General question re. trailer hitch receiver angle.

[John Schmidt]

I'm building a one-wheel trailer which uses a u-joint at the receiver....keep that in mind when posting your thoughts. My question is....does the receiver & drawbar have to be perfectly level when mounted. Mine is slightly low at the opening of the receiver so when I insert a drawbar for testing angles and lay a level on it, I need to tip the rear end of the drawbar up slightly to get a level reading on the bubble. My thoughts are first....even if level, as soon as you load the bike then sit on it, it's no longer level anyway. Second, the single wheel hitch uses a u-joint which would allow the tongue to dip downward so having it perfectly level would seem to be a moot point. Am I missing something or what?

Just for giggles, if anyone has a hitch mounted that you've used for many miles, would you consider slipping something into the receiver to check just how level it is. If it's close I can't see where it makes a huge difference. I might be wrong....I was last year....once! 

[John Schmidt]

OK, after messing with it for a while, I was shutting down for the evening and standing to one side looking at the angle of the hitch relative to the angle of the bike....and suddenly it was a forehead slap. The bike is in a wheel chock which raises the front end slightly above level so naturally the receiver/drawbar combo is going to appear low at the back end. I placed another small level on the fender grab rails and compared that to the level on the hitch....almost identical bubble displacement. One less thing to worry about, have plenty of others at the moment.....like where I'm going to live in a few months. That's another story for another time. 

[Dusty]

John
I made mine parallel to the ground and the two upper mounting holes. Two wheel escapade with no universal linkage.

Dusty

[ridingron]

I don't see how it could always be level. Different loads on the bike and the trailer every ride.

[John Schmidt]

You're right Ron, that's what got me thinking. With a regular 2-wheel trailer the ball allows the up/down positioning, with a 1-wheel trailer the u-joint hitch allows the same thing. Guess I was being a bit too anal on the setup of the hitch, being a little high or low shouldn't amount to anything if not excessive.