TeamCurtis

I am picking up a 18' travel trailer to pull with my 13 ecoboost 4x supercab.
The trailer is really light...axle rating of the trailer is only 3,500, shipped weight 3,060, carrying capacity 820, and the tongue weight is listed as 420lbs (these are all from the manufacuter)

My main questions are
a. do i even need one?
b. which ratings do i need to pay attention to?
i see ones that are listed as 300-400-500 tongue weight which works, but some are 10k and other 6k.
with such a light trailer is the 10k going to be too stiff despite having a tongue rating of 3/4/500?

there are others but this give an idea of what I'm looking at
https://www.etrailer.com/comparison....&pc2=EQ37061ET

massspike

I wouldn't bother with one. You are well below the 500lb limit of your hitch and Ford is fine with towing at that limit. Save the money and save the hassle of a WDH.

fwiw: I towed my 3500lb pop-up with our 2010 without a WDH and had no issues.

smokeywren

You're right on the fence per Ford's requirements. Trailer GAWR of 3,500 = trailer max weight of 3,955. (Trailer max weight = weight on the axles plus tongue weight). If you load the trailer to 3,900 pounds gross trailer weight, you could have about 507 pounds tongue weight.

Ford says you need a weight-distributing (WD) hitch for any hitch weight more than 500 pounds, which is a max trailer weight of about 3,850 pounds with average hitch weight.. Ole Smokey is not comfortable with any hitch weight more than about 250 pounds without a WD hitch.

So you can probably get by without a WD hitch on that trailer, but I wouldn't want to.

Even the least expensive WD hitches will probably do an adequate job of weight distribution. But trailer sway control is why the good WD hitches cost more than the cheap hitches. That's why I insist on the more expensive WD hitches with good sway control. These include my Reese Strait-Line trunnion bar hitch on my cargo trailer, and the expensive Hensley ProPride hitch on my TT. Others include the Equal-I-Zer, Blue Ox SwayPro, and Husky Centerline HD 31390.

Tongue weight (TW). The TW is usually 10% to 15% of gross trailer weight. Average is 13%. But the hitch weight ratings always assume 10%, so I ignore the gross trailer weights and concentrate on TW.

Ignore the max trailer weight rating of the hitch, and concentrate on TW. Whether the hitch is rated for 10k or 6k max trailer weight doesn't matter. What matters is the TW rating.

Depending on the design of the WD hitch, you want the hitch rated for more than the max TW you might have, but not much more. With your max TW of a bit over 500 pounds, you want a WD hitch rated for up to 600 pounds, and 800 pounds will work, but 1,000 TW may be to heavy. With my ProPride hitch rated for 1,400 pounds TW, I can adjust the spring bars to properly handle my 650 pounds TW with no problems, but that's a very expensive hitch. Less expensive designs probably need to be rated closer to the actual TW.

In your case, the 600 pounds TW hitches you're considering should be perfect for your needs. Ignore that 10k max trailer weight rating and notice the 600 pounds TW.