WD HITCH questions for new tt

Still Searchin' wrote:
Whoa guys, the main purposes of the WD bars is to shift weight from the rear axle of the TV towards the front axle, and I would think that means transferring any overloaded weights on the rear axle that causes it to sag forward, including weight in the bed of the pickup. Make sense?---

The purpose of a WDH is to increase the loads on the TT's axles and TV's front axle and to decrease the load on the TV's rear axle.
The load on the rear axle is a result of the weight of the TV plus its occupants and cargo in addition to the load imposed by the TT's tongue.
The WDH doesn't know where the axle load comes from, and it doesn't care. It simply decreases the loading.

The amount of load transferred by the WDH usually is determined by how much load is desired to be restored to the front axle after load is removed from the front axle by the application of tongue weight.
Up-to-date recommendations, for most tow vehicles, usually call for restoration of 50-100% of the removed load.

Adding weight to the bed of a pickup has relatively little effect on the front axle.
The front axle load is increased slightly if the added bed load is in front of the rear axle, and decreased slightly if added behind the rear axle.

A tongue weight of 1000# might add 1400-1500# to the rear axle and remove 400-500# from the front axle, while a bed load of 1000# centered 2' ahead of or behind the rear rear axle will add or remove about 150# from the front axle of a typical pickup.

To restore 400# to the front axle will require a WDH to increase the TT axle load by about 200#, and that, in turn, will cause about 600# to be removed from the TV's rear axle.
If 1400-1500# is added to the rear axle by tongue weight and 1000# is added to the bed, the combined rear axle loading would be around 2400-2500#.
So, if a properly-adjusted WDH restores 100% of the removed load back onto the front axle in this example, only about 600# will be removed from the rear axle.

If you wanted to remove an additional 600# from the rear axle via the WDH, you would have to add about 400# to the front axle.
Even if this didn't cause the front axle to be overloaded, it probably would result in an undesirable oversteer condition for the TV.
So, there's really no point in sizing WD bars to include the weight of bed load, because the WDH should not be adjusted to transfer enough load to compensate for the added bed load.

Ron

Whoa guys, the main purposes of the WD bars is to shift weight from the rear axle of the TV towards the front axle, and I would think that means transferring any overloaded weights on the rear axle that causes it to sag forward, including weight in the bed of the pickup. Make sense?
a second consideration could be when the rear axle hits a bump, that upward force on the hitch and WD bars could temporarily exceed the normal weighted pressure on those bars??
We have the Reese SC hitch, which is very similar to the Equalizer except the L Bracket that the WD bars rest on has brake pads that Reese claims has more friction (and makes less noise) than the metal to metal friction of the equalizer. In any event, we have had zero sway in our set-up below.

oxygen wrote:

rode2nowhere wrote:
If you go to equalizer website there is a place to enter your weights and it recommends a size for you.

I did go to this site and they recommend the 1200/12000 model. Hard to agree with this.

Even if you load the TT to 100% of its GVWR, a reasonable estimate of the tongue weight would be about 870#.
IMO, the correct Equal-i-zer model would be the 1000/10000#.

I see no logical reason to include any of the TV cargo weight in the estimated tongue weight.
The Equal-i-zer Owner's Manual states on page 9:

Before installing the hitch, the tow vehicle and trailer should be loaded just as they will be while traveling.
This includes full propane and fresh water tanks, and any other cargo the tow vehicle (passengers & gear) or trailer will carry, including ATVs for toy haulers.---
Take the initial setup measurements for the tow vehicle by measuring from the ground to the top of the wheel wells directly above both the front and back axles of the tow vehicle.---

This means that all effects of TV cargo weight are included in the unhitched axle loads.
Since the axle loads are NOT to be returned to a value greater than the unhitched value,
the WDH will NOT be used to compensate for any of the TV cargo weight.
And, that means there is no reason to include any of the TV cargo weight in the estimated tongue weight when selecting WDH bar capacity.

I'm guessing the philosophy of adding the weight of TV cargo located behind the rear axle to the tongue weight is a hold-over from the days when the family sedan was the typical tow vehicle.
In those days, it was necessary for the WDH to compensate for some of the TV cargo weight.
These days it no longer is necessary and, IMO, Equal-i-zer's Hitch Size Selector should be changed to make it compatible with their updated WDH adjustment instructions.

Ron

Using 13% of that as a guide, he would probably be OK with the 1000 bars..

GVWR for the rockwood ultra lite is 6700#

I don't understand "6700# max carrying capacity". 6700 pounds is your estimated loaded weight, or GVWR, or dry weight?

The EQ 1000# bars are designed for 400-1000 pounds of tongue weight. That seems appropriate for a 6700 pound GVWR TT. I would not recommend 800 pound bars for 6700 pound GVWR TT, let alone a dry. I have 1200 pound bars for my 6900 pound GVWR TT. They work very well.

I'm wondering that also. The OP doesn't give any weights or front end measurements

The new tt hasn't come in yet. I have 1200lbs bars still in there box. I had ordered them 3 years back, thinking we wouldgeta larger tt.

Ron Gratz wrote:

Goldstar225 wrote:
---No matter how I played with the numbers, as long as I stayed within a realistic range it kept selecting the 1,200/12,000.

I set it up per the instructions from equal-i-zer and the setup is almost ideal.

Are you saying you installed the 1200/12000 hitch?

What did you consider to be the "ideal" setup, and what did you actually achieve?

Ron

I'm wondering that also. The OP doesn't give any weights or front end measurements.

Goldstar225 wrote:
---No matter how I played with the numbers, as long as I stayed within a realistic range it kept selecting the 1,200/12,000.

I set it up per the instructions from equal-i-zer and the setup is almost ideal.

Are you saying you installed the 1200/12000 hitch?

What did you consider to be the "ideal" setup, and what did you actually achieve?

Ron

Usually WD bar strength is based on 15% of the GVWR or the trailer. My Rockwood has an empty tongue weight from the brochure of 675 lb. and it's actual tongue weight is 1,150 lb. which is very close to 15% Rarely are they MORE than 15% and sometimes they are less.
Good luck / Skip