pro pride or hensley hitch tongue weight

I dealt with this very issue with my old tow vehicle that had only a 600# limit. I ended up buying a Sureline Tongue Weight scale and as it turns out, the advertised trailer tongue weight usually doesn't account for the battery and full propane tanks, not to mention if your trailer has a forward storage bin that you put stuff in.

For me, both the ProPride and Hensley were just too heavy given my limited Tongue Weight capacity. I ended up going with the Andersen hitch which is much lighter 75# and their anti-sway approach is based on using much lighter polypropelene compress spacers and changes. My trailer weighs 7500# loaded and my tongue weight usually measures out at 600# to 650# (although is sometimes scoots up to 700#). The Andersen does an incredibly good job on trailers that weigh less than 9000# as does mine. I am very happy with Weight Distribution and Anti-sway I get from the Andersen.

So I guess the answer to your question is that practically all of the Hensley or ProPride will go against your tongue weight calc.

If you're over on the hitch rating, it's a good possibility, you're over on one or more (payload, GVWR, GCVWR) of the others. It's also possible, the wrong receiver is installed.

Not enough info for us to help.

Should be two ratings on the receiver. One with WDH, and, one without WDH. Is that 800 lb rating, with or without WDH?

What is make and model of tow vehicle?

What are GCVWR, GVWR, and payload?

I am just trying to learn how that heavy of a hitch will change the tongue weight that is on the TV receiver. It was just an example, assume there is plenty of payload capacity and the GVWR and GCWR are not going to be exceeded. The 800lbs is with a weight distribution hitch.

The hitch weight figures into the GVW, not tongue weight.

hbillsmith wrote:
My trailer weighs 7500# loaded and my tongue weight usually measures out at 600# to 650# (although is sometimes scoots up to 700#). The Andersen does an incredibly good job on trailers that weigh less than 9000# as does mine. I am very happy with Weight Distribution and Anti-sway I get from the Andersen.

That's a very low tongue weight!! 7500lb trailer should be 750-1125lbs of tongue weight to tow properly.

The short answer is that any hitch's weight will reduce the amount available for the trailer. If you receiver is rated 800# and your chosen hitch weighs 200#, you will then have the remaining 600# available for the trailer. The amount for the trailer will include at least the advertised trailer tongue weight. Let's say the trailer's advertised tongue weight is 500#, in this example you'd have 100# left to use for increased tongue weight coming from your stuff.

The only 2 ways I know of to manipulate this is A) choose a lighter hitch and B)adjust/balance the load inside the trailer. With option B) you have to be careful not to make the trailer rear overloaded/heavy.

If you have the trailer and tow vehicle you can visit the CAT scales and with 3 passes, you can get all your answers. Pass#1: Tow vehicle loaded for trip with all passengers and fuel and trailer attached with WDH on and in force, Pass#2: Same setup but disengage the WDH chains or bars, Pass#3: Drop the trailer in the lot and just weight the tow vehicle.

I'm not going to try and convince anyone of my thoughts on this, but here is my take on tongue wts. I believe there are TWO tongue wts that are important. One is what I call "dead tongue wt" or that you would weigh with something like a Sherline tongue scale under the ball socket on the "A" frame w/o the TV attached. This wt. is also what the trailer only applies on the ball of the drawbar/hitch head. This wt. is what you want in that 13% range for trailer handling and stability factors. The second is what I call the "receiver tongue wt." and that is the load that the receiver must carry and has two components, one is the dead tongue wt. and the other is the WDH/Sway system which includes the drawbar, hith head, and WD/spring bars. This "receiver tongue wt." is what is stamped as the limits on the receivers and often is for with and without WDH.

Larry

LarryJM wrote:
---The second is what I call the "receiver tongue wt." and that is the load that the receiver must carry and has two components, one is the dead tongue wt. and the other is the WDH/Sway system which includes the drawbar, hith head, and WD/spring bars. This "receiver tongue wt." is what is stamped as the limits on the receivers and often is for with and without WDH.

My interpretation of the document which defines allowable tongue weight for a receiver -- Regulation VESC-5 -- says that the weight of a typical WDH is accounted for in the maximum tongue weight specification.
Therefore, when using a conventional WDH, it should not be necessary to add the weight of a WDH/Sway system to the trailer's tongue weight when considering the receiver's maximum allowable tongue weight rating.

However, since the Hensley Arrow and ProPride hitches did not exist when VESC-5 was written, and since the HA and PP are reported to weigh around 100# more than a conventional WDH, I would recommend that users of a HA/PP hitch should add 100# to their TW when comparing against the receiver's rating.

Ron

It is only a guess what hitch weight the reg is assuming.

You can't go wrong following Larry's advice.

lbrjet wrote:
It is only a guess what hitch weight the reg is assuming.

The "reg" -- Regulation VESC-5-- defines "tongue weight" in Section 3. DEFINITIONS:

QUOTE
3.8 "Maximum Vertical Load on Hitch (Tongue Weight)" means the vertical downward static force exerted on the hitch by the coupling at the point of connection of coupling and hitch with weight distribution features or devices, if any, deactivated. Tongue weight is measured at the trailer coupling, with the trailer on a level surface (detached from the hitch), and with trailer consumables and cargo in maximum loaded conditions.
UNQUOTE

This makes it clear that the weight of the WDH is not included in the "tongue weight".

Ron

Ron Gratz wrote:

lbrjet wrote:
It is only a guess what hitch weight the reg is assuming.

The "reg" -- Regulation VESC-5-- defines "tongue weight" in Section 3. DEFINITIONS:

QUOTE
3.8 "Maximum Vertical Load on Hitch (Tongue Weight)" means the vertical downward static force exerted on the hitch by the coupling at the point of connection of coupling and hitch with weight distribution features or devices, if any, deactivated. Tongue weight is measured at the trailer coupling, with the trailer on a level surface (detached from the hitch), and with trailer consumables and cargo in maximum loaded conditions.
UNQUOTE

This makes it clear that the weight of the WDH is not included in the "tongue weight".

Ron

Agree... I have never seen anything, outside of a few posts here and there, that call the WDH as tongue weight. It goes towards RAW, but not TW.