Hitch Extender

Jay Coe wrote:

I had the time, so I read. I remember decades ago as a young man long before I ever owned a TT hearing the hitch referred to as a load equalizing hitch. Would that not be more accurate terminology than weight distributing hitch? And wouldn't that be less confusing right from the get-go? Why did that term go out of fashion?

In my opinion, the term "weight distributing hitch" is much more accurate than the old "load equalizing hitch" because it does re-distribute the tongue weight forces to the front of the truck and back to the trailer axles. It does NOT equalize the weight. It restores the weight lost from the front axle when the trailer is hooked up to the ball and in the process it also puts some of that weight on to the trailer axles because of the downward pull of the chains located at the ends of the WD bars. That amount is not the same as the amount put back on the front therefore it is not "equalized".

Just like a teetertotter, if you put weight behind the fulcrum you will raise the other end. In this case the trucks rear axle is the fulcrum and the WD hitch puts back the weight taken off the front axle when you hook up your trailer.

Actually, I suspect the term "equalizing hitch" came about because it used to be that you tried to make the truck (or car in those days) settle evenly front and back by using the hitch. That is not the case now though. The goal now is to restore all or part of the weight lost off the front axle of the tow vehicle and let the rear of the tow vehicle take care of itself.

The reason this change came about is because hitch testing determined that the old way contributed to understeer or oversteer in many cases and could lead to vehicles going out of control and crashing. This resulted in new hitch testing procedures and ratings for hitches.
Barney