Air Bags
Hypothetical SUV towing travel trailer with 1200 lb tongue weight Question / clarification: Without weight distribution hitch - back of truck goes down and front of truck goes up. With weight...
Forum Discussion
Campin LI wrote:When you use the bags to lift the rear of the TV, you also are lifting the hitch and the trailer tongue. This changes the vertical angle between TV and TT which has the same effect as tilting the ball mount forward. The load on the WD bars will be reduced, and the amount of load transfer will be reduced.
When WDH is engaged, front is higher than unhitched by about an inch and back is down by about 2 inches. When air bags are pumped up to get the rear back up to unhitched height, the front does not go down to unhitched height, it is still a little high.---
Reducing the load transfer will cause load to be removed from the TV's front axle. The front of the TV will tend to rise.
Whether the front actually will rise depends on the amount of friction in the front suspension components. The front might not rise, but you should not expect it to drop.
On edit: To be more specific, No WDH - hook up trailer. Front is way up (not sure how high, maybe 3 inches?)and back is down. Pump up airbags and as back goes up, front goes down. This happening is what I don't get.Does your TT have independent axles or does it have an "equalizer" link between the front and rear springs?
If you really want to understand what is happening to the front end you'll need to measure the axle loads under the various conditions. Height measurements often are not a reliable indicator of loading.
Ron
