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Old 06-15-2023, 08:23 AM   #11
Bill
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
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Unfortunately, air bags are a terrible and dangerous solution for towing. The following article in the Trail Manor Technical Library touches on why this is true, and why a weight distributing hitch (WDH) is a much better solution.

https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...ead.php?t=2616

When you first log on to the Forum, the Tech Library is the fourth sub-forum under TrailManor Community.

Elsewhere, there is a long thread on the topic of air bags, largely authored by our original towing expert RockyMtnRay, who spent most weekends tooling around the high country in the Rockies with his TM. It is worth reading the entire thread.

https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...ead.php?t=2659

For whatever reason, neither of these articles clearly points out the biggest problem with air bags. The teeter-totter effect mentioned in the first link actually takes weight off the tow vehicle's front wheels. Since the front wheels do more than 60% of the tow vehicle's braking, and all of the steering, it seems unwise to decrease their grip on the road by unweighting them! A WDH cures this shortcoming - air bags do not.

Bill
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