Tongue Weight Rating
Hello, We are buying a trailer for our daughter and son-in-law. They now have a Ford Expedition with 8,900# tow rating. 80% of that is 7,120#, but they should stay below 7,000# loaded (5,500 to 6...
Forum Discussion
Crespro wrote:I would say the sales manager either is unaware of the facts or is intentionally misrepresenting the facts.
The sales manager makes this argument -- the regular hitch rating is 600#. With 1,100#, the Equalizer moves 200# to the trailer and 300# to the front wheels, leaving the spec 600# on the receiver. The Ford is 895 WD and 600# regular hitch.
I was not popular when I pointed out this problem. What do you think?
With a wheelbase of 119" and a ball overhang of 65", 1100# of TW would cause about 600# to be removed from the front axle and about 1700# would be added to the rear axle.
Assuming the distance from coupler to midpoint between the TT's axles is 240", restoring the 600# which was removed from the front axle would require about 600*119/(65+240) = 234# to be transferred to the TT's axles (at least, the sales manager was close on that guess).
The added load on the rear axle would be reduced to 1700-(600+234) = 866# -- probably enough to cause the rear GAWR to be exceeded.
The remaining load on the receiver would be 1100-234 = 866# -- which is not very close to the sales manager's 600#.
Furthermore, the receiver's rating is based on the TT's tongue weight and not on the vertical load on the receiver.
I think I'd be looking for a different place to buy a trailer.
Ron
