I just set up my Airstream 28' with a 2016 F250 diesel equipped with Ride Rite airbags and an adjustable height hitch. As set up, my setup at about 20 lbs in the airbags gives me a level truck and level camper.
The rig seems to drive just fine -- a little smoother than the F250 dually I used to tow the trailer with, and it doesn't seem to wander at all at any speed. The electronic sway control built into the F250 has not activated once in about 500 miles of towing. I have not yet driven in heavy wind.
I weighed the rig yesterday at a certified scale. None of my axle weights (steering, drive, and trailer axles) came anywhere near the weight limits for the axles, and I am many thousands of pounds under the towing weight limit, and way under the GVWR for both the camper and the tow vehicle.
My tongue weight, however, is 960 (the stated limit for tongue weight on the F250 is 800 lbs with the "standard" hitch supplied with the truck). This happens to be exactly 15% of my total trailer weight -- just at the upper limit percentage of TT weight recommended by Ford and, it seems, everyone else.
My question: Do I need a WD hitch? According to the Ford towing guide, this would raise my tongue weight limit to 1400 lbs (if the WD hitch weighs 80 lbs, the actual tongue weight will be 1040 lbs). But it seems potentially wrong to me to mess with the distribution of the weight (and add the weight of the hitch) when the vehicle seems to drive well and I'm nowhere near the weight limits for any axle or the GVWRs.
