Most Adjustable Weight Distribution Hitch

[Toolbox91]

I need help selecting a weight distribution hitch for a 7'X16' enclosed cargo trailer. Tow vehicle is a 2015 F-250 Crew Cab Long Bed.

The issue I am having is obviously I have too much tongue weight which causes the truck to squat and yadda yadda you know the rest. So I concluded I needed a weight distribution hitch after some internet research. The problem I have is this. When we leave for a trip the truck bed and trailer is completely empty. We pick stuff up along our route which increases our weight. By the time we return the truck bed is packed and so is the trailer. I need recommendations on a weight distribution hitch that is easily adjustable so that I can adjust it along our route as we increase our load. I am having issues finding out exactly how easily adjustable most of these units are. It seems that one of them require quite a bit of effort to adjust.

BTW Thanks you so much in advance for the help. I realize this isn't an Airstream trailer but I am having trouble finding my answer just doing google searches.

[Mrjkq]

To my knowledge their is no WD hitch adjustable on the "fly". Here's a thought. Have air bags installed on your truck to compensate for the bed weight & have a WD hitch installed when the trailer is weighted down with your stuff. I don't think it's the perfect solution but a workable one.

[kscherzi]

The Anderson weight distribution hitch is fairly simple and easy to adjust on the fly. It's also designed to help manage sway. The hitch is geared for folks with horse trailers, thus the easy to adjust feature. In my experience its capacity to redistribute weight is light to moderate, but it still may meet your requirements.

[OTRA15]

Do you have a good RV or trailer shop nearby? They might be able to help.

My Reese hitch has chains on each side as a rough tool for adjusting weight distribution according to load. Not sure if it would cover your situation. You can also buy separate Reese trunnion bars with different weight ratings to flex according to need. Perhaps swapping out the bars during your trip might help accommodate your range of loads, plus different chain link settings?

http://www.reesehitches.com/categori...Hitch_Kits,109

Learning center:

http://www.reesehitches.com/news.php....SbLFE5SP.dpbs

[SteveSueMac]

Originally Posted by Toolbox91

I need help selecting a weight distribution hitch for a 7'X16' enclosed cargo trailer. Tow vehicle is a 2015 F-250 Crew Cab Long Bed.

The issue I am having is obviously I have too much tongue weight which causes the truck to squat and yadda yadda you know the rest. So I concluded I needed a weight distribution hitch after some internet research. The problem I have is this. When we leave for a trip the truck bed and trailer is completely empty. We pick stuff up along our route which increases our weight. By the time we return the truck bed is packed and so is the trailer. I need recommendations on a weight distribution hitch that is easily adjustable so that I can adjust it along our route as we increase our load. I am having issues finding out exactly how easily adjustable most of these units are. It seems that one of them require quite a bit of effort to adjust.

BTW Thanks you so much in advance for the help. I realize this isn't an Airstream trailer but I am having trouble finding my answer just doing google searches.

A Hensley Arrow or ProPride hitch will have adjustable WD from the WD jack mechanism. Need more? Tighten the jacks. Need less? Loosen the jacks. Dial in literally as little or as much as you need. Very simple. Power drill operation. Not inexpensive.

Most hitches offer some sort of fluid WD through more or less chain links or something like that.

Good luck.

[ROBERT CROSS]

FYI.....a WD hitch will do nothing for "too much tongue weight".

Bob

[SCOTTinNJ]

I have an Equalizer hitch and giving this some thought, I don't see why you couldn't start your trip without the WD bars installed and then add them when you increase your load to a point you need them. Of course without the bars you won't have sway protection, but you don't have that now either.

[dkottum]

The best method with a bumper pull trailer is to load the trailer evenly as you go along, with 10% to 15% of trailer weight on the tongue.

[gecko]

We also have an Equaluzr 4 pt. there are two ways to adjust, one if which is simple and the other less so. I would set it up for your max weight, then simply lower the L brackets either side of the tongue to use less. This is accomplished by loosening a single bolt in each side and then reinserting. As you Luda more and more into each vehicle, you would move the L brackets up, effectively going both more WD and more antisway as your traiker gets heavier.

As Bob said, very important that you load your traiker properly--that is, with about 10-15% of total traiker weight as tongue weight. This might involve a repack at each stop, or every other stop.

The Reese hitched with their chain links also adjust like the Equalizr. Fir both WD methods, with the trailer attached to the ball, you use the trailer's Jack to raise both the traiker tongue and the attached rear end of the TV just enough to disengage the bars, reset either the chain length or the height of the L bracket,then return the jack to normal retracted position. The Reese hitch would need a separate antisway "brake" and you would increase the tension on the in a separate adjustment as your traiker weight increased. The Equalizr dies both with one adjustment which us a bit faster and easier, but with the separate anti sway device that should accompany the Reese, you would be able to control the WD and antisway separately from each other.

Both the Reeese and the Equalizr weigh and cost considerably less than the Hensley/ProPride devices.

I would think the Equaluzr would do the job and be a bit quicker to adjust of you have to do it several time on one trip.

[Bill M.]

I think any of the hitches that use the chains on the ends of the bars would be suitable for your use. Adjust the transfer simply by how many chain links are hooked in. Try to get about half the weight that is taken off the front axle when hitched restored with the WD. A easy way to get an idea is to measure the height of the front fenders from the ground and set the WD to get the fender height about half back to what it was before hitching. There will not be a lot of movement on a 250. Our Dodge moves about 1 inch with 900 lbs hitch weight. Or go to the truck scales and weigh the front hitched and not hitched.

[dames7]

We have the Anderson and over 9000 miles with no problem, you can adjust it on the fly if needed and very easy off & on.

[Toolbox91]

Thanks for the suggestions! I really appreciate it. Without actually seeing one in person it can be a little confusing how these things work. I have been looking at the Anderson WD hitch in a little more detail and I am impressed with the setup. It seems to have more ground clearance and seems much more versatile in the tongue weights it works with. I am sure most of these would work for my setup and could be adjusted fairly quickly once I got the hang of it, at least from what I am hearing. I am still doing some research but I think I am going to give the anderson a try.

[Ron Gratz]

Originally Posted by Toolbox91

The issue I am having is obviously I have too much tongue weight which causes the truck to squat and yadda yadda you know the rest. So I concluded I needed a weight distribution hitch after some internet research. The problem I have is this. When we leave for a trip the truck bed and trailer is completely empty. We pick stuff up along our route which increases our weight. By the time we return the truck bed is packed and so is the trailer. I need recommendations on a weight distribution hitch that is easily adjustable so that I can adjust it along our route as we increase our load.

Thanks for the suggestions! I really appreciate it. Without actually seeing one in person it can be a little confusing how these things work. I have been looking at the Anderson WD hitch in a little more detail and I am impressed with the setup. It seems to have more ground clearance and seems much more versatile in the tongue weights it works with. I am sure most of these would work for my setup and could be adjusted fairly quickly once I got the hang of it, at least from what I am hearing. I am still doing some research but I think I am going to give the anderson a try.

If the problem you're trying to solve is too much squat due to bed load and tongue weight -- you need to be aware of two important considerations:

1) A weight distributing hitch should NOT be used to reduce squat due to bed load. Yes, if the WDH has sufficient load transfer capability, it can remove a significant amount of load from the TV's rear axle. However, in the process, the WDH also will cause a significant amount of load to be added to the TV's front axle. This is contrary to Ford's specifications for using a WDH.

2) If you are seeing unacceptable squat on your F-250 Crew Cab Long Bed, it is not likely the Andersen WDH could generate enough load transfer to give an appreciable squat reduction. Don't be fooled by the Andersen's 1400# tongue weight rating. As kscherzi stated in Post #3, "In my experience its capacity to redistribute weight is light to moderate,---".

A WDH should NOT be used to compensate for squat due to bed load. That's what air bags are for. You can adjust the bag pressure as your bed load increases.

As dkottum stated, "The best method with a bumper pull trailer is to load the trailer evenly as you go along, with 10% to 15% of trailer weight on the tongue." That's important for sway avoidance.

If you want to control rear-end squat, my recommendation is to use a WDH in conjunction with adjustable air bags. You can use the WDH to satisfy Ford's specification for approximately 50% front axle load restoration, and can use the air bags to compensate for the added squat due to bed load.
With some experimentation, most or all of the adjustment needed as the bed and trailer loads increase probably could be accomplish via air bag pressure adjustment.

How much weight do you typically end up with in the truck bed and how much does your trailer typically weigh at the end of a trip?

Ron

[BillfromWI]

My FC25FB with solar has a loaded tongue weight of 1250 lbs. I towed it with an Andersen and thought it was good but the Andersen would not transfer enough/any weight to get the drive axle within specs (GAWRs: Steer 3,900, Drive 4,050 GVWR 7,700 GCWR 15,400) I am about 2,000 under the GCWR. With the Andersen the Steer axle was actually 480 lbs lighter hitched than unhitched and the drive axle was as much as 900 lbs over it GAWR.

I screwed around with this for awhile and eventually someone at Andersen told me their hitch would "...not transfer more than 500 lbs." The Andersen is wonderful to hitch and the sway control is great but if you want to load the front end I don't think it's for you.

I installed a Blue Ox with 1500 lb. bars. Whoever observed that WD hitches with chains are "adjustable" in the way you want is correct. When "adjusted" to provide maximum transfer (the fewest links possible between the bars and chain attachment point) they can be more than difficult to leaver up. The standard method for dealing with this is to jack the tongue up as far as it will go to get the end of the bars closer in height to the A frame. That certainly helps but I have a 3000 lb. jack on my AS and I'm pretty sure that it was over loaded with the 1250 trailer and who knows how much truck. I got around this by jacking the spring bars with a bottle jack. I really don't recommend that but I thought it was better than burning up the trailer jack, which really didn't get it up as far as I needed anyway. I also employed a 40" breaker bar which could be a little tricky to maneuver around the propane tanks, etc. With the bottle jack I can get the chains tensioned with a 30" bar.

Maybe more than you wanted to know, maybe more than I wanted to know too. I've decided to sell my 18,000 mile 2013 F150 and get a diesel. I still have the F150 if anyone is interested.

I will try the Andersen again with the new truck.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by dkottum

The best method with a bumper pull trailer is to load the trailer evenly as you go along, with 10% to 15% of trailer weight on the tongue.

^
X2
Bingo!

Bob

[Toolbox91]

The trailer is a tandem 7x16 cargo trailer. The trailer is driven empty for several hundred miles and then slowly loaded between many stops. End weight varies with each trip however my guess is we usually reach roughly 6-7000lbs trailer weight plus anywhere from 500-1500 in the bed. Those numbers are rough and the 1500 in the bed is probably a little high even on the worst scenario. I do my best to distribute the weight to keep the tongue between 10-15%. I also usually try to keep the heavier of the cargo in the bed of the truck and towards the front of the bed as much as possible. The truck handles the load perfectly, and I don't have much sway issues at all except a little when a Semi passes. Everything I have towed in the past didn't come anywhere near to the capacity of requiring a WD hitch.

Perhaps I am wrong in saying this but I feel like the truck handles good enough even with the truck bed and trailer fully loaded. However we are doing 400-1000 mile trips at least 1-2 times a month with this setup and I feel that if I can get some weight off of the rear axle and onto the front axle it would help.

Ron Gratz. I believe I understand what you are saying. The WD hitch is only designed to compensate for the tongue weight of the trailer on the rear axle. Air bags are needed for the weight in the bed. That makes sense and I will consider it. Would it be safe to assume that it would be okay to try the setup with the Anderson hitch and then add the airbags later after it is determined that they are needed?

Like I said, I try to keep everything as even as possible in the trailer so I can obtain the 10-15% tongue weight, however every trip is different so sometimes I can get to what I feel is pretty close, other times I know I'm a bit over. I am just looking for a little extra added beef.

[white laker]

Kenworth or Peterbuilt tv will solve all your concerns. Too many variables to get an educated answer, however that has never hampered a responce!
Pete

[ijustlee]

It seems to me that you should think through all of what is going on with your TV and trailer set up as to exactly what is happening to loading your axles and tires. It seems like you might be transferring bed weight to the trailer tires while trying to get more weight to the steering tires. I'd just make sure nothing gets overloaded or over stressed. Air bags might be a good idea and you should get some benefit from a WD hitch; a combo of both might work best. For the way you tow I'd look for a hitch with a lot of bearing area for the load bars to pivot on and keep it greased. Screw adjustment of the trailer ends of the load bars sure would be nice also but I've only seen that on the Hensley type hitches. One link on my Reese bars is a lot more tension. Hope you can find a good set up. Leland

[m.hony]

Any of the weight distribution hitches with the chain links on the weight spring bars that hook onto a saddle on the a-frame are easily adjustable.
Need more weight transferred to front wheels? Tighten/shorten/more chain links-
Need less weight transferred to the front wheels? Loosen/lengthen/less chain links-
Experiment one link at a time-

[ROBERT CROSS]

Aw shucks.....I shud'a used air bagz.

Bob