WDH - how much does it reduce tongue weight?
We've been told that a good load distribution hitch will redistribute as much as 30% of the tongue weight. The vehicle we want can tow 7500# but is limited to a tongue weight of 600#. If what we...
Forum Discussion
Margaret,
The Mercedes has a hitch designed for European travel trailers. In Europe, they often have a much lower tongue weight for their size than those in North america for two reasons:
1. They are limited to 80km/hr maximum on any road.
2. Their wheels are often in the middle of the trailer to support the majority of their weight.
Please look at the pictures on this website(notice the mercedes tow vehicle):
Euro camper
These are from a european RV show. The wheels are almost in front of the center of the trailer. this allows for a 7500lb tow rating with a 600lb hitch and at 80km/hr max this will cause little problems with sway, etc. Also look at the wheel placement and tow vehicles on these trailers...all from europe. the placement of the trailer wheel makes for a much lower tongue weight than most north american trailers. No WDH in sight.:
There is an expectation of being able to keep up with freeway traffic in North America, and in this configuration, sway and instability come into play with that low of a tongue weight. That's why higher tongue weights are standard here.
Back to your hitch. The standard hitch in Europe doesn't use weight distributing and looks something like this:
Even if yours is frame mounted, the standard setup on your Mercedes won't work with a WDH, but maybe the aftermarket one in previous posts above will support the higher ratings and weight distributing.
The body-on-frame vs unibody arguements may have been valid on early unibody vehicles, but they are now designed to handle the torque induced with a weight distributing setup. for example, the durango/jeep grand cherokee frames have been unibody for a number of years now and have a 7500lb tow rating with weight distributing. Even my 2005 Sienna has a 3500lb/350lb rating without distribution and 3500lb/525lb rating with distribution bars. I towed our trailer through the rockies for years with it and its tongue weight exceeded the 525 by a hundred lbs or so.
The point to all this is, you are limited to a 600lb tongue weight with the factory hitch, and no weight distributing allowed. No way around this. If you install the aftermarket unit, you can probably have a higher hitch rating and use of some weight distributing system. Check with the manufacturer of the hitch about going that route.
The Mercedes has a hitch designed for European travel trailers. In Europe, they often have a much lower tongue weight for their size than those in North america for two reasons:
1. They are limited to 80km/hr maximum on any road.
2. Their wheels are often in the middle of the trailer to support the majority of their weight.
Please look at the pictures on this website(notice the mercedes tow vehicle):
Euro camper
These are from a european RV show. The wheels are almost in front of the center of the trailer. this allows for a 7500lb tow rating with a 600lb hitch and at 80km/hr max this will cause little problems with sway, etc. Also look at the wheel placement and tow vehicles on these trailers...all from europe. the placement of the trailer wheel makes for a much lower tongue weight than most north american trailers. No WDH in sight.:
There is an expectation of being able to keep up with freeway traffic in North America, and in this configuration, sway and instability come into play with that low of a tongue weight. That's why higher tongue weights are standard here.
Back to your hitch. The standard hitch in Europe doesn't use weight distributing and looks something like this:
Even if yours is frame mounted, the standard setup on your Mercedes won't work with a WDH, but maybe the aftermarket one in previous posts above will support the higher ratings and weight distributing.
The body-on-frame vs unibody arguements may have been valid on early unibody vehicles, but they are now designed to handle the torque induced with a weight distributing setup. for example, the durango/jeep grand cherokee frames have been unibody for a number of years now and have a 7500lb tow rating with weight distributing. Even my 2005 Sienna has a 3500lb/350lb rating without distribution and 3500lb/525lb rating with distribution bars. I towed our trailer through the rockies for years with it and its tongue weight exceeded the 525 by a hundred lbs or so.
The point to all this is, you are limited to a 600lb tongue weight with the factory hitch, and no weight distributing allowed. No way around this. If you install the aftermarket unit, you can probably have a higher hitch rating and use of some weight distributing system. Check with the manufacturer of the hitch about going that route.
