WD Hitch or not?
Greetings, I am towing a 26' 7000 pound gross travel trailer with my 2018 Ram 3500 CC SB truck. Do I need a weight distributing hitch with this combo? The Ram manual states the max tongue weigh...
Forum Discussion
Drew A. wrote:
I have only towed it once: 3 hours home from the dealer. The trailer was completely empty as was the truck. With this trailer having a rear kitchen, I was concerned it might sway due to low tongue weight.
On the trip home, I used a standard WD hitch with 1200 pound bars and no sway control. The tow was great with no sway at all.
You are right to be concerned about the rear kitchen, that's where most of the weight gets packed in the form of pots/pans, and food/beverages.
The best thing you can do is pack the truck and trailer like you're going camping and then hit the scales to see where you stand on tongue weight, or pick up a tongue weight scale like a Sherline.
What most folks don't realize is that the dealer did his job and dialed in the WD hitch based on an empty trailer, but 100% of the time that hitch will need to be re-adjusted to work best with the trailer after it's loaded. The only hitches that are truly indifferent to tongue weight are the Hensley Arrow and the Pro-Pride 3P, both of which use the 4-bar linkage design. All of the other WD hitches on the market rely on adequate (10% min) tongue weight to provide some level of sway control.
Getting the trailer set up right is an iterative process....load it, weigh it, adjust the hitch, see how it tows, repeat as needed until it tows great!
A lot of it comes down to the design of the trailer and axle placement, some are much harder to dial in than others.
