Itasca 10,000# hitch with only 500# tongue weight

[sashav]

I have a question. Does anyone know why the 10,000#
hitches carry only a 500# vertical hitch weight? Every other hitch I
have had has a 10% ratio ie: if it is a 7,000 # tow capacity there is
a 700 # tongue weight. I would think that with the 10,000# hitch there
would be 1,000# tongue weight. Thanks Sasha

[cbeierl]

sashav wrote:
I have a question. Does anyone know why the 10,000#
hitches carry only a 500# vertical hitch weight? Every other hitch I
have had has a 10% ratio ie: if it is a 7,000 # tow capacity there is
a 700 # tongue weight. I would think that with the 10,000# hitch there
would be 1,000# tongue weight. Thanks Sasha

The vertical hitch weight is limited by the GVWR (and GAWR-rear) of the coach. As far as I know all of the Winnebago/Itasca DPs with 10,000# hitches are limited to 500# tongue weight. The longer tag-axle DPs have more capacity and seem to have 15,000#, 1,500# tongue weight hitches.

[Bill_Satellite]

Tongue weight and a 4-wheel down toad are not related in any way. A toad has zero tongue weight. What do you have, what are you wanting to do and how do you plan to do it?

[Beverley_Ken]

Our Winnebago c-class has a 5000lb hitch with a 350lb tongue rating.

Beverley and Ken

[sch911]

Common for MH hitches. They're intended for toads only...

[1492]

Moved from Forum Technical Support

[ChooChooMan74]

Could be that it can handle a 10k toad because a tow bar has no tongue weight.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Can't find any Itasca hitch brand- is that the brand name of the RV the hitch is on?

If so, 500 pounds might be the vertical hitch weight limit of the rig itself, possibly stamped on the hitch at the request of the RV manufacturer. This seems likely to me since looking at the Itasca page just now, I don't see anything with over 5,000 pounds of tow capacity. Link.

Do bear in mind that he "10,000 lb. tow limit" you see on the hitch is irrelevant if the rigmaker says the limit is lower. You could probably bolt that puppy to a VW Beetle, but that wouldn't mean it could pull 10,000 pounds!