smokeywren

Ineffective (or less effective) sway control under extreme conditions. The WD part works okay if properly set up and adjusted, even in the el cheapo hitches. However the cheaper hitches are a lot more trouble to get both the weight distribution and sway controls properly set up and adjusted.

If you have ever had a trailer go into an uncontrollable sway, you would pay a lot of money to be sure that never happened again. That's why the minimum WD hitch I'll tow with is the Reese Strait-Line with dual-cam sway control. And I'm saving my sheckles to get the even more effective ProPride.

95&2010

I've been looking at WD hitches and I'm not sure they will fit on my V nose. The body of trailer comes up pretty far on the frame. I also called the manufacturer of the trailer and the said I don't need a WD hitch. I'm not sure the woman on the phone even knew what I was talking about though.

brulaz

Ignore that person on the phone.

She probably thinks you can just move stuff around in the V-nose to reduce the hitch weight so you don't need a WDH. But if you reduce the tongue weight to under 12% of the trailer weight (10% if not a slab side), you are asking for trouble with trailer sway.

Another guy here had cut outs made on each side of his V-nose to mount the WDH. Look closely at how the Reese and Equal-i-zer hitches are mounted and see what you will need to have done.

Really do not understand why there's all these V-nose trailers without cutouts for WDH brackets.

wintersucks

Unless your using the thing on a daily or quite often basis. I personally wouldn't worry about a WD hitch.

smokeywren

Bad advice, for two reasons:

1] Most factory receiver hitches on F-150s are limited to 500 pounds hitch weight WC (without a WD hitch). Some are rated 600 pounds WC, but a 7,000 pound properly-loaded cargo trailer can have hitch weight (tongue weight) over 1,000 pounds. Overloading your hitch is a really stupid move.

2] Ford's RV and Trailer Towing Guide says any trailer that grosses over 5,000 pounds must be towed with a weight-distributing or fifth wheel hitch. Ignoring the vehicle manufacturer's towing requirements is not a good idea.

smokeywren

Then you were talking to the village idiot that doesn't have a clue as to what she's talking about. Any trailer that could have a tongue weight more than 500 pounds requires a WD hitch. And your cargo trailer with GVWR of 7,000 pounds could have wet and loaded tongue weight over 1,000 pounds and still be properly loaded for the road.

If your V-nose trailer doesn't have room to install the WD hitch components, then you'll have to do some surgery on the trailer. It's a cheap trailer design for a trailer with over 5,000 pounds GVWR to not provide for installation of a WD hitch, but some trailers are built for a price point and don't have all the necessary features for safe towing.

And speaking of necessary features for safe towing, your trailer surely has trailer brakes. So you need a trailer brake controller (TBC) wired into your 7-pin trailer connection. Best is the Ford integrated trailer brake controller (ITBC) that has been an option on F-150s for several years, and is now available in the Ford parts department or accessories catalog if your F-150 doesn't have the factory unit. But if your F-150 is older than a few years, the ITBC may not have been an option yet. In that case, do some research on the various types and prices of TBCs and don't leave home without one.

95&2010

It's a 2010. I put the factory TBC in it a while ago. It works really while. I have the trailer loaded and am taking it to a scale today. Closest one is about 30 min away though.

Terminex

using a WD hitch with a V Nose simply requires a different mounting plate.

I am spoeaking from experience, as I use a WV Hitch with my Vnose trailer when I have a heavier load in it.

What you need are called:

"Chain Hangers for Reese Distributed Hitch Systems - Bolt On"

Here is the part number :RP58305

Here is a link to where I purchased mine from
http://www.etrailer.com/p-RP58305.html

smokeywren

Most certified truck scales will charge you about $10 for the first weighing, then only $1 or $2 more for a reweigh a few minutes later. First fill up with gas, then weigh the entire rig the first time. Then drop the trailer in the parking lot and weigh just the wet and loaded truck the second time. The difference in the two gross weights will be the weight of the wet and loaded trailer.

Add the weight on the two truck axles, with and without the trailer. That will give you GVW of the tow vehicle. Compare the GVW with the trailer tied on to the GVWR of the F-150.

Subtract the GVW without the trailer from the GVW with the trailer and the answer is the tongue weight of the trailer.

Add the tongue weight of the trailer to the axle weight of the trailer to get gross trailer weight. Don't worry if the gross trailer figured two different ways is not exactly the same. Truck scales are accurate within about 50 pounds, so you might have a difference of 20 pounds or so in the gross trailer weight figured both ways.

Divide the tongue weight by the gross trailer weight to get percentage of tongue weight (hitch weight). If you show 12% to 15%, you're golden. If not 12% to 15%, then you need to move cargo around in the trailer to increase or decrease tongue weight so you wind up with 12% to 15% tongue weight.

smokeywren

Good job, Terminex. The "requires drilling" doesn't sound like fun, compared to simply tightening a bolt on the stock hanger plate. But at least it's do-able without surgery to the V-nose body of the trailer.