Quote:
Originally Posted by SmokeyWren
Nonsense.
A WD hitch removes weight from the rear axle and distributes that weight to the front and trailer axles.
An ideal weight distribution with a properly-adjusted WD hitch would be 20% to 25% of hitch weight distributed to the trailer axles and another 20% to 25% of hitch weight distributed to the front axle. That leaves 50% to 60% of hitch weight on the rear axle of the tow vehicle.
Play with semantics all you please, but that's weight distribution. That's why the trailer hitch industry calls it a weight-distribution hitch. If you don't call that weight distribution, what do you call it?
Example from my rig when first setting up my hitch:
1] Spring bars not tight, so no weight distribution happening:
F = 3040 (front axle)
R = 3880 (rear axle)
T = 3480 (trailer axles)
C = 10,400 (combined)
2] Spring bars tightened
F = 3280
R = 3520
T =3620
C =10,420
3] Difference
F = 240 heavier
R = 360 lighter
T = 140 heavier
C = 20# scale error due to rounding of weights on the 3 scale pads
Notice that was the first shot at adjusting the WD hitch. Too much weight distributed to the front axle, although the weight distributed to the trailer ales was close to perfect. So the next step is to adjust the angle of the coupler to the ball to distribute less weight to the front axle while leaving the weight distributed to the trailer axles alone.
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Nonsense?
What you describe is the effect of torsion, hence the need for torsion bars for your WD hitch. Without those bars, you have no WD. What more proof is needed?
Sorry, mate, but you cannot escape physics. What laymen call weight is a force resulting from mass in a gravitational field. On earth, this is calculated as: weight = mass x gravity. This is why you "weigh" less on the moon, though your mass is the same. On earth, gravity is a constant, thus weight = mass.
Thus, if you want to "distribute" weight, you must distribute mass, physically. A WD cannot do this. Again, all the mass sits at the hitch point, and is not physically distributed. A WD applies torsion: which can give the appearance of weight being shifted, because your truck has a suspension, and for that reason only.
This leads to a discussion of mechanics, levers, vectors, etc, which is too long for this forum. Example: F = mLa(sine*).
The hitch is called WD as a way to market it to the 99% of people who have no comprehension of physics. Face it; who liked physics at school? Tell me honestly: do you refer to gravity as a force, ie "the force of gravity"? If you do, you are dead wrong.
More honest manufacturers do use the word "tork" in their labels, thus retaining some factual connection to the force of torsion. An honest label for a WD would be "torsion hitch", which is precisely what such hitch does: apply torsion.
I am not attempting to stoke fires, only attempting to describe how people are being duped by marketers. If you are happy with your WD, great. But such WD can lead to many problems, as I have experienced directly.