I think I need a weight distributing hitch

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Jeff in Ferndale Wa

Jeff in Ferndale Wa

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Posts
817
Location
Ferndale, Washington
2007 Springdale 26' dry weight about 5000#
2002 Ford F150 Supercab max towing capacity 8200#

First trip about 600 miles round trip. Mostly freeway miles
The trailer felt like it towed fine, except on rough or uneven roads, I could feel it sway some,but never felt uncomfortable.
I kept my speed under 65 most of the time.

However, a friend who followed me for a while tells me that the trailer was constantly swaying.
He actually passed me once, stopped at a rest area, caught up and followed me a little while again before passing.
He said both times,he thought it was swaying more than it should.
I did not see it in the mirrors or feel it.

He is suggesting I get a weight distributing hitch.
I trust his judgement and tend to agree, and now need to figure out which one to get.

Any preferences, and any advice on which to stay away from?

thanks!
 
You need a WD hitch and some kind of sway control.  Have the trailer weighed also to include tongue weight.  You're probably within the weight limits of the truck, but you're starting to get close to them.  It's probably realistically close to 7000 lbs loaded.  That leaves you roughly 1200 lbs of capacity left over.  While within specs, towing just on the ball probably isn't a good idea.
 
You may be near the weight carrying capacity of your truck, but you didn't give its hitch weight rating or the tongue weight off the trailer. The 5000# trailer dry weight suggests the loaded tongue weight may be around 700 lbs, which is probably at or exceeding the hitch load rating.  BUT, that doesn't usually cause swaying. It just risks breaking the hitch or tearing it away from the frame. Adding a WD hitch would fix that, but may not fix the sway issue. The best WD hitches have sway control built into the mechanism, so a Equalizer, Reese Dual Cam, Hensley or ProPride WD hitch would perhaps fix both issues. The last two are VERY expensive.

However, swaying is primarily caused by lack of tongue weight, i.e. an unbalanced trailer.  10-12% of the load weight should be on the hitch ball to prevent trailer sway. It may be you are a bit light. Get it to the scales with it loaded as you normally travel and get weights for each axle of truck and trailer. Get the truck alone too, so you can calculate the tongue weight.
 
I believe it to be a 10,000# hitch,but I don't know the tongue weight.
I towed it with all the water tanks empty,but the fresh water tank is forward of the axle.
Maybe a  full fresh water tank may give me a little more weight forward and stabilize it?

Sounds like it would be a good idea no matter what to get a WD hitch.
 
Jeff in Ferndale Wa said:
Maybe a  full fresh water tank may give me a little more weight forward and stabilize it?

Sounds like it would be a good idea no matter what to get a WD hitch.
Click to expand...

Actually yes  it will.  If you have a 30 gallon fresh tank that's north of the axles, you're adding roughly 240 lbs of weight to the front of the trailer.  If it's light in the front and that is either causing or aggravating the sway condition, it won't hurt anything and could help solve the problem.  I travel with mine full all the time.  I've never had a sway problem, but I figure it couldn't hurt.
 
Good advice here.  I would add the swaying your friend describes, is more indicative of the need for an anti-sway hitch and as already mentioned proper load distribution in the trailer.  The need for a weight distribution would likely be more apparent to you as the driver than your friend following.  The reason is, if there is an excess of weight on the hitch, you will find your steering to be kind of vague, you will feel less control because the front end will be light.  I would recommend both a WD and anti-sway hitch.
 
I believe it to be a 10,000# hitch,but I don't know the tongue weight.
Click to expand...

That's the towing (pulling) capacity of the hitch and refers to the max weight of the thing being towed. It also has a weight-carrying capacity and a weight distribution capacity spec, which is the max downward pressure the hitch can tolerate. It is given as weight carrying (no weight distribution in use) and weight distributed (with a WD hitch). Those numbers are likely to be in the 500-900 lb range for weight-carrying and 1000 or so for weight distributing.

Here are some examples of hitches with a 10,000 lb max capacity for an F150 that show the lesser capacities when used without WD.
http://www.reesehitches.com/hitchsearch?year=2002&make=Ford&model=F-150&style=Styleside#result-anchor
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
That's the towing (pulling) capacity of the hitch and refers to the max weight of the thing being towed. It also has a weight-carrying capacity and a weight distribution capacity spec, which is the max downward pressure the hitch can tolerate. It is given as weight carrying (no weight distribution in use) and weight distributed (with a WD hitch). Those numbers are likely to be in the 500-900 lb range for weight-carrying and 1000 or so for weight distributing.

Here are some examples of hitches with a 10,000 lb max capacity for an F150 that show the lesser capacities when used without WD.
http://www.reesehitches.com/hitchsearch?year=2002&make=Ford&model=F-150&style=Styleside#result-anchor
Click to expand...
I cannot find any identification on the hitch,but the construction is identical to the Rigid hitch shown in the link you provided.
http://www.reesehitches.com/products/Class_IV__2_inch_Receiver_Hitch,RH-020
The info shown indicates that I definitely need a WD.


Thank you all for the great replies!
 
I have been following a couple other threads regarding WD hitches.
I have my choices narrowed down to a couple.

I work out of state for the summer, and will be buying one as soon as I get home Sep 1,maybe even purchase online and have it waiting when I get there.

Do you guys think that a guy with some mechanical skills can easily install one of these himself, or would it be better to have a dealer install it?
 
Jeff,
Go back to that link. It gives you the installation instructions. As long as the frame is predrilled, for me it would be a snap.
 
Installing the hitch was easy. I installed mine in about 2hrs (including removal & reinstall of my bumper) Removing the old hitch was the hardest part due to corroded bolts.

Installing the weight distribution/sway control was easy too. Tape measure, level and a milk crate to sit on.  Took about 45min to get the sway/wd system setup.
 
I pretty much had my mind made up on this hitch:

http://www.adventurerv.net/equalizer-weight-distribution-equalizer-hitch-10000-lbs-p-1377.html?action=calc

Until I found this one for a little less money

http://www.makariosrv.com/e2-fastway-sway-control-hitches-1-000-10-000-trunnion-92-00-1000/

If you had to choose between these two, which would you buy?
 
The E2 and the Equalizer are both products of Progress Manufacturing. I think they brought out the E2 as a lower cost product line, but I've not seen a detailed comparison of the two to see what the differences are. Logic suggests they left some feature(s) out of the E2 to reduce the price and avoid cutting the legs out from under their top end product. The question is what?
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
The E2 and the Equalizer are both products of Progress Manufacturing. I think they brought out the E2 as a lower cost product line, but I've not seen a detailed comparison of the two to see what the differences are. Logic suggests they left some feature(s) out of the E2 to reduce the price and avoid cutting the legs out from under their top end product. The question is what?
Click to expand...

The difference that I could see is that the E2 says it has a 2 point anti sway system and the Equalizer a 4  point. I don't know what that means or if it really makes a difference.
 
Jeff in Ferndale Wa said:
2007 Springdale 26' dry weight about 5000#
2002 Ford F150 Supercab max towing capacity 8200#

First trip about 600 miles round trip. Mostly freeway miles
The trailer felt like it towed fine, except on rough or uneven roads, I could feel it sway some,but never felt uncomfortable.
I kept my speed under 65 most of the time.

However, a friend who followed me for a while tells me that the trailer was constantly swaying.
He actually passed me once, stopped at a rest area, caught up and followed me a little while again before passing.
He said both times,he thought it was swaying more than it should.
I did not see it in the mirrors or feel it.

He is suggesting I get a weight distributing hitch.
I trust his judgement and tend to agree, and now need to figure out which one to get.

Any preferences, and any advice on which to stay away from?

thanks!
Click to expand...
your 10K hitch is perfect just go buy a 1000lb equalizer system.hook her up at correct ride height and you will be 100%
 
I don't know what that means or if it really makes a difference.
Click to expand...

Me neither. It may make little practical difference except when a trailer is overly prone to swaying (and that usually means something else is wrong0. I might be inclined to save the $$ and go with the E2.
 
I would like to back the train up a second. I would like to ask the owner to weight both truck and trailer fully loaded (water, gear, etc.) and see where he's at weight wise. At least then we can tell if its a weight issue or what. Just because he state a dry weight might not be anything near it now. Like even my RV states a dry weight of 6,588 pounds but actually dry weight was 7,200 pounds scale today its more like 8,020 pounds. So guessing at weight is a bad deal all the way around I would start at the scales and build from there.

Better to have facts of trailer and truck weights than assuming... Because we know what happens when we assume Right? "We make a A$$ out of U and ME".
 
Mopar1973Man said:
I would like to back the train up a second. I would like to ask the owner to weight both truck and trailer fully loaded (water, gear, etc.) and see where he's at weight wise. At least then we can tell if its a weight issue or what. Just because he state a dry weight might not be anything near it now. Like even my RV states a dry weight of 6,588 pounds but actually dry weight was 7,200 pounds scale today its more like 8,020 pounds. So guessing at weight is a bad deal all the way around I would start at the scales and build from there.

Better to have facts of trailer and truck weights than assuming... Because we know what happens when we assume Right? "We make a A$$ out of U and ME".
Click to expand...
Like I already said here.He has a 10K hitch installed. A simple purchase and install of a 1K equalizer system,and  set proper ride height he will be just super fine
no guess work involved.
 
Mopar1973Man said:
I would like to back the train up a second. I would like to ask the owner to weight both truck and trailer fully loaded (water, gear, etc.) and see where he's at weight wise. At least then we can tell if its a weight issue or what. Just because he state a dry weight might not be anything near it now. Like even my RV states a dry weight of 6,588 pounds but actually dry weight was 7,200 pounds scale today its more like 8,020 pounds. So guessing at weight is a bad deal all the way around I would start at the scales and build from there.

Better to have facts of trailer and truck weights than assuming... Because we know what happens when we assume Right? "We make a A$$ out of U and ME".
Click to expand...

I've actually already gone through a whole thought process and several discussions, both on this board and offline,and have my choices narrowed down to the two hitches I listed above.
I know that the gross weight of my trailer is below the max capacity of my truck.

I am now just trying to decide which of the two WD 10,000# hitches suits me best.
 
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