Jared Brooks

Hello all!
If the hitch weight of my trailer is 580 lbs. without a weight distribution hitch what would it be with one? About how much weight gets transferred to the front trailer axle off of the hitch?

I have one very similar to this, https://www.prolinetrailersales.com/...ribution-hitch.

I'm trying to figure out how close I am to hitting my payload limit on my 2014 F150 FX4.

My first post

feifel

iTrader: (3)

Only way to truly know is cat scale

But even if you us wdh you always go by the tongue weight

Great white

iTrader: (1)

That's not the way it works. Your tongue is still 580

You're equating weight distribution to weight transfer. Not the same thing.

Think of it this way:

You hook up your trailer to a regular receiver hitch. The tongue weight pushes down. Now you stick a long pry bar under the receiver hitch and pull up, this lifts the rear of the truck and lowers the front. now you hook your pry bar to the trailer frame and walk away. Your pry bar is now the equivalent of a the WDH spring bars.

The spring bars (or the chain height setting in a chain style WDH) determine how much weight is distributed to the front of the vehicle and off the rear but the tongue doesn't change.

Simple as calculus....



I'm afraid you won't get away from GVWR (IE: payload) problems by using a WDH.

Try taking some of your "stuff" out of the truck and put it in the trailer. That way, your truck only sees 10-15% of the "stuff" weight as a tongue weight increase rather than 100% of it in cargo weight.

IE: 50 lbs of ice filled cooler can become 5-7.5 lbs of tongue weight.

Jared Brooks

Cool, thanks for the info!

smokeywren

WELCOME! to our campfire.

"Hitch weight" is tongue weight plus the weight of your WD hitch.

As others mentioned, all 580 pounds of tongue weight, plus the weight of your WD hitch, is going to be pushing down on your hitch, so hitch weight is not reduced. But the WD hitch does distribute that weight to various axles of the rig.

When properly set up and adjusted, your WD hitch should distribute about 20 to 25 percent of hitch weight to the trailer axles and another 20 to 25 percent of hitch weight to the front axle of the tow vehicle. So that leaves 50 to 60 percent of the hitch weight on the rear axle.

For 580 pounds tongue weight, plus a 100-pound WD hitch, total 680 pounds hitch weight, about 136 to 170 pounds gets distributed from the rear axle of the tow vehicle to the trailer axles. You should be able to adjust it to about 140 pounds without a lot of anxiety. So you'll still have about 540 pounds of hitch weight on the two truck axles.

First you adjust the tension on the spring bars to result in 50 to 60 percent of hitch weight remaining on the rear axle of the tow vehicle. After you reach that goal, then don't touch the spring bar adjustment again. Instead, work on getting the remainder of the hitch weight evenly distributed to the trailer axles and to the front axle of the tow vehicle. To do that, adjust the angle of the ball to the coupler, then weigh it again. Continue adjusting and weighing until you achieve 140 pounds added to the trailer axles, 140 pounds added to the front axle, and 400 pounds of hitch weight remaining on the rear axle.

Velosprout

Hitch weight is hitch weight and not changed by the weight distributing hitch. While you are driving, due to differing terrain and loading of the truck and trailer, with environmental factors of wind and bumps and inclines/declines, the transfer of weight by the hitch will constantly be changing slightly in the ratios applied to the truck's front axle, rear axle, and trailer axles. The safe thing to do is consider all of the static, non-moving scale-measured weight of the trailer tongue (not manufacturer-published approximate tongue weight) plus the static, non-weight transferring weight of the hitch together as the total amount of hitch weight being carried by the truck's receiver. That way, you should always be within specs of your vehicle's capacity regardless of road conditions.

A&B

Don't mean to hijack the OP post but since were talking WDH systems thought I could get some opinions on my situation.....Wondering whether or not to use my existing WDH from previous vehicle with my new 150 Scab,5.0, 3.55 , 145WB, payload 1893.....TT is a 3300lb with a tongue wt of 420lb. I realize I have lots of truck for my trailer but was wondering about the ride quality ie. porpoising
I'am I overthinking this thing? Many thanks....Bob

smokeywren

Depends on the hitch and the actual wet and loaded weight of the trailer.


If it's a cheap hitch, then I'd throw it away and replace it with a much-better hitch. If it has no built-in sway control, or if it uses friction-based sway bars for sway control, then it's a cheap hitch. Several much-better hitches are available, Reese Strait-Line, Blue Ox SwayPro, Equal-I-Zer, Husky CenterLine, a few others. If it has list price less than about $900, then it's probably not one of the good hitches. Discount online prices about $450 to $650 complete with spring bars and adjustable shank.

The 3300 pounds weight sounds like the dry weight of the trailer. Nobody tows a dry trailer, so use the GVWR of the trailer as the approximate wet and loaded weight of the trailer. If the trailer specs do not include GVWR, then add the shipping or dry weight of the trailer to the cargo carrying capacity (CCC) of the trailer to get approximate GVWR.

Then use thirteen percent of the GVWR as the max wet and loaded tongue weight of the trailer. Add 100 pounds to the tongue weight for the weight of the WD hitch, and the answer is max hitch weight. The spring bars of the hitch should be rated for more than the max hitch weight you could have.

Example: If the GVWR of your trailer is 5,000 pounds, the max tongue weight would be about 650 pounds. Add about 100 pounds to the max tongue weight to get max hitch weight. So you would want your hitch rated for more than 750 pounds of tongue weight (TW). A common TW rating is 800 pounds, so you should be able to find a good hitch with TW of 800 pounds.

A&B

Little more background.....gvwr of trailer is 3500lbs....it's a 17ft molded fibreglass. WDH is a more economical, Curt 17000, 600lb round spring bars. Towing weight of the tt was 3300lbs, loaded for 2 week trip, dry fresh, black and gray tanks, last time I had it at the CAT scales. I guess my question is....will I get a better ride with a wdh or do i even need one?

old_programmer

I tow a TT with a loaded weight of 3100 lbs. I have a 600/6000 lb Equal-i-zer that I had to use with my old tow vehicle. Even though I don't need it with the F-150 I reused it anyway as it has great anti-sway control. When I set up it up for the F-150 I transfer just enough weight to load the bars. This leaves my front end about a 1/4" above the unloaded weight and allows the hitch anti-sway to be effective. The alternative would have been to install friction anti-sway bars which on my trailer would require a frame modification due to its smaller than normal dimensions.