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If that 5,500 pound trailer has the often recommended 13% or 715 pounds of tongue weight, you need a WD hitch. These half ton pickups sag a lot with anything over a couple hundred pounds on the rear bumper.
If you are over 5000# of tongue weight, you should be using a WDH.
Is your truck stock, leveled, or lifted?
If leveled, have you checked headlight alignment after the level? Even still, a leveled truck will nose up with much of any load on it. Add-a-leafs, airbags, supersprings, etc can help keep the rear end from squatting.
forgot to mention, my truck is equipped max tow package, with 3.5L eco, it can tow 12k-13k lbs. is WDH required? sorry, I really have limited knowledge on this topic.
1. Study up on what a weight distribution hitch does.
2. Take a look at the sticker underneath the hitch receiver on YOUR truck.
It will say
Max Tongue Wt (LB)
Weight Carrying 500 lb.
Weight Distributing 1,xxx lb.
The Ford engineers are telling you that if the tongue weight is over 500 lbs., the load has lifted enough weight from the steer axle for it to be unsafe.
Spend some time getting educated about your truck's capabilities and towing SAFELY. You can't safely tow anywhere near 12 - 13,000 pounds. You always need a WDH over 5,000 pounds or 500 pound tongue weight (some boat trailers exempted from this requirement).
Originally Posted by jp360cj
If you are over 5000# of tongue weight, you should be using a WDH.
Is your truck stock, leveled, or lifted?
If leveled, have you checked headlight alignment after the level? Even still, a leveled truck will nose up with much of any load on it. Add-a-leafs, airbags, supersprings, etc can help keep the rear end from squatting.
Originally Posted by Simnut
Fixed it for you
Simnut, maybe you mixed up the meaning of trailer weight vs. tongue weight. jp360cj was correct. The tongue weight requiring a WDH is more than 500 lbs. The trailer weight requiring a WDH is more than 5000 lbs. This assumes that the 5000 lb. trailer would have a tongue weight of at least 500 lbs.
A WDH likely would not help 5,000 lbs. of tongue weight since that weight likely would detach the hitch receiver from the truck.
Last edited by atwowheelguy; 09-25-2017 at 04:40 PM.
1. Study up on what a weight distribution hitch does.
2. Take a look at the sticker underneath the hitch receiver on YOUR truck.
It will say
Max Tongue Wt (LB)
Weight Carrying 500 lb.
Weight Distributing 1,xxx lb.
The Ford engineers are telling you that if the tongue weight is over 500 lbs., the load has lifted enough weight from the steer axle for it to be unsafe.
Here's an example of the effect of the WDH on my truck and trailer.
When the truck was weighed without the hitch installed or the trailer attached (Truck only without hitch), the drive (rear) axle weighed 2800 and the steer (front) axle weighed 3280 and the total was 6080.
Then I installed the hitch head, set the trailer tongue on the hitch ball and put the WDH bars in the back of the truck near the tailgate. Then back on the scales (Truck & trailer w/o WD). Now the drive axle weighed 4020 (4020 - 2800 = 1220 heavier) and the steer axle weighed 2920 (3280 - 2920 = 360 lighter). Note that at 4020 lbs., the drive axle is 170 lbs. over the rating of the axle. The total weight on the truck was 6940 (6940 - 6080 = 860 heavier). So the hitch weight is 860. That's the weight being carried by the hitch receiver. Because I had previously weighed the hitch head, WD bars and the friction sway control bar at 80 lbs., the tongue weight on the hitch ball can be determined as 860 - 80 = 780. The weight on the trailer axles is 6460. The tongue wt. is 780. So the trailer wt. is 6460 + 780 = 7240.
Then I took the WD bars out of the back of the truck, installed them and went back to the scales (Truck & trailer w/ WD). Now the steer axle is at 3240 (3240 - 2920 = 320 heavier) and the drive axle is at 3540 (4020 - 3540 = 480 lighter). The total on the truck axles is 6780 (6940 - 6780 = 160 lighter).
So when the WD bars were cinched up, 480 lbs. was transferred off the rear axle, 320 lbs. to the steer axle and 160 lbs. to the trailer axles. At this point the steer axle is 40 lbs. lighter than the unloaded weight and the drive axle is 740 lbs. heavier than the unloaded weight.
Simnut, maybe you mixed up the meaning of trailer weight vs. tongue weight. jp360cj was correct. The tongue weight requiring a WDH is more than 500 lbs. The trailer weight requiring a WDH is more than 5000 lbs. This assumes that the 5000 lb. trailer would have a tongue weight of at least 500 lbs.
A WDH likely would not help 5,000 lbs. of tongue weight since that weight likely would detach the hitch receiver from the truck.
DOH!!! Didn't see the tongue weight there!!! My apologies all!
Next time don't move the vehicle so far forward on the trailer. Everyone seems to want to bring the vehicle being towed all the way to the front of the trailer. With the engine in the front you are putting the heaviest part of the vehicle onto the tongue. It is tough to find a balance when towing only one time but keeping an eye on the amount of squat in your truck will give you an idea. Shoot for an inch of squat or slightly more. That will ensure you have enough weight to keep the trailer stable but not so much that you are nose high in your truck.
However the other posters are correct that you likely were in WDH range but that does not negate proper loading of the trailer.
forgot to mention, my truck is equipped max tow package, with 3.5L eco, it can tow 12k-13k lbs. is WDH required?
A weight-distributing hitch (WDH) is required for any hitch weight of more than 500 pounds. If your tandem-axle trailer grosses 5,500 pounds, then it will have hitch weight of about 800 pounds (715 pounds tongue weight plus at least 85 pounds for a good WDH).
Tongue weight (TW) is the weight of the trailer's coupler on the ball of the hitch. If you drop 715 pounds of tongue weight on the ball of the hitch that is located about 4' behind the rear axle, you're going to have a teeter-totter effect that lowers the rear end of the truck and raises the front end of the truck. And that's why your headlights are aiming at the stars.
So yeah, as a minimum you must add a WDH. But even a properly-adjusted WDH may not be enough to bring the headlights back to earth, especially if your tow vehicle is overloaded over the GVWR of the vehicle. So in that case, you must somehow stiffen the rear suspension to eliminate the "squat" caused by the weight in the bed and on the hitch.
Others have mentioned various brands of spring helpers, such as "overload" springs, SuperSprings, etc..
One patch to bring the headlights back down to earth others have not mentioned is air helper springs, so-called air bags. A good set of FireStone RideRite air bags can bring the headlights back down to earth, and they cost less than some of the other solutions. RideRite air bags
The simplest install of air bags in the rear suspension will have one shrader valve for each bag. Air them up when you need to haul heavy, and let most of the air out when not loaded.
Or you can spend a lot more money for an on-board air compressor and computer-controlled inflation/deflation system.
Last edited by smokeywren; 09-25-2017 at 10:12 PM.
09-25-2017, 02:20 PM
