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
“Weight” isn’t the problem (sure, don’t overload components). Understand that Tongue Weight IS NOT a constant, it’s only a placeholder number. The trailer tongue is ONE END of a lever extending to the trailer axle center. On-road, that force (mass) changes with every foot of travel. It can increase or decrease by hundreds, even thousands of pounds.
The reason for a WDH is in the name: spread that FORCE over three sets of axles.
Loss of Steering Control is the game. The TOTAL AMOUNT of rubber contacting the ground under your Drive Axle tires is what’s at stake. That trailer gets frisky and wants to pass you (sway; or oscillation: rotation), it’ll yank those rear TV tires free in a heartbeat.
The trailer tongue weight problem hasn’t existed in almost sixty years. Was solved.
What WAS NOT solved (until 25-years ago) was in eliminating trailer- tow vehicle misalignment UNDER POSITIVE THROTTLE (the only stable state of a vehicle is when moving). That’s with a Hensley patent hitch.
Loss of control accidents are about steering control being lost. Bad rig dynamics and poor operator decisions. THE PROBLEM REMAINING IS ADVERSE WINDS. (Why comparisons to a low construction trailer are meaningless). It’s the trailer SAIL AREA.
Worst trailer: high COG (slide outs) on narrow track leaf springs in non-aero square box design.
Worst tow vehicle: high COG (4WD pickup) with straight axles and long hitch overhang.
This is the worst POSSIBLE tow combination.
WDH is there to reduce component breakage and soften that big **** hammer coming down.
“Anti-sway” (integrated) dampens SOME of the trailer side-slip tendencies.
“Sway-Eliminating” uses leverage for both TW force management AND stopping the trailer from ever getting out of alignment in the first place. (Cheap, at 2X the price).
The Tow Vehicle , the Trailer; AND THE HITCH RIGGING are EQUALLY weighted in performance once spec is set.
The RIGGING ideal is TW divided 1/3-1/3-1/3 to Steer, Drive and Trailer Axles. Short version is that the Steer Axle weighs the same with or without the trailer hitched (done right). This keeps steering with the same feel AND DECREASES BRAKING DISTANCE.
If your combination vehicle DOES NOT stop faster than the solo truck with the same load, you got work to do. (Trailer MUST be dead level after hitching). Trailer drums ain’t worth much, so YOU MUST be able to get as much from them as you can before they fade irreparably.
A WDH solves TW. Since 1965. (SAE, Bundorf) More importantly, it retains STOCK steering control or feel, AND it improves towing braking distances PAST some resistance to adverse winds putting you upside down in the ditch.
Vehicle “payload” doesn’t exist as a category. Any vehicle. This is not a weight problem in any sense, it is a matter of FORCES acting against both vehicles.
The reason for a WDH is in the name: spread that FORCE over three sets of axles.
Loss of Steering Control is the game. The TOTAL AMOUNT of rubber contacting the ground under your Drive Axle tires is what’s at stake. That trailer gets frisky and wants to pass you (sway; or oscillation: rotation), it’ll yank those rear TV tires free in a heartbeat.
The trailer tongue weight problem hasn’t existed in almost sixty years. Was solved.
What WAS NOT solved (until 25-years ago) was in eliminating trailer- tow vehicle misalignment UNDER POSITIVE THROTTLE (the only stable state of a vehicle is when moving). That’s with a Hensley patent hitch.
Loss of control accidents are about steering control being lost. Bad rig dynamics and poor operator decisions. THE PROBLEM REMAINING IS ADVERSE WINDS. (Why comparisons to a low construction trailer are meaningless). It’s the trailer SAIL AREA.
Worst trailer: high COG (slide outs) on narrow track leaf springs in non-aero square box design.
Worst tow vehicle: high COG (4WD pickup) with straight axles and long hitch overhang.
This is the worst POSSIBLE tow combination.
WDH is there to reduce component breakage and soften that big **** hammer coming down.
“Anti-sway” (integrated) dampens SOME of the trailer side-slip tendencies.
“Sway-Eliminating” uses leverage for both TW force management AND stopping the trailer from ever getting out of alignment in the first place. (Cheap, at 2X the price).
The Tow Vehicle , the Trailer; AND THE HITCH RIGGING are EQUALLY weighted in performance once spec is set.
The RIGGING ideal is TW divided 1/3-1/3-1/3 to Steer, Drive and Trailer Axles. Short version is that the Steer Axle weighs the same with or without the trailer hitched (done right). This keeps steering with the same feel AND DECREASES BRAKING DISTANCE.
If your combination vehicle DOES NOT stop faster than the solo truck with the same load, you got work to do. (Trailer MUST be dead level after hitching). Trailer drums ain’t worth much, so YOU MUST be able to get as much from them as you can before they fade irreparably.
A WDH solves TW. Since 1965. (SAE, Bundorf) More importantly, it retains STOCK steering control or feel, AND it improves towing braking distances PAST some resistance to adverse winds putting you upside down in the ditch.
Vehicle “payload” doesn’t exist as a category. Any vehicle. This is not a weight problem in any sense, it is a matter of FORCES acting against both vehicles.
