Weight Dist Hitch - I Wouldn't.

[Legacy Posts]

With our little fiberglass trailers running at near maximim axle and tire capacity in normal operation, I'm thinking that a WDH would severly overload it. Years ago I saw a picture of a trailer hooked to a front wheel drive car with the rear wheels removed from the car. Everything stayed up in towing position. This was just for a demo, but it shows you that a lot of the tow vehicle weight is moved to the trailer wheels. Think about a dip in the road, how much weight at that time will be on the trailer? Regardless of all this, IMO a WDH is overkill on small trailers, but I wouldn't go without a sway bar. Ed

[Legacy Posts]

Ed:

Perhaps you've seen a demo 'set up' to get your attention, and it did.

Until there are 'real' damage reports, I'll kindly disagree!

[Legacy Posts]

Well, I've used WDH on larger trailers, and I do know that when you hook it up, the rear of the tow vehicle is raised, which means that weight has been lifted from the rear wheels of the TV. So-that weight has to go to the trailer tires and to the front tires of the TV. On my 16' Scamp, I do everything that I can to keep weight off the axle and tires by carrying as much as possible in the TV rather than the trailer. I want to stay as far away from the weight limit on the tires as I can. Ed

[Legacy Posts]

Indeed, the Olds Toronado demo illustrated that a weight DISTRIBUTING hitch takes weight from the truck rear axle and distributes it between the front axle and trailer axle, which is why they improve handling (esp in FWD vans) by putting the front wheels back on the ground properly.

How much weight? Depends on how you set it with the chain links or whatever.

What proportion between truck front and trailer? Prolly depends on distance from front tire and trailer tire to hitch head or bar bearing point, using a calc base on foot-pounds, were the distances are in feet and the pounds are the lessened rear axle weight.

Want to know more? Call an engineer at Reese or DrawTite or Equalizer (Info might be available on web site).

If you already have a WDH, next time you are at scales, weigh front and trailer with and without hitch set, and weigh rear axle with and without WDH set. All the numbers should add up all the time, just distributed differently.

Pete and Rats