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I relate most of my towing experiences with going up and down hills. We have some tall hills in Colorado with snow still on them in the summer. Going down hill with a trailer pushing you and trying to steer you can get spooky. You will see semi-trucks adjust their weight with sliding 5th wheel hitches and sometimes sliding trailer axles. This is a good idea with your trailer also. Being able to adjust where the weight is distributed on your truck and trailer can get you close to the trailer capacity of a gooseneck or 5th wheel. If you are pulling a bumper type trailer (conventional, tag-a-long) having a Weight Distributing Hitch will improve your trailer sway, weight distribution and less stress for trailer safety.Yes they work with boat trailers even single pole, click to read more Horse trailers need it, boat trailers need it and there's a reason so many RV travel trailers have them. I see more and more enclosed car haulers in Colorado using WD hitches. Horse trailers seem to be the final frontier for WDH popularity. Hauling live tall animals, having a high center of gravity naturally, would the easiest place to see the dramatic improvement the WD hitches can add for better steering control and braking that, a level stable rig provides. WDH can do more to safely level your sagging vehicle rear end than all the springs, shocks and air bags combined. The WD hitch also places the trailer a few inches back to give you more room for a tight turn. Order Now...
In your vehicles owners manual and on a tag on the front of your receiver hitch is the tongue weight and trailer capacities. If you tow a trailer 5000#’s or more, they usually insist on a "weight distributing hitch." With lower trailer weights, you can just use a "weight carrying hitch." No weight distributing hitch will increase the total trailer capacity set by the vehicle manufacture, it just transfers the weight to all the axles including the front axle of your tow vehicle. This gives you better steering control, better braking and a level rig.
The first place I remember seeing the WD hitch is with folks pulling RV travel trailers. Which used to be the gray haired, retired, fixed income conservative types. (Always watch this group, they seem to know something.) These big square travel trailers catch a lot of side wind and do the Elvis hip action when semi trucks pass them. A good properly adjusted WDH can take the sway, pitch and dip away from your trailer trying to react to wind, semi suction, pot holes and my favorite "swerving to miss the Angus cow crossing the road at midnight." Your can't control the other drivers or debris in the road. So when you need to do those quick lane changes to avoid an accident, be sure your trailer will recover from that quick movement without taking you down the ditch and over.
Adjusting the WDH Your WD hitch will come with instructions and to gain the full benefit from a WDH, you need to transfer the weight to all axles of the tow vehicle and trailer. Too much lift from a over tightened spring bars will cause a rear wheel vehicle to loose traction on say a slippery boat ramp or mud and snow. Ideally you want the tongue weight carrying 10 to 15% of the trailer weight. Weight Distributing hitches are rated to carry more tongue weight than a Weight Carrying hitch or drawbar.
To be precise you may want to weigh your towing vehicle and trailer by axle to get your Gross Axle Weight Rating for the front and rear axles on both tow vehicle and trailer to see how well distributed the weight is. In your tow vehicle if you look in the right side of the driver’s doorframe you'll see the Truck Safety Compliance Certification Label. On that label is your (GAWR) Gross Axle Weight Rating for you vehicle. A level load will allow all of your brakes, wheel bearings, springs and tires to help with the load. Also get your loaded tongue weight to complete the equation. This can be done by weighing your tow vehicle with the loaded trailer attached but only the tow vehicle on the scale. Then weigh your truck without the trailer. With these numbers you can see how much you need to adjust your spring bars of the WDH as well with the real world driving to tell you how well balanced your rig is and if the trailer pulls will little sway. Order Now... Alaska and Hawaii Shipping $150 extra click Call for other countries 303-883-1300
The GAWR can't be changed as with all the capacity maximum ratings. They are set by the manufacture and is considered the rule. If the rig pulls well, you are close to balanced. Since the GAWR can't be changed, use the spring bars to move weight between the tow vehicles axles. You can lift the spring bars on your WDH a notch before you weigh it again. Lifting the spring bar (trunion bar) will transfer some weight to the front axle. But if you move to much weight forward you can loose traction on the rear axle. So that's the adjustment you have to fine tune. You can add air shocks, or overload springs etc. if you want more support on the rear axle. None of that will though increase the capacity. But the WDH adjustment is the best thing to do for supporting the weight. Adding springs, shocks, air bags etc. doesn’t change the GAWR or any of the weight ratings. Which is why I believe the WDH is the best trailer tool. The axle ratings on the door tag is the maximum for each axle that you want to be under. Using the trailer jack to lift up the trailer tongue can help when attaching the spring bars to the trailer tongue chains or brackets. The same thing can help take the pressure off the spring bars when un-hooking. Order Now... Independent rear suspension on SUV's need WDH Ford Excursion, 2500 Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon 2500 XL, older Dodge Dakota and older Ford Explorer's have rear leaf springs like a full size truck. But the trend is the independent rear suspensions coming to SUV's such as late models of Ford Explorers, Expeditions, Mercedes ML320 and above, Lexus etc. They ride great but all that extra movement for the soft ride, will let a trailer move more. The coil spring suspensions found on most SUV's also allow more trailer sway. So I highly recommend using a WDH. The better ones are easy and fast to hook up. Watch the retired gray hairs pulling RV travel trailers. 80% of them will have a WDH. And their cargo doesn’t shift weight from one hoof to the other while swatting flies with it’s tail. Also another SUV that needs unique attention and a well tuned WDH is the Jeep Grand Cherokee. I see this vehicle towing a lot of trailers. It has the power with the V-8 but the short wheelbase and unibody construction makes this tow vehicle need proper setup for safe towing. I was driving next to one on I-70 last winter in a blizzard over Vail pass. It has pulling a 16 ‘ flat bed trailer with crate loaded too far forward. The trailer had a weight distributing hitch, as Cherokee’s need and was still squatting which was partly due to the load being too far forward and partly due to the bridging effect of the WD hitch putting leverage on the unibody of the Cherokee is not as effective as the leverage on a, (body on frame) system from what I see. Equal-i-zer, "the best I've tried" There are several good WD hitches available. I like Equal-i-zer because their hitch works as a Weight Distributing Hitch and Anti-sway bar all in one and they are one of the only ones that don't require holes drilled into the trailer hitch and they work with surge brakes like you find on boat trailers and some horse trailers. The Anti-sway system is incorporated into the spring arms as they drag across the L bracket on the trailer end and the hinged trunnions where they bolt to the head. This causes friction and slows down the reaction at the hitch. They hook up easy and fast without holes in the trailer hitch. The friction anti-sway bars that are an option on some WD hitches apply pressure with a sliding plate clamp system that aren't to be used in the rain or snow. During rain and snow you need anti-sway the most. Equal-i-zer WDH are a little over $500 so they aren't the cheapest or the most expensive, you can order direct from the manufacture or a lot of RV and trailer dealers sell them. I use mine on all the different trucks I test from Quadrasteer Suburban to Hummer H2. I'd be in trouble if I had to drill holes in all the trailers I borrow. A lot of bumper pull horse trailers have sheet metal across the V-hitch so you have to cut a small slit in the sheet metal for the brackets. Which is better than most WD hitches that have a wide clamp that is bolted or welded to the trailer frame for the spring bars to attach to with chains. Also instead of corrugated washers to adjust the angle of the head, Equal-i-zer uses a large solid pin with spacer adjustment that can't slip. Order Now... Watch video
The Parts
Putting it all together
I know that most folks who don't use a Weight Distributing Hitch, and that know about the benefits of them, is the hassle of hooking them up. Well I'm against hassles myself and that's why I can recommend Equal-i-zer hitches. It might, if you are as slow as me add 2 minutes to you hitching up time. And being able to adjust your towing rig to be level with even braking and bearing support along with losing the wag from your tail is sure worth 2 minutes. Order Now... Email questions... Alaska and Hawaii Shipping $150 extra click Call for other countries 303-883-1300 To see the three shank sizes, click here and learn more about WDH
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$499
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6,000 lbs. max. trailer weight. adjustable hitch complete, 600 lb max. tongue weight. Includes 90-02-4100 shank $718
retail.
MrTruck price
$499
Buy
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$509
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10,000 lbs. max. trailer weight. adjustable hitch complete, 1000 lb max. tongue weight. Includes 90-02-4100 shank $730 retail.
MrTruck price $509
Buy |
$525
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12,000 lbs. max. trailer weight. adjustable hitch complete, 1200 lb max. tongue weight. Includes 90-02-4100 shank $742 retail.
MrTruck price $525
Buy |
$599
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NEW 14,000 lbs. max. trailer weight. adjustable hitch complete, 1400 lb max. tongue weight. Includes 90-02-4100 shank $852 retail.
MrTruck price $599
Buy
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Maximum tongue weight 10% of trailer weight rating. Average trailer tongue height from the ground up is 14 inches $90 shipping charge for any hitch (continental U.S. only). Alaska and Hawaii Shipping $150 extra click Call for other countries 303-883-1300
A special thanks to
Equal-i-zer Sway Control Hitch
Equal-i-zer Weight
Distributing Hitch When
using a weight distributing hitch with a bumper pull trailer, the
weight distributing hitch head or shank on the A-frame tongue of the
trailer slides into the trucks receiver hitch, (the 2” square tube
attached to the truck frame.) Usually class 3, 4 and 5 receiver
hitches are 2” square, some of the heavy duty class
5’s are a 2 ˝” tube. For the
tongue or A-frame of a Bumper Pull
trailer © Copyright 1999-2011 H. Kent Sundling and MrTruck.com. All rights reserved including digital rights. |
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This
WDH is a dual cam type that allows the spring bars to double as
anti-sway devices. The outside bar will increase pressure on the hitch
movement as the inside bar rolls over the cam indent in the spring bar.
This is Reese's Dual Cam Sway Control. Reese introduced a Dual CamHP for heavy duty applications.
To
explain what a WD hitch does, think of it as a bridge between the towing
vehicle and your trailer. This bridge comes complete with an adjustable under truss called spring bar/arm or trunnion bars which join the trailer "V"
tongue of the trailer to the hitch head and receiver hitch that arches the
bridge upward to spread out the weight.. The head with the trailer ball attached to the
trailer coupler/hitch, bolts to the shank which is "L" shaped with
adjustment holes for proper hitch height. The shank slides in to your
receiver hitch which is bolted to the towing vehicle's frame or sub-frame.
This union allows you to distribute the trailer weight evenly to all axles
of the truck/SUV and trailer.
Thus the name "weight distributing"
hitch. The picture here shows the shank, head, spring arms, chains and
snap-up brackets with a typical WDH.
On your receiver hitch or
hitch receiver, you will usually see the tag with classifications for
maximum tongue weight and maximum trailer weight. The lower weight is for WC
which is "Weight Carrying" hitch or drawbar/stinger. In this situation all
the tongue weight is on the WC hitch, draw bar.
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In an
interview with one of the Reese Hitch engineers at SEMA I was told that
ideally when loaded the rear of your towing vehicle should only be one inch
lower than the front measured inside the wheel well, that is before and
after measurements of front fender and rear. On a front wheel drive SUV, you
want to reverse that where the front will be an inch lower.
The Snap-up lever in place to lift
spring arms into L bracket picture left.
18
inches is a common hitch height. If your truck or SUV's hitch is
near the 18" height and your trailer tongue coupler is in that range
when setting level, the 90-02-4100
shank will work for you which is included in the complete hitch. For
more rise or drop see optional shanks below
Ball bolts need to be (1-1/4) 1.25 inches thick and (2-1/4)
2.25 inches long.