10000 harbor freight hitch up to par???

mudrat025 wrote:
.i have a 10000 lb harbor freight weight distriution hitch

I would not trust a Harbor Freight (Chinese Freight) hitch to tow a wheelbarrow. Get a name brand from Reese, Drawtite, etc. A quality weight distribution hitch properly set up will distribute tongue weight to the trucks front wheels and the trailer wheels.

Question for you.

Why be concerned that the truck springs are doing their job, and the back of the truck squats under load.

It is designed to sink a little bit while under load. If the springs never bent under load, then the springs would be solid bars, with no suspension at all, and no give when you go over a pot hole.

So how much squat is to much? Measure the distance the tire has before it starts to rub against the fenders. If you have more than 6" you have a normal truck and can load it to the point it squats about 6" from normal unloaded height.

When I had my 75 F-350 camper, it would sink about 4" while the camper was on board, and go back to normal later. So I had two hitch receivers. The 6" drop was used if I was going to be towing without the camper on the truck, while the 2" drop was used while I was taking the camper along.

4" of drop with a 3,000 pound load on the truck is pretty much normal. That would be 1" of drop for each 400 pounds (on each spring) so each spring will carry about 1,600 pounds, and drop about 4". Going over a pot hole, the spring can also compress or expand about 1" if there is an extra 400 pounds applied to the spring while going over the road damage. Even a 2" tall speed bump can be crossed at a good speed, such as 30 MPH, if the springs are designed right, and are absorbing the bump.

Yet if you add air bags and stiffen up the springs again, and make it so the truck does not compress while you have a load in it, then the spring rates really change. The factory truck springs are still going to compress 1" per 400 pounds of load on them (more or less) while the air bags will not compress nearly as much because they are taking on more of the load during a event, such as crossing a speed bump. Because the thicker springs are designed to not compress easiely, you will feel the speed bump inside the truck much better.

Fred.

What is your tongue weight? Are your bars large enough for it? Is your ball slanted back enough to gain maximum lift from the bars?

Toy haulers usually have heavy tongue weights when the "toy" section in the rear is not filled. The tongue weight lessens with each pound of rear weight applied.

If that hitch fails, you could cause an accident - or worse.
I buy single-use tools at Harbor Freight, but not trailer hitches LOL

If you used a Reese Dual Cam, Equalizer, or other non-Chinese WDH you SHOULD be able to make it squat as little as you want pretty near. I adjust my 10k Equalizer so my Ford squats equally front and rear when hooked up. Did that with our last TV also.

Note recommenmded tongue weight is 13% to 15% of the FULLY LOADED TT weight. Have you weighed everything fully loaded? Is your tongue weight within that range? If it is too heavy in front, where is your fresh water tank? On our two toyhaulers we adjusted the tongue weight to compensate for toys by the amount of fresh water we carried. Just an idea.