My truck receiver is stamped with 500lbs Max conventional and 11,000lbs with weight distribution hitch. My trailer tongue weight is 575lbs and the WDH weighs 109lbs. Before I actually engage the WDH won’t I be over the receiver Max of 500lbs? How long is it ok to have that extra weight on the receiver or is it at all?

 

Having 575lbs on the tongue isn't going to destroy it in a hot second, but you don't want to tow that trailer every few weeks for hundreds of miles without a WDH, especially if your 575lb is the dry tongue weight of the trailer.

Not sure if I understand the rest... are you asking if the weight of the tongue and WDH are exceeding the capacity of the hitch? The answer is they do not, when you set up the WDH properly. You're going to take all but a few hundred pounds back off the hitch when you torque the WDH bars.

 

If that's what you have, go ahead and use it. The weight capacities from the truck manufacturers is actually conservative, and you can go over a little and have no problems. Nobody's going to put your truck on a scale.

 

#2 is the right answer.

Many people have tongue weights over 500 pounds. Could be 1,000, 1,100. With their WDH properly adjusted, they're fine.

Going over 500 pounds is not an issue with a static weight. It's when you're driving, turning, braking, etc. that it would be of issue if you didn't have a WDH.

 

Those numbers are for installed operating conditions, so the temporary condition of higher weights during setup and install when hooking up are not really a consideration.