Weight Distribution Hitch Overview

[Guppy8290]

Hey guys/gals,

Just jumped into the RV game after a lot of looking and renting over the last few years. I have lurked around here for awhile and found the threads helpful. I thought I'd provide another example of a weight distribution setup, as I found this really helpful in other threads for when I was getting mine all setup today.


Setup Overview:
- Truck: 2016 Yukon XL Denali, GVW rating of 7500lbs, Font Axle rated at 3600lbs and rear rated at 4200lbs. Max tow rating of 8200 lbs and payload of 1474lbs.
- Trailer: 2018 Coleman Lantern 300TQ. Claimed Dry weight of 6838lbs and a tongue weight of 1031lbs. Max GVW rating of 9680.
- Hitch: Curt TruTrack Trunnion

Now, before any keyboard warrior jump on to say the Denali can't handle the weights, this is actually the very reason I went through as much time and detail as I did on this. The truck is certainly at it's rating limits but the trailer is the minimum size we needed for our family situation and this post is more about the effects of a proper WD setup than a truck and trailer debate

Everything below was done on a CAT scale

Truck Weights, no Trailer:
- Front Axle: 3160 lbs
- Rear Axle: 3160 lbs (I was really surprised at the 50-50 weight split being EXACT!)
- Total Weight: 6320lbs

Truck Weights, Trailer on but no WD setup:
- Front Axle: 2660lbs
- Rear Axle: 4680lbs
- Trailer Axles: 6540lbs
- Total weight: 13880lbs

Truck Weights, Trailer on w/ initial WD setup:
- Front Axle: 2840lbs
- Rear Axle: 4400lbs
- Trailer Axles: 6620lbs
- Total Weight: 13860lbs

Truck Weights, Trailer on w/ Final WD setup (tighter):
- Front Axle: 3020lbs
- Rear Axle: 4120lbs
- Trailer Axles: 6680lbs
- Total Weight: 13820lbs (not sure why it dropped 40-60 pounds)

So, a handful of takeaways that really show how a WD hitch works:
- Based on the math above, the trailer weighed in at 7560lbs (13880 minus the 6320) which makes sense given that it was loaded up with propane, batteries, gear, living supplies, etc. which added about 700 pounds over the dry weight claimed by Coleman.
- Tongue weight of the trailer is 1020lbs (7560 minus the 6540) which puts me at 13% tongue weight. Right where it needs to be.
- When the trailer was on the hitch without any WD hitch at all, you can see that I lost 500 pounds of front axle weight, which is terrible, and had well and truly overloaded the rear axle. Truck would have handled terribly and clearly was not well setup.
- With my initial WD setup (I was doing the guess and check approach), I was able to transfer nearly 200 pounds back to the front axle and about 100 pounds back to the trailer axles. But, I was still over my max rear axle rating and had not distributed enough of the weight to where I would have been comfortable with the setup.
- With the final WD setup, I was able to transfer about 360 pounds back to the front axle as compared to no WD hitch. This got me back to rather close to an unloaded front axle weight and I felt much more comfortable that the hitch was setup properly. Also, from the original setup without a WD hitch, I was able to displace a whopping 560 pounds off of the rear axle and distribute it to other axles! Pretty impressive and it got me back under the max axle rating on the rear. Much better!

Anyway, hopefully this helps others in their setup and/or understanding of how a WD hitch works.

If anyone is wondering, the 6.2 in the Denali does really well with this level of weight and I'm rather impressed with how the truck does as a whole with this trailer. You definitely know it's back there and cross winds will make sure you pay attention to driving, but with the setup the way it is (and proper sway control with this hitch) I am quite confident in the truck.

[scrapperjohn]

Dry weight on trailers is useless information.
I look at GVWR of trailer.
By the time you load up gear, tank of water most people are getting close to trailer GVWR...
Have you weighed fully loaded, ready to camp. Full fresh water tank ?

[jrollf]

Was the truck loaded up with all your passengers and gear too? That + tongue + hitch weight has to be within the payload rating.

If truck weight on the scale did not include full fuel tanks, passengers, and gear, you are likely over your limit.

Agree you can really see how the weight distribution hitch works.

[hohenwald48]

You've done good job of documenting and weighing. Personally, I'd continue to adjust until I got the truck front axle nearer to the original unloaded weight. Provided you could do that without overloading either the trailer axles or the rear axle of the truck. I think you'll find it handles a lot better if you can get that front axle loaded up a little more. I didn't notice any ratings for the trailer axles in your post so I don't know how close you might be on that issue.

Also, make sure all the tires on the truck and trailer have sufficient rating to handle the newly distributed loads.

All looks pretty good to me.

[tpaul]

Your setup is not far off from what I have although I have an Equalizer hitch. I think you are pretty close to the right amount of weight returned to the front axle. Dialing in more correction could lighten the tongue weight so you would want to confirm that you aren't too much less than the 13% you have now. I was able to return the front weight to 3120 but it dropped my tongue weight to 10% so I still have a little fine tuning to do. Probably will take out a washer rather than lower the L brackets. Don't want to put too much stress on them.

See -- https://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f...tch-37063.html

Also, with a short wheel base TV I generally keep my speeds under 65. Even with the antisway I still feel some pull from the semis if I try to go much faster. But I was amazed how well things went last summer in Wyoming with 35-40 mile per hour winds and gusts.

[hohenwald48]

It's a common misconception that adjusting the spring bars on a hitch will vary the tongue weight. Only moving the load forward or backwards in the trailer will change tongue weight. Adjusting the bars simply changes the axles that are used to carry the tongue weight. That's why they are called weight distribution hitches.

[Warrenjo]

I see that you have been careful to consider the weight rating of each of your axles but I do not see any mention of the Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR) of your pickup. This is a weight rating of the total weight that the engine, brakes and transmission of the pickup is designed to handle. It is possible to exceed the GCWR even if all of the axles are within their respective ratings.

[tpaul]

Originally Posted by hohenwald48

It's a common misconception that adjusting the spring bars on a hitch will vary the tongue weight. Only moving the load forward or backwards in the trailer will change tongue weight. Adjusting the bars simply changes the axles that are used to carry the tongue weight. That's why they are called weight distribution hitches.

You're correct. I should have said the net effective weight on the hitch rather than tongue weight. But the concern still is about transferring too much of the weight. The setup instructions on my Equalizer say to measure the rise at the front end and to reduce that by at least half when compared to the measure using the weight distribution. In other words, the front axle does not have to be returned to 100% of its pre weight distribution position.