Weight Distributing Hitch Damage

[Travler]

Originally Posted by Bill

Mr. Adventure -

My initial response was the same as yours - the answer was NO. But after I had posted that answer, a nagging little thought prompted me to go check the Ford website, where the answer appears to be "sometimes". I don't know why or how it would increase the rating, but in fairness to Travler's original question, I thought I better acknowledge it.

And Travler then asked Don't even start down that path, because it will lead you to helper springs and air bags. Take another long look at Mr. Adventure's response above. The purpose of a WDH is to put back the weight that was lifted from the front wheels when the trailer tongue is dropped on the hitch. This is very important for SAFETY, as he said. One of the side effects of doing this is that the tow vehicle levels out - but that's just a side effect. It is not the purpose of a WDH.

Helper springs and air bags will level the vehicle, but they won't put the weight back on the front wheels.

Bill

Okay..no I sure don't want to go down that road....I was just trying to understand how and why some people use WDH. Pulling my 2720 with my Ford F-150 4.2L auto Trans I don't think I'll need one.

[CAmark]

There are a lot of ways to know if a WDH is "necessary" and others can speak to that far better than I but, for a very simple assessment I'll contribute that if, when you are towing, it feels like the TV front end is "floating" or "wandering", or your headlights show you the underside of overpasses or tree branches, you will want to consider a WDH.
Mark

[Mr. Adventure]

Bill,
The tow rating of a vehicle is no doubt based on a complicated list of issues that even includes things like the trade off between the number of transmissions they might have to replace under warranties versus the number of additional vehicles they think they're going to be able to sell because of a higher tow rating. Different manufacturers will do this differently, obviously.

Oddly enough, this is a really big deal in Europe, where people desperately want to be able to pull camping trailers, but are living with gas prices that are twice as outrageous as ours. Anybody want a hot business opportunity? Grab a TM dealer franchise and go see if you can take a few million dollars worth of TrailManors off of our balance of payments while you build employment in Tennessee. We'll be right here for you, backing you up with lots of advice and very little money.

Logically a WDH would increase the tow rating both for hard factors like keeping the rear axle and front axle loads balanced and therefore within gross axle weight limits, as well as softer factors like improving driveability and safety. Paying attention to manufacturer's recommendations on WDH's are pretty important for us as TrailManor owners because of the heavy tongue weights.

Originally Posted by Travler

Okay..no I sure don't want to go down that road....I was just trying to understand how and why some people use WDH. Pulling my 2720 with my Ford F-150 4.2L auto Trans I don't think I'll need one.

Travler, I pull with a F150 and use a WDH......1 reason is that it came with it when I bought the TM.

Without the WDH, when I set the TM tongue down on the ball, I loose 220 lbs. on my front axle, and gain 700 lb. on my rear axle.....I still have a margin of 600 lbs. until I reach the GAWR on the rear axle, so everything is within stats, unless I load over 600 lbs of camping gear in the truck. But my concern with this is that the geometry of the truck is off. Ideally, when you load your truck bed, the center of the load should be right in front of your rear axle.....most of the load is going on the rear axle (where the manufacturer intended it to go), plus you are loading the front axle a little also.

The WDH gets this load back on the front axle, puts some on the trailer, and reduces the weight on the rear axle. Some folks on this forum with heavy duty trucks put most of their camping gear weight behind the rear seat, and towards the front of the bed, therefore putting some of that load back on the front axle. That works for them, and might for me. But after tweaking my WDH several ways, I can really tell a difference in how the truck drives. I even use different chain lengths depending on if I have a full tank of water or not.

My F150 came with the factory tow package. The hitch is rated @ 500 lb. weight carrying, and 990 lbs weight distributing. When I weighed my TM, the tongue weight was 480 lbs....including the weight of the WDH which is 65 lbs. Since then, I have added an extra battery to the tongue, topped off the propane tanks (which varies, of course), and usually travel with a full tank of water since I dry camp mostly. I betcha that tongue weight is over 550 lbs now.....over the rated factory hitch weight carrying capacity.

Betcha a lot of F150 owners pull that kind of weight OK all of the time. But for me, I want to get the intended geometry back in the truck while towing, have a comfortable trip, and stay within the stats of my hitch.

Chap

[wbmiller3]

Bill -
Thanks for the link to the Ford info sheet. The "decoder ring" for the door label there finally let me confirm that I got the limited slip differential I ordered

[Travler]

Originally Posted by mtnguy

Travler, I pull with a F150 and use a WDH......1 reason is that it came with it when I bought the TM.

Without the WDH, when I set the TM tongue down on the ball, I loose 220 lbs. on my front axle, and gain 700 lb. on my rear axle.....I still have a margin of 600 lbs. until I reach the GAWR on the rear axle, so everything is within stats, unless I load over 600 lbs of camping gear in the truck. But my concern with this is that the geometry of the truck is off. Ideally, when you load your truck bed, the center of the load should be right in front of your rear axle.....most of the load is going on the rear axle (where the manufacturer intended it to go), plus you are loading the front axle a little also.

The WDH gets this load back on the front axle, puts some on the trailer, and reduces the weight on the rear axle. Some folks on this forum with heavy duty trucks put most of their camping gear weight behind the rear seat, and towards the front of the bed, therefore putting some of that load back on the front axle. That works for them, and might for me. But after tweaking my WDH several ways, I can really tell a difference in how the truck drives. I even use different chain lengths depending on if I have a full tank of water or not.

My F150 came with the factory tow package. The hitch is rated @ 500 lb. weight carrying, and 990 lbs weight distributing. When I weighed my TM, the tongue weight was 480 lbs....including the weight of the WDH which is 65 lbs. Since then, I have added an extra battery to the tongue, topped off the propane tanks (which varies, of course), and usually travel with a full tank of water since I dry camp mostly. I betcha that tongue weight is over 550 lbs now.....over the rated factory hitch weight carrying capacity.

Betcha a lot of F150 owners pull that kind of weight OK all of the time. But for me, I want to get the intended geometry back in the truck while towing, have a comfortable trip, and stay within the stats of my hitch.

Chap

Thanks for schooling me. I think I may get one because when I go hunting and I have my 4 wheeler which weighs 526 lbs dry weight in the bed of the truck.....I bet the rear squats just a bit when I hook onto the TM. I need to fix that.

Originally Posted by Travler

Thanks for schooling me. I think I may get one because when I go hunting and I have my 4 wheeler which weighs 526 lbs dry weight in the bed of the truck.....I bet the rear squats just a bit when I hook onto the TM. I need to fix that.

If you can get the 4 wheeler center of gravity in front of the back wheels of your pickup, then that will probably help get some weight back on the front axle of the truck.....but on short bed pickups, especially the 5.5" beds that come on the crew cab models, that is sometime difficult to do. But the overall weight might be over the limit of the real axle, so that is 1 part that the WDH would help to correct, as well as getting weight back on the front axle.

Hope all goes well.

Chap

On this subject, the dealer who installed my WDH found that the one with proper ratings interfered with the propane tanks, so he used the next larger capacity one. You may find this problem as well. I don't know of any problems I am having with the heavier bars.