Good weight distribution set up

Looks like as others have said you will be in the 1000lb range on tongue weight. I've got a Blu Ox, and I'm very happy with it. i went with the 1500lb bars since my tongue weight was in the 1000lb range, they recommended bumping up to the larger bars. With those bars, you'll be covered for a bigger trailer?

What's the payload on the Ram? With a bunk house I'm assuming more than 2 people in the truck. I'm betting the truck is over loaded.

My Equalizer is dead quiet and if it ever does make a noise it is because I had not lubed it in awhile. Great hitch.

like others, my dry tongue weight was laughable. around 800lbs, spec'd and measured with the empty trailer leaving the lot. Actual tongue weight, after I loaded it up, filled the propane tanks, added batteries etc. etc. is 1350lbs with an EMPTY fresh tank, 1500 with a FULL water tank. almost double the dry number.

on a TT figure at least the weight of batteries 70-140lbs + propane 60lbs or so will the the minimum you add to tongue weight. they are close enough to the tongue that virtually all the weight ends up on the tongue.

Dry weights oughta be outlawed... :M

Our dry tongue wt. was advertised as 540 lbs. So I purchased a WDH package ahead of time with 800 lb spring bars thinking they'd be more than enough. After going to a scale, our actual TW ended up being close to 1,000 lbs. Bought a new set of heavier spring bars as the smaller ones just weren't working that well for us. The TW is almost 15% of our TT's GVW which is on the higher side of average.

Our WDH is a Reese dual cam with trunnion bars. I chose it because of it's pro-active self-centering design and integral sway control. After getting it all dialed in, it works fantastic and would never substitute it for another. Doesn't make objectionable noise IMO and Reese says you can use a little vaseline on the cams if needed (never anything else).

Besides selecting a WDH and setting it up properly, make sure to run the right psi in TT & TV tires, use LT tires on truck and set the TT level to slightly nose down. It's all part of an overall "system" that works together.

TT owners often tout the WDH they have. It would be interesting if somebody did a real life scientific comparison between the various brands and types of WDH using the same TT and truck. I tried towing a friends TT on the freeway of about the same length as ours with their truck with basic round bar WDH with friction bars and did not like the feel of it.

Camper76 wrote:

LarryJM wrote:

Camper76 wrote:

LarryJM wrote:

Camper76 wrote:
I'll be towing a Jayflight slx 294 qbsw. Dry hitch weight is 780, trailer dry is 6480, Gvw is 8250. I want something a little bigger just so I won't need to buy another one if we ever get bigger trailer.

Since you obviously have something now that you're using

1. What is it

2. Get to a set of scales and get some REAL NUMBERS and not those useless "DRY" ones you are now using.

3. Depending the min would be around 1200 with a probable end one in the 1500 range, but those are TOTAL GUESSES at this point. But what you now have is a fairly heavy trailer already so not sure how much heavier especially hitch wise you could get.

Larry

I have Reese with tounge weight of 1000lbs and 10000 gross. It has sway arm so I can't back up with it. Also I'm towing with ram 1500 hemi not sure if that helps

You also need to make sure you educate yourself since if that "sway arm" is the friction bar type you can in fact back up with it. You just have to be careful about making "EXTREME" turns and accelerating slowly when backing and I always loosened it if I was expecting to make many maneuvers backing into a site.

I have the 1200/12K Equal-i-zer for my 1K TW 32' 7500lb GVW trailer and am totally satisified with it, but that's behind a 9500lb 1T full sized Ford Van.

Larry

Does it make a lot of noise. Cause the one I have is noise as hell

OF COURSE if it is not making noise it probably isn't working right. It can just like brakes "grab" and "pop" when not used in a while.

I agree with bobndot. Get a system with built in sway. I have an Equalizer and am happy with how it performs. There is very little noise from mine. I set it up properly, I lube the friction points as per manufacturers suggestion and it works nicely. When new, they do pop and clank a bit but this can all be adjusted.

IMO, it's all good advice here .

I have towed a 37' TT using friction bars (2) on a 1200# trunnion Reese set up,towing with a 250 diesel. You need to have enough truck as a foundation that's stout enough to work off of.
If i ever do it over again (towing a 35' plus TT), i would investigate a WDH with built in sway, like the Eqaul-i-Zer 4 point , if its a little noisy , I'll deal with it . (picking any brand of full time WDH with built in sway control is personal choice, they all work well)

Like others said, ignore the dry weight. I would recommend you assume the Gross weight, which in your case is 8250 lbs. So assume you will have a tongue weight of around 950-1,000 lbs.

The following hitches have big followings:

Equal-I-zer (can be noisy)
Blue Ox Pro
Reese Dual Cam

You weigh the tongue, ready to travel, and get the correct bars.

When you get the new trailer, repeat the above.

Camper76 wrote:
I'll be towing a Jayflight slx 294 qbsw. Dry hitch weight is 780, trailer dry is 6480, Gvw is 8250. I want something a little bigger just so I won't need to buy another one if we ever get bigger trailer.

I have Reese with tounge weight of 1000lbs and 10000 gross. It has sway arm so I can't back up with it. Also I'm towing with ram 1500 hemi not sure if that helps.

GVW of a bunk bed trailer this size, loaded and ready to camp, is sure to be awfully close to 8000 lbs with at least 1000+ lbs of gross tongue weight which is already too much for a stock Ram 1500 ... and you may want to later go even bigger?! :E

Regardless, one feature of the Blue Ox Sway Pro is that changing from weight class to another is as simple as swapping out the spring bars, all other parts remain the same.