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I know everyone gets stuck on 500lb as a crossover point, but really, anytime you put weight on the ball and shift some off the front axle, you are reducing the handling capabilities of the truck. There is no reason to not run one if you want the best handling possible, some even run them with sub 500lb weights as it returns weight lost to heavy items in the rear of the bed like generators and wood. For trips longer than a few hours away (which tend to be at least a full day's drive), I'll run WDH for as little as 400lb, just because the truck reacts to steering input as if it's unloaded, and also because the more time I spend on the road, the greater the chance I'll have that large box van pass at just the right speed to really upset my combo.
I wanted to report on what actually happened when setting up wdh in case it helps someone else latter. I also want to thank all the members of this forum who replied to my various ignorant questions as my learning curve has felt like it's straight up.
So I had the equalizer hitch adjusted by an RV repair facility I trusted. When they finished the trailer was level, and the front fender wheel well was back to about where it was with no load. I was able to measure weight for each step on CAT scales (curb weight of truck with no trailer, curb weight with trailer but no wdh, and curb weight after wdh added and adjusted). I ended up with 520 lbs tongue weight so clearly over limit for truck (which I admit surprised me, but was about12% so that actually makes sense). As suspected when the load was added without wdh it caused the front end to come up (took about 340 lbs off of front axle) . After adjustment the front axle load was within 100 lbs of where it started, and additional weight went to the rear axle. But it shifted about 400 lbs from the rear axle unadjusted (trailer attached without wdh), which is what it needs to do.
Something is wrong with your numbers, either here or in another thread. Here you state that you have 520 pounds of tongue weight, and that it's 12% of the trailer, i.e. a 4,333 pound trailer. You then say when you hooked it up, 340 pounds came off the front axle, then you adjusted it and got back to within 100 pounds of the initial weight, and that the wdh shifted 400 pounds off the rear axle.
In another thread, you stated that the trailer is 4,500 pounds (540 pound tongue weight - no issue with the 20 pound different, got it, agree). You put the trailer on without the bars and you went from 3,220 front to 2,880, a loss of 340. Back went from 2,280 to 3,320, a gain of 1,040.
Net gain of 1,040 - 340 = 700, from a 540 pound tongue and a 100 pound wdh.
Then you tighten up the hitch. Front axle went from 2,880 to 3,120, a gain of 240 pounds, and 100 pounds less than no trailer. Back axle went from 3,320 to 2,900, a loss of 420 pounds.
Did you notice that you're missing 180 pounds? 420 came off the back axle, 240 went to the front axle. The other 180 pounds went... to the trailer's axle, like it should. Except the numbers don't make sense. A wdh should transfer 10 - 15% of the original tongue weight back to the trailer. Tongue weight is 540 pounds, 15% is 81 pounds, but your math shows 180 pounds. That's too much. You might want to go over your numbers again.
Also, measure the front of the truck with no load, to the height of the front wheel opening on the finder. Then measure it with the hitch connected, but no bars tightened. Then adjust the hitch, you should be in the middle of those too measurements.
Two considerations.
First, CAT Scale tolerances, My experience had the total weight change on reweigh 15 minutes later. So the math doesn’t work out completely.
Second, & more important, was the report that the front was almost or close to its starting level. Returning the front to its starting height will push more weight aft to the trailer axles than expected.
BTW, I read somewhere the idea was to return 1/2 the weight to the front axle. I actually thought I read it in a Ford document, but I can't find it. Any idea where I read this, that was so authoritve that I believed it ?
I went to great length in my setup to return 1/2 FALR (Front Axle Load Restoration). For info sharing here was my day at the Cat scales...fully loaded on a camping trip.
Red is the Cat scale weights...everything else is derived. You can see there is a 20Lb "error" in the scales. My FALR is about 1/2. I used the air springs (set at ~50ish psi) to restore my rear height to stock which gave me 1.5" positive rake (I leveled the front 1.75" with the Bilstein install) My truck gvwr is 7050.
BTW, my towing experience went very well. No sway issues...but was not expecting any since I have towed the same trailer for 20 years behind a F250. My wdh is just springbars.
Two considerations.
First, CAT Scale tolerances, My experience had the total weight change on reweigh 15 minutes later. So the math doesn’t work out completely.
Second, & more important, was the report that the front was almost or close to its starting level. Returning the front to its starting height will push more weight aft to the trailer axles than expected.
Yes, CAT Scale weighs in 20 lb increment per axle so up to 60 lb difference per weigh if you happen to be close to the break point on each position. Also you can get some variation if the tires are not positioned to the same spot on the pads. Isn't usually a big deal unless you are really close and worry about small differences.
BTW, I read somewhere the idea was to return 1/2 the weight to the front axle. I actually thought I read it in a Ford document, but I can't find it. Any idea where I read this, that was so authoritve that I believed it ?
Thank you for this, this also confirms that you want the nose lower than the rear...positve rake
On one of the other threads in this forum it was stated you don’t need to have positive rake and I knew they were wrong but I couldn’t find the reference.
Last edited by OldElectric; Mar 8, 2021 at 12:52 AM.
Reason: Grmmar guard :-)
Returning the front to its starting height will push more weight aft to the trailer axles than expected.
This should be easy for everyone to visualize. To shift weight forward on the truck, you have to apply more pressure to the bars, which are attached to the trailer frame rearward of the pivot point (tongue ball). The equal and opposite reaction to applying more upward force on the bars is more downward force on the trailer frame.
