jhglaw

Assume a trailer weight of 5000 pounds, an unhitched tongue weight of 650 pounds, an F150 supercrew ecoboost. Add a load distribution hitch. About how much of the 650 pounds should shift to the trailer axles and about how much to the truck front axles? Should the truck be about level? or slightly down in the back"

Jim

massspike

The truck (and trailer) should be level and the front wheels should be close to its unhitched height (measured at the wheel wells).

imho: that won't be a problem for your truck with that TT.

smokeywren

About 20% to 25% of hitch weight distributed to the trailer axles. About 20% to 25% of hitch weight distributed to the trailer axles. That leaves 50% to 60% of hitch weight on the rear axle of the tow vehicle.


So of the 650 hitch weight, 150 to 163 to the front axle, another 150 to 163 to the trailer axles, and 325 to 390 remaining on the rear axle.



Doesn't matter. What matters is that


1] with the spring bars tight, the trailer should be level, front rear, and


2] with the spring bars tight, the front fender well should be the same distance off the ground - or not more than 1/2" higher off the ground - with the trailer as without a trailer.

atwowheelguy

Here's what the scales say about mine.
The weight of the trailer tongue was 780 lbs. Adding the hitch was another 80 lbs. So the total hitch receiver weight was 860 lbs.

It lifted 360 lbs. off the steer axle and transferred that to the drive axle. So then the drive axle was 1220 lbs. heavier than the unloaded weight. The weight distribution hitch transferred 480 lbs. off the drive axle (39% [480/1220] of the 1220 lbs. gain, 56% [480/860] of the hitch receiver weight or 62% of the tongue weight [480/780]). 320 lbs. of the 360 lbs. (89%) lifted from the steer axle was returned. 160 lbs. (21% [160/780] of the tongue weight) went to the trailer axles. So that left the drive axle 740 lbs. heavier than the unloaded weight (620 lbs. from the tongue, 80 lbs. from the hitch and 40 lbs. remaining transferred from the steer axle).

The hitch head has seven washers in it. I didn't want to add another because it already requires the hitch to be lifted very high to attach the chains. I'll live with 89% of the lifted weight returned to the steer axle.

So, 21% of the tongue weight (160 lbs.) went to the trailer axles. That left 79% of the tongue weight (700 lbs.) on the truck. 740 lbs. (95% of the tongue weight) was on the drive axle and -40 lbs. (-5% of the tongue weight) was on the steer axle.

atwowheelguy

My experience applied to these numbers would be like this:

When that 650 lb. tongue is set down on the hitch ball, the first thing that happens is that 300 lbs. is lifted from the front axle and transferred to the rear axle. Now the rear axle is 950 lbs. heavier than before and the front axle is 300 lbs. lighter.

When the weight distribution hitch bars are cinched up, about 20% of the tongue weight is transferred to the trailer axles. So about 130 lbs. leaves the truck. Simultaneously 40% of the tongue weight is transferred to the front axle, say 260 lbs. But the front axle is still 40 lbs. lighter than it was unloaded. The weight distribution hitch should never be adjusted such than the steer axle is heavier than the unloaded weight. So 390 lbs. has been transferred off the rear axle, 60% of the tongue weight. But the rear axle still weighs 560 lbs. more than unloaded. So about 20% of the tongue weight is on the trailer axles, about 86% of the tongue weight is on the rear axle and about -6% of the tongue weight is on the front axle.

In my case, I didn't want to add another washer to the hitch head to get more weight transfer because it already requires the tongue to be lifted very high to get the chains connected. The electric hitch is near its weight lifting limit and occasionally slips a cog.

This is the way the numbers come out on my weigh-in.

smokeywren

Your calculation compares the weights of the truck with spring bars tight compared to the truck w/o a trailer.


The 25/25/50 and 20/20/60 formulas are both with the trailer tied on and compare weights with the spring bars tight to the spring bars not tight. IOW, the effect of the WD hitch.


Using your scale ticket and 860 pounds hitch weight, the spring bars tight distributed :


320 pounds to the front axle = 37%


160 pounds to the trailer axles = 18%, leaving


380 pounds on the rear axle = 44%


So the spring bars are too tight. Loosen them a notch and weigh it again, aiming for at least 50% remaining on the rear axle. After you achieve 50% to 60% of hitch weight remaining on the rear axle, then leave the spring bars alone and work on the distribution of the weight to the front and trailer axles - using washers or whatever method your hitch uses to change the angle of the ball to the coupler.

Loosening the spring bars will distribute less weight to both the front and trailer axles while increasing the weight on the rear axle. You need to reduce the weight distributed to the front axle and increase the weight distributed to the trailer axles while maintaining 50% to 60% of hitch weight on the rear axle.

The fact that your front axle weights are slightly less with the WD hitch than with no trailer indicates you're in the fine-tuning stage of setting up your hitch. The ultimate result should be a trailer that's level front to rear, and the front fender well the same as or not more than 1/2" higher with the trailer than without a trailer.

Pikkup

Alls I know is, the WDH phenom is an all time mind blower to people new to them...

I have towed many utility trlrs, all without a wdh, with no problems...

The bride wanted to go camping, and wanted a travel trailer so we have one on order due in any day now.

I wanted to go down the road with no worries, so I began my journey into the WDH world.

Now, our trailer is a small one, single axle, 3800lb max axle wt, 400lb dry tongue wt, so I wanted a WDH with sway control, I like the Equal i zer brand hitch, punched the numbers into the Equalizer site and came up with the 1k/10k hitch... Left me thinking what the?... with the lite weight trlr I ordered, and it says go with the 1k/10k...

So, thats what I got, and I must say the hitch is massive, weighs about 100lbs with the bars, but I believe I will be able to dial it in so we will have a level rig and total sway control...

I will post back how we are doing when the trailer comes in... I did not think we would have a lot of gear to add weight to the pickup, but after getting all the stuff we need to go "glamping" all that crap adds up to weigh quite a bit! Haha!

smokeywren

Your choice was between the Equal-I-Zer hitch rated 600 pounds max TW and the 1,000 pounds max TW . If you didn't overload the trailer and hauled no weight behind the rear axle in the pickup bed, then you would have been very close to the 600 pounds max TW. But you'll probably throw some campfire wood or toolbox or toys or some such in the bed, then the hitch would have been overloaded.


So I agree with the Equal-I-Zer folks that said you needed the 1,000 pound max TW hitch.


You probably won't get close to the max weight capacity of the 1k hitch, so you tighten the spring bars accordingly. You simply don't tighten the spring bars as tight as they would go. Follow the Equal-I-Zer instructions that explain how tight to get the spring bars.


My WD hitch is rated for up to 1,400 pounds TW, but my actual TW is about 650 pounds. But that's no problem, because the spring bars are adjustable for a lot less than the max TW the hitch is rated for. My ProPride hitch is very easy to match the tightness of the spring bars to the actual TW of the trailer. Your Equal-I-Zer is a bit more difficult, but still achievable.