texastrucker

I wouldn't worry about it. If the tongue weight is too light as a percentage you will have trailer sway problems. If it is too heavy as a percentage it really is no problem until the actual amount of the weight causes the front of your truck to be too light causing handling problems.

I would say the 10-15% should be a minimum for the tongue weight. More is better within reason. I have pulled light bumper pull trailers with more like 25% tongue weight and they pulled like a dream.

If I had a trailer that weighed 2300 and had 600 on the tongue I wouldn't even think twice about it.

ClaySlayer

Agreed...don't sweat the extra 100lbs...

MXD

Thanks for the replies. Sometimes I am a bit OCD about safety (if there is such a thing. I think some people take it too lightly) and I just wanted to be sure that I wasn't potentially creating a dangerous situation.

I've put as much as I can behind the wheels but as you can see, there isn't much room back there.

MXD

I just looked at the tag on my hitch and it says 1050/10500 with a wd hitch and 500/5000 without. What I don't understand is how is that possible? A wd hitch doesn't change the tongue weight from what I have read, it just spreads it out.

94centennial

As someone said earlier, a weight distributing hitch shifts weight from the rear axle of the towing vehicle to the front axle and to the trailer axle. after putting the coupler on the ball, you need to adjust the bars to bring both the tower and the trailer to near level. It is important to approach the tongue limit for controlling sway.

flixden

That tongue weight limit may not come from the hitch itself, but could be there to make sure you are not unloading the front wheels to an unsafe point.

Hondafan

NO need to be confused, On F150's the maximum tongue weight is 1000lbs period. As long as you dont exceed that weight you are good to go as far as the truck is concerned. All other considerations such at distribution hitches so on and so forth have to do with the trailer and how it handles. The tongue weight part is the easiest part of the equation.

flixden

I don't think that is correct. There are two numbers for tongue weight (one with WD, the other without), and they are specs of the truck / hitch, and not the trailer.
Look at page 29 of the 2011 RV and Trailer Towing Guide:
https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/...ng%20Guide.pdf
It says 500# without WD and 1,130lbs WD for the F150 as maximum tongue weights. I am sure they don't mean 1,000lbs when they say 500/1130lbs. And when they list it under "F-150", I am sure that's not the trailer either.

MXD

That's what it seems like to me from what I have read. From what I can see, if my tongue weight is over 500 pounds, I need a wd hitch regardless of the fact that my total trailer weight is only about 2300. If I could move more cargo around I would but it's not possible. 100 pounds right off the top is my deep cycle battery on the tongue to run all the lights, fans and outlets.

I'm may look into moving the axle forward.

acdii

Here is a definition of the Class IV hitch installed on the F150.
Class IV hitches used as weight carrying are rated up to 10,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a maximum trailer tongue weight (TW) of 1000 lbs.

The restriction on tongue weight does not come from the hitch itself for the OP's question, but rather from the truck. The restriction is mainly to prevent the operator from overloading the rear of the truck unless a properly setup WD hitch is being used.

When using a WD hitch, the specs on all class IV hitches changes.

Class IV hitches used for weight distributing are rated up to 14,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a maximum trailer tongue weight (TW) of 1400 lbs.

However, the hitch is only as good as the tow vehicle it is attached to. This is where the tongue restrictions come into play. I looked at the manual for the F150 and could not find tongue weight restrictions.

The biggest thing about tongue weight, and I will reiterate what I said in an earlier post. The amount of weight taken OFF your front wheels is what is most important when towing a trailer. You want to keep as much weight on your front end as possible. If your front end rises more than two inches or so when you have a trailer on, you may be too heavy on the tongue.

One thing about a WD hitch, when it is setup for a trailer, usually that is the only trailer that you can tow as WD with that hitch. There are adjustments on the hitch itself that you lock in when you install the hitch that are not easy to change, and usually requires replacing the bolts when you do since they are stretched when you set the torque on them. These bolts are critical since they attach the ball and spring portion the the bar that installs in the receiver.

You can tow other trailers with it that fit the ball, but you cant use it for leveling unless the trailer is exactly the same as the one it is setup for.

So, before you hook up the trailer, grab a tape measure, measure the front and rear bumpers on level ground, write down the measurements, hook up your fully loaded trailer, and remeasure. If the front and rear are equally close to your original measurements, go tow my friend and have fun, but if the difference is quite apparent, you may want to consider some changes to the trailer.

My guess on this, you should be fine.