acdii

Mentioned this in another thread here, it got me thinking, and wondering.

Why is it that adding a WDH increases the amount of weight the receiver can tow? I know adding it increases tongue weight, but how does it magically double the amount of weight being towed?

If you are flat towing a 12K hay trailer, you have NO tongue weight, so do you need a magical WDH to increase the weight it can tow?

IOW when you hitch up a boat trailer that weighs in at 7k pounds, but has only a 450 pound tongue weight, and there is no provisions for using a WDH, do you actually exceed the weight rating of the receiver?

Steve Osborne

they make wdh for boats....if I missed ???
https://www.google.ca/search?q=wdh+h...w=1301&bih=612




as for hay wagon....farmer do what they want...legal or not.....but to add....my truck says 9100lbs....so yes I would pull a 9100lb wagon/load...no hitch weight....lol...

acdii

Yep, I know about the WDH for boat trailers, but there are some trailers that you can't put one on, nor have a need to since they have a light TW.

And the rest, Exactly!

Just something to make you sit back and say, Hmm, yeah, why?

PerryB

The WDH DOES add tongue weight, until you load the bars, then the weight comes off the hitch and goes fore and aft to the front of the truck and the rear of the trailer. In the process of doing this a lot of torque is being applied to the receiver tube, but that never seems to be a concern. To answer your question I don't know. Magic, osmosis and pixie dust I guess. That's why I have a 5th wheel, so I don't have to figure these things out !

acdii

LOL I knew I missed something, Pixie Dust! My daughter thinks its from unicorn farts, but thats just her.

MichaelInCalifornia

My guess is the trailer weight noted with the WD hitch is a back calculation to the tongue weight and has nothing to do with the actual structural capacity of the hitch in the forward direction.

PerryB

I suspect the same thing. Just noticed your location, are you up around Susanville?

MichaelInCalifornia

No where close to Susanville. More like Mojave.

BlackBoost

A WD hitch reduces the dipping between truck and trailer caused by all the weight on the hitch, straightening the "line" out again. This puts weight back on the front wheels instead of having all the weight behind the rear wheels. When all the weight is behind the rear wheels, it'll lift the front wheels off the ground, making steering less effective, and overloading the rear axle/suspension.

Imagine you're lying down, stretched out across a gap with only your toes on one side, and your elbows on the other. If your back is weak and you're belly's dipping down, it's gonna hurt your elbows having all the weight on them. If your back is strong and you can straighten your back to have your elbows AND hands take part of your body weight, your elbows won't hurt as bad. Read that analogy somewhere and it makes sense.

acdii

Pretty sure we all know how the WDH works, that's not the question here. Not all trailers require a WDH since their tongue weights are well under the 500 pound limit, yet their GVWR can be well over the 5000 pound hitch rating. Or a flat tow can have zero hitch weight, but gross 11,000 pounds.

So how does a WDH magically increase the trailer weight on the receiver, when you dont need a WDH?