WEIGHT DIST HITCH

Passin Thru wrote:
---Measure the distance between the top of the front wheel and the fender before hooking on. What you should be trying for is to get it to the same height and have front a rear level.---

If you adjust the WDH to return the front end to the same height as before hitching, the front axle will carry little, if any, of the tongue weight. The rear axle will be carrying around 75-80% of the tongue weight, and the rest will have been transferred to the trailer's axles.

If 75-80% of the TW is added to the TV's rear axle, it is highly unlikely that the rear of the TV will be at the same height as it was before hitching.

Chevrolet's current WDH-adjustment specs now imply that it is necessary to restore a load equal to only 50% of that which was removed from the front axle. This would cause the load on the rear axle to end up equal to about 100% of TW,because the rear axle also would be carrying the net load which was removed from the front axle.

In short, the new specs (from Ford also) result in less load on the front axle (causing the front to be higher) and even more load on the rear axle (causing the rear to be even lower). The TV is not going to end up "level".

If you don't like the looks of rear-end "squat", go ahead and add air bags. But, remember, if you add air after adjusting the WDH, the lifting of the rear will decrease the amount of load transfer to the TV's front axle.

Ron