Scale weights

Front 3720 (lost 100 pds?)
Rear 3780 (added 920 pds)

You are under the truck's gross weight of 8800 pounds by about 1300 pounds. That is good. But.....don't forget to add in all the weight that will be in the truck that includes people, dogs, tools, and all the stuff you will have in the back. You may be much closer to the gross weight with all that weight added.

Also, did you weigh the trailer with full propane, batteries, full water and all the supplies to go camping? If I am correct that model of Arctic Fox has a gross of 10,000 pounds and a brochure dry weight of around 6800. So you have around 1000 pounds of stuff or options already in the trailer when you weighed it. As you add trailer weight it will add to the tongue weight and reduce the payload available for your truck. Weigh it full of water and ready for camping with batteries and propane and all your stuff. You probably will be adding around 1500 pounds to the dry weight as water is 8.3 pounds per gallon and can easily add 500 or more pounds to the trailer's weight.

The heavy Cummins diesel losing 100 pounds on the front axle is probably good for the suspension and handling. I would not add any more weight to the front end. The truck is designed to carry weight in the back, not the front. Remember a weight distribution hitch also distributes some of the tongue's redistributed weight (around 20-25 percent) back to the trailer's axles, the last place most people want more weight. So, only add what is needed to get to a good place towing using the hitch's spring bars and no more. In this case more is not better. With your truck you are more interested in sway mitigation/control/elimination than weight distribution.

Your TW cannot be determined with those weights. The WDH applies some weight to the front axle and some weight to the TT axles. If you weigh the setup again without the WD bars applied, then the TW will be sum of truck axles with trailer on ball minus sum of truck axles unhitched. Your TW is pretty light. If it tows well, I wouldn't change anything. You are under all ratings.

How does it tow? Any issues?

OP here... Can't say if it tows good or not. Total driving time so far is less than 2 hours, so not a good test yet.

The only issue I think I have and not sure about this the elec brake. When I step on brake when driving it works great at 2.5 on it's scale. But when I mash the plunger by hand when pre-tripping it takes more elec to apply brakes like 6.5 Example is after hooking up and give a little tug when pre-tripping.

The control is from our 1990's trailer, so maybe it's getting old.

(Our 1990's trailer was 4,000 pds and after awhile I didn't even use WDH and it towed great. Sometimes we wish we still had that RV.)

OK thanks for input.

OP here... Can't say if it tows good or not. Total driving time so far is less than 2 hours, so not a good test yet.

The only issue I think I have and not sure about this the elec brake. When I step on brake when driving it works great at 2.5 on it's scale. But when I mash the plunger by hand when pre-tripping it takes more elec to apply brakes like 6.5 Example is after hooking up and give a little tug when pre-tripping.

The control is from our 1990's trailer, so maybe it's getting old.

(Our 1990's trailer was 4,000 pds and after awhile I didn't even use WDH and it towed great. Sometimes we wish we still had that RV.)

OK thanks for input.

* This post was edited 12/19/14 09:26am by path1 *

Get a new controller. They are relatively inexpensive for what they do for you with braking. Your trailer's gross weight is more than your truck's gross weight by 1200 pounds. Brakes are everything stopping your combo.

Prior, I owned a 2001 Ram quad cab Cummins 4x4 long bed and carried a cabover camper on it. Even with that weight the factory overloads did not touch/engage. You have more than enough truck for your trailer. I estimate loaded your tongue weight will be in the 1200 pound range, perhaps more. You might want to get an aftermarket receiver that is more stout than the stock Ram receiver. A good rule of thumb is to use 13 percent for estimating tongue weight. You can easily be around 1300 pounds tongue weight if your trailer is at gross weight. At 8000 pounds trailer weight the tongue will be 1050 pounds plus the weight of the hitch, probably at least another 75 pounds. You are beginning to ask a lot of the stock receiver.

AS long as you don't add more than 1300 lbs to the trucks weight including passengers, gear, supplies you are within all the manufacturers stated maximums.

I would consider getting a better hitch receiver on the truck. Your listed tongue weight is close to the limit and that was weighed with the weight distribution arms applied so the actual weight will be higher. You will not be happy if the receiver rips off going over a bridge transition.

You really should weigh again and get weights with just the truck, the truck and trailer with no weight bars and the truck and trailer with weight bars to really know how well the rig is set up. Even more important since you appear to be fairly close to a couple of limits.

OP here... I'm going to get this http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch/Dodge/Ram+Pickup/2001/C15300.html?vehicleid=200113655

And different ball.

Small price to pay.

That will also give me a chance to make sure the bolt on hardware is OK.