WDH - how much does it reduce tongue weight?

rbpru wrote:
I recall a post showing a WD hitch add with a front wheel drive Oldsmobile Torinado with the rear wheels removed towing a travel trailer.

If the WDH manufacturer added enough weight behind the TT's axles, the TT could have had a negative tongue weight.

If the TT has enough negative TW, the WDH doesn't need to transfer any additional load from TV's rear axle to the TT's axles.

More likely, the TT's negative TW would be chosen to leave a small amount of rear-end sag (perhaps an amount of sag similar to that produced by 1000# TW} and the WDH would be adjusted to eliminate that remaining sag.

Ron

I recall a post showing a WD hitch add with a front wheel drive Oldsmobile Torinado with the rear wheels removed towing a travel trailer.

All the rear axle weight being transferred to the TV front and TT axles.

A bit more then leveling the tongue weight.

Wishing you guys the best in your future endeavors. We've considered hanging up the travel trailer lifestyle a couple of times when our travels put us in airplanes and hotels. It is definitely a quicker and easier mode of travel. We even took Amtrak 1st class cross country. We really enjoyed that. Then my cousins got travel trailers and it started all over again. It's a lot of fun but also a lot of work. I'll be ok with it when it's time to let it go. There's always the yearly Carnival cruise!!!

Glad you were able to enjoy it some while you could. Stay safe and take care.

We began this adventure in 2009 - hence my "senior" status here - with a 30' 2000 Fleetwood Flair, Class A. No bells or whistles, no slider, just a very well-designed, comfortable, easy unit. We towed a 2001 Cherokee. But my husband, who has no mechanical ability at all, grew increasingly nervous as our Big Trip progressed. The day we crossed the Continental Divide behind a pilot car in a driving rain along a muddy cliff-top road under construction, slipping and sliding, pretty much did him in. When I noticed his reluctance to take the rig out again, I suggested that we get rid of it. Sob. We did, and he drew a huge sigh of relief. (The Ozzies who bought the shebang from us took it from the Bering Sea to Key West in one 3-month trip and eventually hit every state and every Nat. Park.) So I was very surprised when he wanted to look at trailers. I think he figured that a non-mechanized box on wheels wouldn't pose as many automotive worries. Little did we know about the hitching process - so easy hooking a toad up to a Class A!

I'd kill for a B or even a small A - we can't get to the bed on a C any more - not safe enough in the middle of the night. But I think our self-contained travel days will be over when we give up the truck in 18 months. I love it and think it's a great way to travel, but he's doing it for me and is never comfortable with it. And that's why I'm not comfortable with him doing it.

Some of that weight goes back on the trailer axles. not a lot, but a small amount maybe 100lbs on a trailer with 1k lbs of tongue weight.

Why not get a class C or van camper? Seen a couple built on the sprinter/dodge frame and they look like a nice setup. Just pull in and park for the most part.

Thanks for the update...and best of everything to you in the future.

It's been a year and a half, so I thought I'd bug you all again.

We were told that with a unibody construction, the MB wasn't a good candidate for a WDH. At that point we gave up and leased a 2014 F150 XLT. It has a decent payload number, which was the main reason we didn't keep the Sequoia. We've put about three or four weeks worth of travel on the combo so far, and have two 1-week trips planned for the summer and a 1-month trip in September-October. Everything works fine, except that hitching it up is getting to be too much for my husband, who isn't as able to crawl around under the bumper with chains as he'd like to be.

So at this point, since the lease on the truck is up in January 2018, we're pretty sure we will turn it back in to the dealer and probably sell the trailer. We could maybe take it on short local trips with the MB, but as long as hitching up is the issue - not to mention backing into spaces - we probably won't do much of that either.

So thanks to all of you for your enormous knowledge.