Help with hitch / tongue weight
Hello All! I'm in the early stages of camper shopping (wanting to upgrade) and I would love some help understanding the tongue weight limits. I have read on 1000 different sites that the max tongue w...
Forum Discussion
If you measure your truck's front ride height empty, then pile a bunch of weight in the back of the bed, hitch up the trailer, and dial in the WD back to empty ride height, THEN the cargo in the bed would be counted as "tongue weight."
This is because you are using the WD bars to compensate for the front end rise caused by both the weight in the extreme rear of the bed AND the tongue weight.
Except, that's not the way you're supposed to do it!!!
You load up the truck FIRST, then measure the front ride height. Hitch up the trailer and dial in the WD bars to bring the truck back to where it was loaded but NOT hitched!
If you do it correctly, the WD bars will not be seeing any more stress if you have nothing in the bed, or if you have 2000lbs of bagged concrete up against the tailgate.
You CAN use the WD bars to distribute some of the weight from the bed, and of course you have to compensate for that with heavier bars. HOWEVER, that is not typical.
This is because you are using the WD bars to compensate for the front end rise caused by both the weight in the extreme rear of the bed AND the tongue weight.
Except, that's not the way you're supposed to do it!!!
You load up the truck FIRST, then measure the front ride height. Hitch up the trailer and dial in the WD bars to bring the truck back to where it was loaded but NOT hitched!
If you do it correctly, the WD bars will not be seeing any more stress if you have nothing in the bed, or if you have 2000lbs of bagged concrete up against the tailgate.
You CAN use the WD bars to distribute some of the weight from the bed, and of course you have to compensate for that with heavier bars. HOWEVER, that is not typical.
