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thehippie's avatar
thehippie
Explorer
May 02, 2018

Tongue weights

My weight dist hitch is rated 1200 lbs tongue weight and the trailer I'm getting tomorrow is 1300 lb tongue weight. Will the difference of 100 lbs be abit ok ? I'm towing it with a 2015 ram Cummins longbed.


Weight of trailer is 7900 lbs and wdh is 12000 lb capacity.

I'll be ordering a bigger wdh soon

Thanks for any reply

7 Replies

  • I think I’ll just get a 1,500 lb TW shank. And still use the same bars and head.
  • If your going by manufacturer specs on tongue weight you can't count on it being accurate. Usually the manufacturer seems to under rate the the TW. Maybe because they are not including propane bottles battery and a loaded trailer.

    Your 12k hitch will be fine for getting your new trailer home. Once home you can do a little measuring. Without the trailer connected measure the distance from the top of your wheel wells front and rear to the ground (write it down) Now measure again with the trailer connected without the WDH (write it down) Now connect your WDH as you normally would and measure again (write it down) Now look at the numbers with the WDH. If your front was at 30" empty without the trailer 32" with the trailer but no WDH and now 30"to 31" with the WDH you are actually transferring some of that TW to the front of the truck. If you don't get any movement in that direction you either have to grab another link or go to a heavier WDH
  • I agree with others. Use what you have, and then if you are unhappy you can change out to a heavier spring bar...unless you are just looking for a reason to upgrade:)
  • You want to have the hitch weight around 12% of the trailers loaded for travel weight. this means loading the trailer properly to arrive at the 12% hitch weight number. so your looking at around 9300lb loaded. that will be approx. 1250lbs. I would stick with your current hitch. to heavy of WD bars could cause issues.
  • The rating for a WDH is for the bars, not the head. 1200 pound bars will transfer 1200 pounds to the steer and trailer axles. Most manufactures use the same head and change out the bars for the amount of weight needed to transfer.
  • thehippie wrote:
    My weight dist hitch is rated 1200 lbs tongue weight and the trailer I'm getting tomorrow is 1300 lb tongue weight. Will the difference of 100 lbs be abit ok ? I'm towing it with a 2015 ram Cummins longbed.


    Weight of trailer is 7900 lbs and wdh is 12000 lb capacity.

    I'll be ordering a bigger wdh soon

    Thanks for any reply

    I run about 1100-1200 lbs on a Reese Dual cam with 1200 lb bars and It seems to work fine. I can't believe being 100 lbs on the other side would be a problem for short term.

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