into my 6th year of use on my present camper and, for the first 5 years, towed with just a ball and shank. Working from memory, I think my factory hitch is rated at 500lbs. of dead weight on the hitch. With the (19’) camper having 4 tires on the ground, sway has never been an issue on this relatively short camper – even with strong side winds, passing semi trucks, etc.

However, as time progressed, “tongue weight creep” set in. With modifications and the “need” to ever carry more stuff, I was at and, sometimes over, my hitch rating (for dead weight). I had been thinking about a WD hitch for 2-3 years and narrowed my choices down to 3. Not wanting to mess with chains, the selection became the Reese SC, Equalizer and, the Fastway E2.

I chose the E2. I didn’t need the extra sway control (4 point) of the Equalizer and it cost more. I liked the Reese SC the best, but, I didn’t like it enough to spend twice the price of the E2. While I have been accused of being “cheap” and “so tight he squeaks when he walks”, I prefer to consider myself as “thrifty”. While less expensive, I wouldn’t call this hitch cheap at all. With 94lbs.of shipping weight, there’s a lot of heavy metal there. One final choice was trunnion vs. round bar. Ground clearance not being an issue, I chose the round bar. (It was less expensive, too!)

Fastway E2 Hitch

If you are at all handy with tools, don’t pay someone to install this for you. Once I laid out all of the parts on the work bench, it was almost self-explanatory regarding assembly. You will want to read the instructions and refer to them during assembly. They contain some useful/helpful information (like how many spacer-washers to start with). Common wrenches are all that is needed – except for the ball. I was in no hurry to get this job done but, am confident that I could complete it in ½ hour, or less, if desired. The fuss isn’t in the assembly, it IS in the proper adjustment. This may take a few tries to get right.

Regarding the ball…I opted to purchase a new 10,000lbs. ball and the hitch is made to fit the larger shank of this size ball. However, included in the E2 parts is a collar/bushing which will make the smaller 6000lbs. ball fit tight the larger hole. The instructions point out this importance of a tight fit. Wrenches and sockets of either size are not common but, luckily, I have this neighbor….

Below are my final settings, as measured with the camper fully loaded and the truck full of fuel. These are measured at the wheel openings. “No Load” is the truck without the camper hitched. “Dead” is the camper hitched without the WD bars attached. “WD” is with the WD bars attached.   The camper’s “attitude”, or measurement front to rear = ¼” lower in the front.

          Front               Rear

No load     36.5               39
Dead        37.5               37
WD          36.5               38.25     

As you can see, the hitch is doing exactly what it is supposed to do – it distributes the weight of the tongue and provides 2 point sway control.

Everything delivered to my door was a little under $300. This is why I am giving the product a solid “thumbs up”. It seems to be a good value – price vs. what you get. Those of you with short wheel base tow vehicles and/or those who have nightmares about sway issues may, or may not, want to consider something else. By the way, backing up is no problem, no need to disconnect anything.

I perceive one negative in that the smaller parts (“L” brackets and “hairpins” that hold them in) may be prone to being misplaced. If Fastway would design in small “lanyards” (similar to their break away brake lanyard) to keep these attached with the trailer, this would help solve this.

     

Thanks for the tip. As I installed those brackets, I was thinking of that very issue. While they did provide nylock nuts, it's just a fiction fit between 2 painted surfaces - perhaps prone to slipping. The Coleman's frame seems larger than my old RP173 and it does not look as though I would even have room for any sort of shim. As you suggest, I'll keep an eye on them.

Your linked info is interesting and the writer seems to have looked into the matter quite a bit.

One thing I couldn't find much info on was "round bar vs. trunnion". While not doing an exhaustive search, the opinion seemed to be there was no difference in how the hitches performed - only a matter of ground clearance.