kehyler

This is a point that I'm not fully sure of either. Though I'm not certain, I think the idea is to get a safe tongue weight of the trailer not including the weight of the weight distribution hitch itself, and then achieve the appropriate weight distribution. (Of course, usually the hitch is bolted to the trailer at the cat-scale day...which adds some difficulty in the measurement.)

kehyler

FYI, https://www.f150forum.com/f82/more-c...4/#post6657901

smokeywren

Go back to my reply in post #2 above, a year and a half ago.

Don't get wrapped around the axle with semantics. What matters is actual scale weights and the change in weights with and without the WD hitch, with and without the spring bars adjusted.

Remember that your goal is to not exceed GVWR or rear GAWR of the tow vehicle.

To get all the answers for YOUR rig, you need three passes over the CAT scale, with truck full of gas and both truck and trailer wet and loaded the way they will be loaded when on the road:
1] Truck without the trailer
2] Truck and trailer without the spring bars connected.
3] Truck and trailer with the spring bars connected and adjusted to have a half-inch of rise of the front end of the truck compared to [1] above.

With all three scale tickets, plus your measurements of fender well to ground distance for all three tickets, you have enough info to answer any questions about towing that rig with your truck. For example, add the weights on the steer and drive axles to get gross vehicle weight (GVW). Compare GVW to GVWR to see if you are overloaded over the payload capacity of your truck. Add the GAWRs of the trailer axles and compare to trailer axle weight. GVW from 2] minus GVW from 1] gives you tongue weight. The percentage change in GVW and axle weight and tongue weight tells you the effect of adjusting the WD hitch,

acdii

Neither. It is factored into the receiver weight and taken from payload. So if the receiver says 1150 pounds tongue weight, that is 1150 pounds trailer tongue, regardless of the weight of the hitch. You can have 1150 pounds tongue weight plus the weight of the hitch, all of which is taken from the payload. When the weight is transferred, the full weight of the tongue is still on the receiver, but some is transferred to the front and trailer wheels.

Gladehound

Agree, you have to scale it to be sure. Just want to mention that if you follow Fords 25% front axle return recommendation, you may not get back all the weight you added to the truck with your WDH. However, the way most people run their WDH (near 100% front axle return), they are probably transferring more than the weight of the hitch back to the trailer. The rule of thumb I use when rough calculating what I can put in the truck without going over GVWR, is I do not count the weight of the hitch because my hitch only weighs 70 pounds and I'm transferring 50-60 pounds to the trailer with only 25% front axle return. So it's almost a wash.