I bought a 2012 F150 Ecoboost 4X4 screw on the road and need to tow a Volvo V70 back home. The car is about 3500#, I am planning to use a U-Haul trailer. As I need to buy a drawbar, I need some guidance on rise or drop. The static height of the receiver with the truck unloaded is 19" to the center of the receiver. When I looked at receivers on line, I see that they come in many rises and drops. Is there a standard that I can feel safe using? Will U-Haul provide me with the information? Any suggestions are helpful, as I am in the dark.

Thanks for looking.

 

You can probably buy a drawbar and ball from U-Haul. This would be the best bet, as they can match it up to the tongue on the trailer for proper height.

 

Most bumper pull trailers build them with a tongue height of 16-18"

Since you have a 19" receiver height:
If you have little to no tongue weight a 2" drop would be ideal.
Because you will be pulling a car hauler with a car you will probably have about 600#'s of tongue weight which will drop the rear of your truck about 3-4".
This means you want a straight ball mount with no drop. This straight could be inverted to give you a 2" lift as well.
The 3 ball-ball mounts like Buyers are straight but are the equivalent to a 2" raise.

If you are going to be towing multiple trailers with different weights, an adjustable ball mount is ideal.

Make sure that the ball mount and ball are rated weight wise to the GVWR of the trailer. For a car hauler that means you want at least 7k ball mount and ball. There are mounts and ***** rated as low as 5k that will fit your truck that could be marginal for your load.

 

A 2" drop when flipped over gives you a 3/4" rise. That's what I have on mine.

 

Not quite.

The height is measured to the top of the receiver. In this case, the height would be 20". A 2" drop would probably work fine.

Because I plan to tow different trailers and I will probably lower my truck eventually, I went with a 4" Rapid Hitch with the locking pins. Also, I don't want a big rusty steel thing rolling around my truck.

 

An adjustable one would be your best bet. They are a little bit more $ than a regular one but then you will almost always be able to find the right height, definatly a worthwile investment.