Ball weight or trailer weight?
When buying a WDH, should the bar capacity match the trailer weight (8,000# in my case) or ball weight (about 1,100# on mine)?
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
