Ball weight or trailer weight?

WDH specs call out tongue and trailer weight.

The specs assume a 10% tongue weight. At 15% tongue weight, the trailer number would be lower.

The bars on the WDH are sized for the actual tongue weight, not the calculated trailer weight as a percentage.

If they specified at 15%, they would call out a lighter trailer weight, but in general the only difference between a given manufacturers different hitch part numbers is the bars, the rest of the hitch parts are identical. They can all take the same weights with the right bars for the actual tongue weight.

While I would not exceed the maximum trailer weight for a specific hitch, treat the listed trailer weight as a calculated value, and the tongue weight as the actual specification.

I would advise not to use the WD to compensate for added cargo to the bed, use for the effects of hitch weight only. This way you won’t overload, bend, flex, or break the receiver on the vehicle since it may not be rated to handle such loads.

It should go by actual tongue wt. but if you're Reese, it's TT tongue wt. + TV cargo wt. Cargo load can be a LOT if you include passengers, pets, groceries and camping stuff in the bed as well as any upgrades to the TV (like say a cap/canopy).

The problem if you were buying a new TT is that you won't know the actual tongue wt. until you have it and go to a scale. Dry TW can go way up and in our case went from 540 lbs to around 950 actual. I pre-ordered a Reese DC WDH package and ended up having to buy heavier rated spring bars. If you know the actual TW on your TT, selecting bar size is easy.

Note that on some WDHs, heavier rated snap-up brackets (and maybe mounting method) may be needed for TW over 1,000 lbs. I upgraded the cam arm bracket mounting on our Reese DC setup because I found the bolts were loosening and also have their HD snap-up brackets.

Get a hitch for the loaded tongue weight. I have a 1200/12000lb hitch for my 11,200lb GVWR trailer. scaled its at 9200lbs with 1150 or so tongue weight. Remember, you want 12% of the trailers ready to travel weight on the tongue.

The bars for WD hitches are rated for the tongue weight / hitch weight... Read the post above.

Hitch manufacturers have bars available in various weight increments. IE; One company may have them for 600,800,1000, 1200, etc, and another company may have larger increments between sizes. You may find some where the increments jump from 1000 to 1500 lbs.

You want one that is rated slightly higher than your tongue weight. Keep in mind, tongue weight goes up and down during every trip.

Due to location (in relation to trailer axles) of my holding tanks and varying fluid levels, my tongue weight fluctuates between 975 and 1200 lbs. I elected to purchase a BlueOx Sway Pro 1500. Blue Ox is one of those that jumps from 1000 lbs to 1500 lbs in weight ratings.

I agree with the gentleman above, buy for the hitch weight.
Otherwise it just won't distribute much.

I have a 10995# GVWR trailer weight but the tongue can be as high as 1700# so I bought a WDH(BlueOx sway Pro 2000) that is rated for 2000# tongue and a ball of 20000#, it is a 2 1/2" shank. I would buy for the tongue weight