what you don't know. For all the newbies on here this is my experience in hitches. Bought our new trailer and Equal-izer hitch from a high volume dealer. Trailer is 10k gvwr and 1286 brochure tongue weight. Dealer sold me a 10/1k Equal-izer brand hitch. Because of this forum and the wisdom within I got to thinking my hitch was undersized (you think?).Well we have been towing with this hitch for the past 16 months with about 6k miles on it and while it has worked I knew there was a better experience to be found. I upgraded to the Equal-izer 14k/1400 hitch and have just returned from having it set up at a good reputable dealer, not the people I purchased from. I can tell you there is a BIG difference. Bumps are smoother, no wiggle when trucks pass and just plain more stable. I know, I should have caught the undersized hitch issue from the start but I didn't. My bad, and I paid for it. An expensive lesson I hope my story helps someone else avoid.

A dealer will also tell you 'That's got a V8, you can tow anything'. Um, no....there are weight ratings for a very specific reason --ENGINEERING!!!!!A WD hitch should ALWAYS be sized to the loaded tongue weight of the trailer. Anything less and you're towing with undersized equipment that is not up to the job.

Yours is a perfect example of what I've been attempting to address so many times on these forums.You spend $65,000 on a tow vehicle and then spend $35,000 on a really nice trailer, and then get a light weight weight distribution system because it saves you $100. Never figured that one out.

DutchmenSport wrote:Yours is a perfect example of what I've been attempting to address so many times on these forums.You spend $65,000 on a tow vehicle and then spend $35,000 on a really nice trailer, and then get a light weight weight distribution system because it saves you $100. Never figured that one out.Or to say it another way, sometimes a little bit of over sizing is a good thing !

Well it was my mistake to trust the dealer to set me up with the proper equipment. I told them I wanted an upgraded hitch so it was not me trying to save $100 bucks. As it is the dealer price on that hitch was more than I paid for the proper weight rated one. Again, my bad as I didn't catch that. The problem with newbies is they don't know otherwise and are told things are proper and adequate for what they purchase, they don't know any better. I SHOULD have because I am not a newbie but still got caught. While I do not believe things were dangerously unsafe it did not provide for the best towing experience. I hope some new RVers here will read this and take heed to pay attention to trailer and tongue weights and make sure they get a hitch that is of adequate size. That is all I hope to accomplish with this post.

More like a bad dealer, but I'm glad you figured it out and corrected the situation. Costly mistake, but hopefully your post will help someone from making the same mistake. Thanks for writing.

You don't know... | Good Sam Community

LIKE2BUILD
Explorer
Nov 07, 2018
A dealer will also tell you 'That's got a V8, you can tow anything'. Um, no....there are weight ratings for a very specific reason --ENGINEERING!!!!!

A WD hitch should ALWAYS be sized to the loaded tongue weight of the trailer. Anything less and you're towing with undersized equipment that is not up to the job.
DutchmenSport
Explorer
Nov 07, 2018
Yours is a perfect example of what I've been attempting to address so many times on these forums.

You spend $65,000 on a tow vehicle and then spend $35,000 on a really nice trailer, and then get a light weight weight distribution system because it saves you $100. Never figured that one out.
theoldwizard1
Explorer II
Nov 07, 2018
DutchmenSport wrote:
Yours is a perfect example of what I've been attempting to address so many times on these forums.

You spend $65,000 on a tow vehicle and then spend $35,000 on a really nice trailer, and then get a light weight weight distribution system because it saves you $100. Never figured that one out.

Or to say it another way, sometimes a little bit of over sizing is a good thing !
ken56
Explorer
Nov 07, 2018
Well it was my mistake to trust the dealer to set me up with the proper equipment. I told them I wanted an upgraded hitch so it was not me trying to save $100 bucks. As it is the dealer price on that hitch was more than I paid for the proper weight rated one. Again, my bad as I didn't catch that.

The problem with newbies is they don't know otherwise and are told things are proper and adequate for what they purchase, they don't know any better. I SHOULD have because I am not a newbie but still got caught. While I do not believe things were dangerously unsafe it did not provide for the best towing experience. I hope some new RVers here will read this and take heed to pay attention to trailer and tongue weights and make sure they get a hitch that is of adequate size. That is all I hope to accomplish with this post.
lbrjet
Explorer
Nov 08, 2018
More like a bad dealer, but I'm glad you figured it out and corrected the situation. Costly mistake, but hopefully your post will help someone from making the same mistake. Thanks for writing.
camperforlife
Explorer
Nov 08, 2018
My last trailer purchase the salesman and the service writer tried to tell me what size bars I needed. I asked them to weigh the tongue and they replied that they didn't have a scale. I replied "then you don't know what the h*** you are doing". This created quite the debate and the lecture about how long they had been doing this, yada, yada, yada.

We took the trailer to a scale, weighed the tongue and guess what. They didn't know what the h*** they were doing and had to eat crow. The tongue weight was 500 lbs more than their years of knowledge told them.
demiles
Explorer
Nov 08, 2018
The WDH ratings are 10000/1000 which means 10000 is the maximum trailer weight to be drawn and 1000 is the maximum tongue weight to be set on the ball.. A 14000/1400 is what the original dealer should’ve provided you with.
Sprink-Fitter
Explorer
Nov 08, 2018
LIKE2BUILD wrote:
A dealer will also tell you 'That's got a V8, you can tow anything'. Um, no....there are weight ratings for a very specific reason --ENGINEERING!!!!!

A WD hitch should ALWAYS be sized to the loaded tongue weight of the trailer. Anything less and you're towing with undersized equipment that is not up to the job.

I have bought three different travel trailers from three different dealers and not one of the said I could pull anything on the lot, in fact it was the opposite, they didn't even want to show me the heavier trailers unless I was upgrading tow vehicles.

So not all dealers are bad.
mkirsch
Nomad II
Nov 08, 2018
Also, it's not "ENGINEERING..."

It's PERFORMANCE. When the rig performs well, handles well, accelerates well, brakes well, you're not worried about it being safe because it is safe. Run things right to the ragged edge of the limits and beyond, performance suffers, and you suffer.
goducks10
Explorer
Nov 08, 2018
Live N Learn, we've all been there done that.