Towing with a Tacoma

BAreEhD wrote:

Mike Up wrote:
After loaded, your hitch weight will be between 750 and 850 lbs. There are plenty of incompetent hitch shops as you've found.

Never go by dry weights, never.

Thanks, but I'd like to understand why you think the hitch weight might be almost double what the manufacturer states. Jayco states the hitch weight is 11% of GVWR, so maxed out with over a tonne of gear at 6500 lbs that's still not even in the range you have identified.

Also is there a reason you're discounting the impact of the WD hitch? Hitch weight is defined as weight behind the rear axle, which is exactly what the WD bars help alleviate.

Not trying to be argumentative, but when I see people quoting numbers without providing any reasons or supporting calculations I get suspicious - especially when it conflicts with information I have been given by industry professionals who have inspected my setup.

If you follow this forum, you'll see that hardly any travel trailer has a super low 11%. Most average around 13%. Dry weight is DRY, nothing! Add propane, add battery, load weight in the front, and now you have 13% tongue weight.

WDH does NOT alleviate weight, the weight is still on the metal components where it sits. In fact, there's more stress from the spring adding additional forces.

The WDH DOES equalize the weight by shifting forces from the rear axle to the front axle and some to the trailer axles.

The spring bars are a lever. They help take weight off of the rear axle (NOT HITCH) and place that weight back to the front axle. Some weight goes to the trailer axles as a result of the spring bar force pulling down on the back of the trailer tongue.

Your professionals are a bunch of hired hands with little education on travel trailers if they told you, you are alright with such a heavy trailer and such a light weight rating on a midsize truck. Hell, my Sport Trac had a 730 lbs rating on it's hitch and it wasn't strong enough for my 26BH that's only a few hundred lbs heavier than your less featured Jay Flight Swift 264BH. Be careful in describing who is a professional.

Weight distribution hitches allow you to exceed the standard weight bearing hitch ratings of 5000 lbs by using weight distribution. That why there is 2 separate ratings. Mine is 5000 lbs/500 lbs for weight bearing and 10,500 lbs/1,050 lbs for weight distribution.

That means if you are towing over a 5000 lbs trailer and/or have a 500 lbs tongue weight, you need to use a weight distribution hitch setup. It doesn't mean the weight goes away, it means you can now tow a trailer up to 10,500 lbs and 1,050 tongue weight.

You can essentially go up to 6500 lbs loaded trailer weight and 650 lbs tongue weight.