cmcdar wrote:
SoundGuy,
Sorry for your frustration. Regardless of the many million times something has been discussed, us new folks were not privy to those discussions.
If you are tired of this discussion, you could just avoid the thread.
I for one am glad that new TT users are asking the right questions as it is not just their safety at stake. Everyone driving down the road is vulnerable to the other drivers around them.
All of these tongue wgts, dry wgts., gross wgts., etc can be very confusing to us new folks and it may take time to get it straight BUT we are trying to do the right thing.
Clearly you missed my point entirely ... no where did I say I was "frustrated" or "tired" nor did I even once mention "newbies". The point is that weight distribution has been around as long as the day is long and it's not just newbies that question the value of WD and are so willing offer up air bags as a solution to rear end vehicle sag when in fact they have no ability at all to restore a vehicle's intended front > back weight balance when towing. Rather, what I actually said is I
wondered "why so many" have such a total lack of understanding of the principles involved ... after all, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that if you lever the far rear end of most any vehicle with 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, etc lbs of gross tongue weight it's going to unload the front steer axle, which in some cases is also a drive axle. Obviously the impact will be a lot different if that vehicle happens to be an F350 but let's face it, most here on these forums aren't towing travel trailers with that kind of vehicle but more often (if we're lucky) with a 1/2 ton, and sometimes less. :E There's no magic to any of this - dropping that much weight on a hitch ball
will negatively impact the vehicle's weight distribution ratio and not surprisingly it's handling ... weight distribution is a time tested method of restoring the vehicle's front > back weight ratio, air bags simply can't.
