WDH - how much does it reduce tongue weight?

Campfire Time wrote:

MargaretB wrote:

sch911 wrote:
Tongue weight is tongue weight. 100% is still on the tow vehicle. With a WDH it just get's distributed toward the front wheels better. Size your tow vehicle for the full amount and a safety margin.

Thanks. The service manager told us that the WDH would reduce the weight to below acceptable levels. That's why I asked here, to confirm or refute.

WOW! That service manager needs to get into a different line of work!

Well, he's been at it for 30 years. And we've already bought the trailer, so he has nothing to gain by lying. Is it possible that he just doesn't know the difference between "reduce" and "redistribute"?

Campfire Time wrote:

MargaretB wrote:
We've been told that a good load distribution hitch will redistribute as much as 30% of the tongue weight.

Redistribute, yes. Reduce, no. And probably not redistributing an entire 30% either.

When you connect a trailer to a vehicle the weight of the tongue forces the back of the vehicle to squat, and the front end to go up, removing weight from the front wheels, and reducing your ability to control the steering. A WD hitch redistributes the weight using the magic of physics to put weight back on the front wheels to regain lost steering control. The weight of the hitch remains the same.

Check your owners manual carefully, if it has a tow capacity that high, most likely it has a spec for using a WD hitch. There are usually 2 weight limits, dead weight and with a WD hitch. The 600# limit sounds like a dead weight limit. What kind of vehicle is this?

It's an MB diesel. In one place in the manual, it says 600# max tongue weight - no mention of a WDH hitch anywhere that we can find - and in another, it says that it can handle 8-15% of the GVWR, which is 7500 (apologies to Larry.) That's a range of 600# to 1125#, which seems like a helluva range for tongue weight.

No.

MargaretB wrote:
Sorry if I"m boring you. I mentioned it here to illustrate what the tow vehicle can handle. I know it's been explained before, but I'm not asking about that here - I'm asking if a good WDH effectively reduces the weight of the hitch. If the vehicle is rated for a 600# hitch and the WDH reduces that from 780# to 548#, is it safe to pull with that vehicle - that's all I want to know.

It does not reduce it. It helps distribute some weight back to the front wheels of the vehicle. A small amount may get transferred back to the trailer wheels, but not all that much.

MargaretB wrote:

sch911 wrote:
Tongue weight is tongue weight. 100% is still on the tow vehicle. With a WDH it just get's distributed toward the front wheels better. Size your tow vehicle for the full amount and a safety margin.

Thanks. The service manager told us that the WDH would reduce the weight to below acceptable levels. That's why I asked here, to confirm or refute.

WOW! That service manager needs to get into a different line of work!

sch911 wrote:
Tongue weight is tongue weight. 100% is still on the tow vehicle. With a WDH it just get's distributed toward the front wheels better. Size your tow vehicle for the full amount and a safety margin.

Thanks. The service manager told us that the WDH would reduce the weight to below acceptable levels. That's why I asked here, to confirm or refute.

MargaretB wrote:
We've been told that a good load distribution hitch will redistribute as much as 30% of the tongue weight.

Redistribute, yes. Reduce, no. And probably not redistributing an entire 30% either.

When you connect a trailer to a vehicle the weight of the tongue forces the back of the vehicle to squat, and the front end to go up, removing weight from the front wheels, and reducing your ability to control the steering. A WD hitch redistributes the weight using the magic of physics to put weight back on the front wheels to regain lost steering control. The weight of the hitch remains the same.

Check your owners manual carefully, if it has a tow capacity that high, most likely it has a spec for using a WD hitch. There are usually 2 weight limits, dead weight and with a WD hitch. The 600# limit sounds like a dead weight limit. What kind of vehicle is this?

Sorry if I"m boring you. I mentioned it here to illustrate what the tow vehicle can handle. I know it's been explained before, but I'm not asking about that here - I'm asking if a good WDH effectively reduces the weight of the hitch. If the vehicle is rated for a 600# hitch and the WDH reduces that from 780# to 548#, is it safe to pull with that vehicle - that's all I want to know.

Tongue weight is tongue weight. 100% is still on the tow vehicle. With a WDH it just get's distributed toward the front wheels better. Size your tow vehicle for the full amount and a safety margin.

MargaretB wrote:
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 were told is true, that would reduce our tongue weight to 546#.

Has anyone heard this before? Is it true? Big decisions hang in the balance!

As always, thanks in advance for your expertise.

NO tongue wt. remains the same and goes against such things as the receiver rating as specified usually in either a WC or WDH configuration, vehicle tongue wt. capacity due to it's structure which could be less than what the receiver itself might be rated for, WDH bar rating, etc. That redistribution you mention helps reduce the overall payload on the vehicle just like not carrying that extra passenger or gear in the TV.

Sorry, you still need the proper vehicle to safely tow whatever you are planning to and that #7500 number you keep fixating on is a "pie in the sky" number as has been exhaustively explained to you numerous times in your many, many previous threads.

Larry