Weight Distribution Hitch?

[dpope]

Will I need a weight distribution hitch to pull a 2003 Airstream Safari?



Tongue Weight: 680 lbs

GVWR: 6800 lbs

Dry Weight: 4770 lbs

Length of trailer: 25 ft



I know the truck will pull it (3/4 ton QC LWB 4x4). However, will the suspension need some help? I also have the Rancho 9000 adjustible shocks which I plan to adjust to a stiffer ride. Will this be enough?



Any help would be appreciated... .



Thanks,

DoubleDiesel

 

[Okie-Go]

I can't say you NEED it but the sway bar that goes with it will make it a lot better going down the road. I would use one if I pulled a bumper pull travel trailer. A lot of people don't but I use one to be safe. I have a sway bar on my 5x14. Do I need it? Of course not but it cost just a few cents to put it on. I saved it from my tag-a-long 26ft, trailer. Use one and be safe!

 

[dpope]

Thanks for great advice Okie-Go. I'll look into a sway bar and play it safe...

 

[Okie-Go]

Don't know where Bedford is but you could use mine if you were close enough. Some places that rent rv's will charge extra, some won't. Believe me, you will feel better with the hitch and sway bar.

 

[dpope]

Beford is right between Ft. Worth and Dallas. Near the DFW Airport. I really appreciate the offer on the sway bar... Unfortunately, it doesn't look like will be receiving the trailer until the end of August or first of Sept. It's on order... In the mean time, I'll keep an eye out for a sway bar on ebay or something...



Again, thak you for you help...



DoubleDiesel

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

JMHO but a weight distributing hitch setup is unnecessary in your application. You will have to upgrade your factory hitch though (which will be cheaper than a weight distributing setup). The factory hitch is only rated to 500 lb tongue weight carrying. I tow a 35' TT that weighs in at 8,500 lbs with a ~900 tongue weight and pull it using a Draw-Tite Class V hitch with Draw-tite's 10,000 lb rated drop and a 10,000 lb rated ball. I did have a sway control ball mount welded to the drop and it is absolutely mandatory that you use some form of sway control. I've put over 5,000 miles towing the trailer in all sorts of winds and I've only parked it for the night once when I was looking at 250 miles of towing with a 35 mph crosswind gusting to over 50. I just got back yesterday from a trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan with two motorcycles in the bed of the truck (approx 1100 lbs) plus gear, plus the trailer and the truck was riding level with the overloads just touching (I had my RS9000 rears set on 5). I've weighed my rig several time and the axles are both within their ratings with the front axle being close to it's max - a weight distributing hitch might actually make that worse.

 

[Snow man]

IMo, you do not need to WD hitch,the trailer is short,yout truck long,tongue weight isnt heavy. I tow an open trailer 18ft long, 8500 lbs,with 950 tongue weight,with a pintle hook,I have a short box,and i have little to no sway at all.

 

[dpope]

Yep... Just went outside and looked... on the hitch:



MAX TONGUE WEIGHT: 500 lbs



1000 lbs with a Weight Distribution system.

 

[The Sequel]

First you need to decide if you're talking about a weight distributing hitch, sway control or both. Usually the sway bar folks use is the friction type and is designed to reduce the trailer sway. A weight distributing hitch is the bars that help put some of the rear axle weight onto the front axles in the event that your rear is dropping down. I've towed a 7,000# 26 ft. bumper pull over 11,000 miles with the weight distributing bars and no sway control and have not had any trouble at all. It depends upon your application.

 

[jgallentine]

I'll throw my . 02 in here since I am a safety feak, especially when I am towing. I use a 99 3500 to tow a 24 Haulmark with a 1971 Corvette in it. With nothing but the Vette in the trailer, it ways in at 8,540 pounds. I can control tongue weight by car placement and with how much junk I throw in the front of the trailer for the trip. As weighed, the tongue weight was 720 pounds. I shoot for 1,000 pounds when trip ready.



I like higher tongue weight because it improves the ride of the truck. Even with only 1,000 pounds I can see the truck squat some and the scales prove it. Without the trailer, I have 4200 pounds on the front axle and 3,140 pounds on the dive axle. With the trailer hooked and the weight distributing bars unhooked, I have 3860 on the front axle and 4,340 on the rear. If you follow all of the math, hooking the trailer up transferred 480 pounds from the front to the rear axle.



With the bars hooked up, my front axle had 3,940 pounds on it while the rear had 4,220 pounds on it. The bars shifted 80 pounds back to the front axle and 40 pounds back to the trailer axles. I am new at the bars and I am not sure they were tight enough. I am going to tighten them up some which should transfer even more weight.



When I accelerate without the bars, the front end raises up transferring even more weith to the rear. The rig seems more suseptible to wander through rutted interstates and cross winds. With the bars, the truck seems to lift evenly when accelerating and handles better overall.



Obviously my driving observations are from the seat of my pants. I have a ton of towing time behind the wheel but most of it is light duty, 20 foot boat towing. I am fairly new to large load, big wind catching trailer towing. However, I feel pretty good about my observations since the scale results show that they make sense.



Bottom line is you can go either way. If you are concerned with the weight ratings, you can buy a bigger receiver that will hand le the tongue weight or you can buy a weight distributing hitch for the receiver you already have. IMHO like the weight distributing hitchis the way to go because I think they give better ride and handling and there set up to facilitate adding sway control.

 

[dpope]

It looks like I have two choices (maybe 3):



1. Upgrade the factory receiver hitch to accomodate a higher tongue weight.



--or--



2. Stay with the factory hitch and get a weight distribution system with sway control.



--or-



3.

Since we probably won't be getting the trailer until the end of August/Sept, I've been thinking about trading in my truck for the new 2003 HD (When they become available). I only have about 26k on the truck. (The paint hasn't even burnt off the exaust manifold yet). I would like to get the new 3500 Single Rear Wheel version. Maybe it will come with a heavier duty factory hitch????





Decisions, Decisions





Thanks everyone for all your replies. I really like this forum...

 

[Snow man]

Just hook it up and tow it,your not even 100 over the factroy hitch rating. I tow 8500 without Wd bars all the time. My uncle has towed 18K on his hitch the same way,unles your driving off road,or 60 mphj voer railroad tracks, it wil be fine. If it worrys you,spen 300 on a Reese titan 5 hitch,or get the WD bars,and be done with it. I would just try it first,you might be surprised at how well it tows. Jgallintine,your bars could be a hair tighter,but with a 3500 its not a big deal if they are a little loose,since you have the duals for stabilty.

 

[Un-Hemi]

There's no way on God's green earth that I would tow anything heavier than 1000 lbs without equalizer bars!!! Not only do they transfer weight more efficiently onto the towing vehicle, but they also ensure that clearances in the receiver and coupler are taken up so nothing rattles, and the coupler can't come off the ball.



My sister went lazy one day; didn't put the bars on her horse trailer. Fortunately, when it cut loose, the trailer overturned in the median, and the horses were cut up good but happy enough to graze in the median, rather than play in the traffic.



I can tell ya more stories about high tongue weights and ill-conceived trailers.



They're a good thing! USE THE BARS!



Tom

 

[jbone]

Outlaw owned a 30 ft AirStream--first time he pulled without any of the fancy stuff--had about a 10 pound vacuum on the seat!!!

Put the weight distribution on, was happyer, but the sway-bar convinced him to keep trailer... (still can't get him to go above 55), but of course he pulls with Ta-hole. Can't speak from my own experience, just don't have those problems with 5th wheel!!

R, J. B.

 

[GFoley]

dpope,

Now that I have read the whole thread I'll offer another point to consider.

If you pull the trailer with a simple 2" drawbar you'll be well over its rater capacity. Most simple drawbars have 5,000 lb ratings, add some drop and you reduce the safety margin by 10% per inch.

I pulled a 26" Haulmark race trailer (10. 000 lb GVWR) from MN to FL during one of my moves. The trailer weighed 4500 empty. I bought an adjustable Reese hitch w/ 1200lb bars. I think I was well over the DC rated capacity (rear axle and CGVWR) of my 2500 when I crossed the scales at 19,760 lbs. I woul'd have considered pulling this or any other travel trailer without a weight distributing hitch.

Now I have the simple drawbar w/ a 2" ball for easy stuff, a pintle connection for fun, and the WD hitch for anything w/ a 2 5/16" ball. I figure I have all of the hitches I might ever need while I have a 2500. The 5th wheels and goose necks are not what I pull.



Glenn

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

gfoley - just so you are aware there are simple drawbar mounts out there that are rated to 10,000 lbs. I use a draw tite 2" drawbar with a 6" drop that is rated to 10,000 lbs trailer weight/1,000 lbs tongue weight carrying. My class V draw-tite hitch is rated to the same as is the 2 5/16" ball mounted to it. The drawbar has a solid shank and the drop part of it is approximately 1" thick. At 19,760 lbs crossing the scales you were most likely over the trailers GVWR as well as your trucks. But I highly doubt that you were over the rear axles GAWR rating of your truck. Since your truck has a GVWR of 8,800 lbs and your trailer had a GVWR of 10,000 lbs the absolute max you could have crossed the scales and been within GVWR specs was 18,800 lbs.



The key thing to remember when hitching up is that the weakest link in the system is what you're limited to. If you make sure that all of the components in the line (truck GVWR, GCVWR, front and rear GAWR (axle rating), hitch rating, drop rating, ball rating, trailer GVWR and GAWR's) are up to snuff then you are fine, if any one of those are overloaded then you are at a minimum eating into the built in safety margins provided by the manufacturers. Plan it carefully and you can easily be well within specs towing an 8,500 lb trailer with no weight distributing bars - as I am and can prove it with weight slips.



Don't get me wrong, I do occasionally tow over some of the rated limits but I do so very carefully and taking everything into account. For example, on my recent trip to the UP of Michigan with two motorcycles (~500 lbs each) in the back of the truck and the 8,500 lb TT behind I was over the GVWR of the truck by about 500 lbs. However, I was under the axle ratings of both front and rear truck axles (including the tires which are rated higher than the stock ones). The manual trans equipped 2500's have the same springs, shocks, brakes, etc as the 3500's - the only difference is the two outboard tires and the 3500's are rated for ~11,000 lbs GVWR. In my case I've increased the load carrying limit of the tires from stock but regardless of that I was still WELL below the GAWR of the rear axle even with the stock tires. The load on the truck (~1100 lbs in the bed and 900 lb tongue weight on the trailer) leveled the truck out btw, the front and rear were riding level as opposed to nose down like it usually is.

 

['956Wheel]

Use the WD bars! Turbosaurus has a good point on rattles... the steel will fatigue in time.



There will be many opinions on this one, but you should NEVER take a chance that is just not necessary. Let the "other" guy do it and we will all hope that his mishap does not cause injury to others on our highways.



No tangle intended here, but why is our "best" going against a safety item?



Mike

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I assume you're talking about me 956 - I assure you that I am absolutely NOT the TDR's best. Believe me when I say I looked into this VERY closely before I made the decisions I did. Everyone has to look at their personal situation, how the truck is equipped and loaded, what you put in the back of the truck, what trailer and how it's weight is distributed, etc. Let's look at MY rig with actual weights straight from the scales (this was with my wife, myself, my 6 month old daughter and my husky in the truck, my motorcycle and a bunch of wood and tools in the bed and the trailer behind me - this was right after I bought the trailer and didn't have as much stuff in it):



----------------------------Actual--------Rated

GCVWR-------------------15860-------18000

GVWR---------------------9260----------8800

front truck axle---------4480-----------4850

rear truck axle----------4780-----------6084

trailer axles--------------6600----------8500



As I said above I am over the GVWR of my truck by 460 lbs, however if you look at the components on a 5sp 2500 and a 3500 you will find that everything is the same with the exception of two extra tires on it (I researched this very carefully as well). BTW, a weight distributing hitch wouldn't affect the amount of weight carried on the two axles put together at all - it would simply shift some of the weight forward. Now, let's look at my axle weights. My front axle had 4480 lbs on it and is rated at 4850 lbs so that means I was at 92. 4% of it's capacity. My rear axle had 4780 lbs on it and it's rated at 6084 lbs (which btw is exactly what the two stock tires added up to, they were rated at 3042 lbs each, my current tires are rated at 3305 lbs each) so that means I was at 78. 6% of it's capacity. Now, if I put a weight distributing hitch on the truck I would have transferred some of the weight that was on the rear axle to the front. Therefore I would have reduced the 7. 6% margin that I had left on the front axle and increased the 21. 4% margin that I had left on the rear axle. Personally, I feel safer having a larger margin than a smaller one.



Everything in my hitch setup is rated for 10,000 lbs trailer weight and 1,000 lbs tongue weight with a straight hitch which is well over what I'm running. The hitch is rated to 12,000/1,200 if I had a weight distributing hitch plugged into it. I can tell you that I feel absolutely no rattling on my hitch setup. Remember also that a gooseneck trailer uses a ball and socket joint as well with no equilizing bars to "take up the slack", etc. Draw-tite rates my hitch setup to 10,000/1,000 without weight distributing bars and I highly doubt they'd sell it that way if it couldn't handle it.



I never said to tow above the hitch's rating, I told him if he didn't want to buy weight distributing bars that he would need to buy a beefier hitch setup as I have and keep in mind he's towing a lighter trailer with less tongue weight than I am. In my case I feel that I would be possibly reducing the safety of my tow rig by putting weight distributing bars on it because I would be putting even more weight on my front axle that is already pretty close to it's max whereas I still have a good bit of breathing room on my rear axle. Everyone has to look at their setup and how it weighs out, take it to a local truck scale and get actual weights instead of going by what the labels say, and make their decisions from there.



I realize that I am slightly over the GVWR of my truck - but am FAR less over than MANY MANY of the rigs on the road today and I have taken steps to help with that (exhaust brake, better shocks and tires, etc). I am however WELL within the manufacturers limit of my hitch setup as well as all the axle weights, etc. I feel VERY safe rolling down the road in my rig and I can assure you that there are many rigs out there on the road with weight distributing bars on them that are far more unsafe and overloaded than I am. If I take my motorcycle out of the back of the truck I am 100% within ALL of the limits of the truck and have an even larger safety margin on my rear axle than I do with it in there.

 

['956Wheel]

EASY DOES IT

Steve,



Take it easy and don't assume, if I had you in mind I would have said STEVE. Please do not make this some personal attack, thats a wife thing in a bad marraige... not here!



I do not agree with you but certainly will not argue, or even debate with you.



Mike

 

[John Berger]

Even if Steve took it the wrong way, the info was good to get. I did not have a sway bar when I towed my TT, although I did have a weight distributing setup. When I lost my TT, I was riding lighter than I thought based upon my front holding tank being empty, even though I had everything else in the trailer and truck bed loaded properly. Had I not had the weight distribution bars, more weight would have been distributed over my rear wheels, thus reducing the sway. Six of this, a half dozen of the other. Safety is the key and there are alot of people that don't do their homework when they start towing heavy. I thought I was thorough, but it took a bad wreck for me to realize that I wasn't as thorough as I thought I had been. With a heavier 5th wheel trailer, this subject is of deep interest to me. Very informative Steve, and everyone else as well.