Non-truck question - covering the bottom of a camper trailer

[grumpin]

Good job! Anxious to hear your thoughts on the WD hitch. It’s great that you will have towed the same setup both ways.

[Nothing Special]

OK, so I've towed the same trailer with the same truck with and without a weight distributing hitch.  Unfortunately I'm still not sure what I think.

Well, that's not completely true.  Overall I think the truck handles the weight better with the weight distributing hitch.  And having the headlights pointing more-or-less at the road would be a plus after dark.  But it wasn't as much of a life-changing experience as people talk about it being.

Backing up a bit...  This is a 35' long trailer (coupler to spare tire) and has a max weight rating of 7600 lbs.  I don't know what the empty weight is (we had nothing packed in it and all tanks empty) or what the tongue weight was.  But I'd guess north of 5000 lbs but less than 6000 for the overall trailer weight, and probably a little under 1000 lbs tongue weight, but the latter especially is a pretty wild guess.  And my truck is a '97 F-250HD CCSB 4WD, 460, E4OD and 4.10 gears.

Without the weight distributing hitch, dropping the trailer on the ball squatted the rear of my truck about 2" and raised the front about 1/4" (both measured at the fender).  With the weight distributing hitch the rear was only squatted about 3/4", and the front was actually 1/16" below normal ride height.  So the weight distribution is very significant.

This truck actually handles this trailer pretty well on just a dead weight hitch.  You never forget the trailer is back there because EVERYTHING feels different.  And while it's not so confidence-inspiring that I'm tempted to drive it very fast, it doesn't feel like I'm pushing any kind of safety limits at 50 mph on the two-lane county roads around my folks cabin (where I'd drive 55 - 60 mph in the empty truck).  But I do slow down to 45 or even 40 on some of the curves (where I'd go 50 - 55 empty).  And on the freeway it felt fine at 60 - 65 mph.  I could've gone faster, but I find when driving something that's this hard to change lanes with (especially since I don't drive a 55' long truck/trailer every day), that it's a lot more comfortable to be about the slowest person on the road, as long as I'm not way below the norm.  So overall not bad.  (and for what it's worth, the truck was almost completely empty on this trip, with me, my wife and two dogs in the cab and well under 100 lbs in the bed)

With the weight distributing hitch the truck felt a lot more normal.  I wouldn't say that it wallowed without it, but there is a "crispness" (to put it charitably) in the ride of an F-250HD that really isn't there with the dead weight hitch.  It's mostly back with the weight distributing hitch.  Driving about 5 miles through the suburbs to get to the freeway it felt almost good enough on the straight sections to sucker you into hitting the corners too fast (something that's NOT a problem with a dead weight hitch!).  The freeway was fine, but again, it was fine with the dead weight as well.  Back on the 2 lane county roads the weight distributing hitch again felt more stable most of the time.  But hit a good bump and the whole thing would wallow a bit.  (and again for full disclosure, the truck was loaded a little more heavily on this trip, but still not heavy, with 4 adults in the cab and maybe 300 lbs in the bed)

So overall I think the truck handles the weight better with the weight distributing hitch.  But the benefit is bigger when it's less necessary, which can sucker you into over-driving it.  In a lot of ways it's analogous to using 4WD or not on a snowy freeway.  My truck is a lot more stable in 4WD, so I think it's foolish not to use that tool when it's available.  But I also get why a lot of people say I'm foolish for using it, when it can make me drive too fast and not be able to stop if I need to.  The best answer of course is use 4WD in those conditions, but don't drive any faster than you would in 2WD.  It's the same thing with the weight distributing hitch.  It adds stability, so I'd be foolish not to use it now that I have it.  But I'd be more foolish if, having it, I thought that it made a 5500 lb trailer tow like a 2000 lb trailer.

So there you have it.  I've got it, I'll use it, and I recommend it.  But it's not a magic bullet, and I'm not saying it's absolutely necessary.


And I'll point out again, this is my truck with this trailer.  A lighter weight truck or a heavier trailer or heavier load in the truck would likely make the improvement even more significant.

[grumpin]

Good report! Thanks!

I like the analogy with 4WD. I use it and tell myself to slow down and to not get over confident.

That’s interesting, if I get a smaller trailer, probably won’t consider one.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Interesting review.

I imagine with the weight distributed more evenly all the shocks are working to damp out wallow and having weight on the front wheels makes the steering feel more 'planted'

I doubt I'll ever own a big travel trailer, but it's great to get others perspective.  

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks, Bob.  Good report.

Have you tried air bags in a similar situation?  I know the physics is completely different, with the weight-distributing hitch actually distributing the weight to the front wheels of the tow vehicle and the rear wheels of the trailer, and the air bags doing none of that.  But my question is, how does it make the rig feel and handle?

I ask because before I tow the boat again with Blue I want to put air bags on it.  The rear goes lower than I'd like, but the truck isn't overloaded.  However, I don't want to bother with the weight distributing hitch and want something that can handle any trailer I tow.

[Nothing Special]

Most of my life I've had an F-250HD or an F-350.  But from '98 - '08 I drove an F-150 SCSB.  I bought an F-150 because after 13 years of having my first truck (the '85 F-250HD) I had decided that I really didn't need a 3/4 ton truck.  Then about a year later I bought a slide-in camper.

So I put air bags on the F-150 (and haven't had a 1/2 ton truck since).

Mostly when I overloaded the F-150 it was in the bed: the slide-in camper, a pallet of bags of cement, way too much pressure treated lumber, that sort of thing.  So the air bags were really the only tool for the job and they did it almost as well as a 3/4 ton truck would've.

But I also towed my parents first travel trailer with it.  That was only a 24' trailer, probably a little under 4000 lbs, so not the same thing.  But a lighter truck as well.  Without having the experience of a weight distributing hitch I thought the air bags were a good solution there.  So if you put air bags on Blue and never try a weight distributing hitch I think you'll think the same thing.

For a BIG trailer, I think the weight distributing hitch is the better solution, but that's more theoretical than empirical, because I've never done a direct comparison.  My thought is that air bags will help the feel and the squat a lot, and will help with the stability a little, while a weight distributing hitch will help with feel and squat as well, but will help with stability more.


"Balancing" that out, as I noted earlier, at least with my setup its a PAIN to hook up the weight distributing hitch while inflating air bags is a "breeze" (puns not intended, but at least I caught them).


And another thing, the paperwork that came with the weight distributing hitch points out that a weight distributing hitch may not work well with surge brakes, and says that you should never use sway control with surge brakes.  That makes sense because sway control directly puts a compressive load on the tongue which is in parallel with the surge brakes and will tend to either apply them or prevent them from being applied.  And a weight distributing hitch will put a large bending load on the tongue which may cause the surge brake actuator to bind up.  That wasn't an issue on this travel trailer which has electric brakes.  But if your boat trailer has surge brakes that's another vote for air bags.

[Gary Lewis]

Thanks for the input.  Several thoughts.

First, I'd already caught your statement about how much fun it was to hook up with the weight-distributing hitch.  And I don't want that pain.  For instance, Janey and I've been dreaming about going back to Lake Powell and taking the family, renting a houseboat, etc.  But, we've worked through the logistics and it will probably take disconnecting the boat trailer at some point to use the truck, and I don't want to have to hassle with the WDH.

Having said that, I have electric brakes on both axles on the boat trailer as well as the car hauler, so the WDH wouldn't cause a problem there.  And my sway control is built into Blue, so I doubt that's a problem either.

And, Blue felt quite stable pulling Big Blue on the car hauler coming back from Florida, or the boat to/from Powell and the Canyon.  So I'm not at all feeling the need for more stability.  Just a bit of leveling.  And the air bags allow for easy and infinite adjustability, so will work with whatever trailer is pulled.

SOLD!

[Nothing Special]

I think that's the right choice for you, so I'm certainly not trying to change your mind here.  But a little more info to make this more complete...

The weight distributing hitch I have does transfer between trailers easily.  Most of the hardware is attached to the drawbar that goes in the truck's receiver.  There are a couple of brackets that clamp on the trailer tongue, but that's a few seconds to take off or install.

The weight distributing hitch is also very adjustable.  But it is a lot harder to adjust than air bags.  Still, you can use one for several different trailers and set it up for each one if you choose to do that.

And while I found it to be impossible to hook up this hitch without loading up the bars with a Hi-Lift jack, others seem to be able to do it using the tongue jack.  If that worked it would make it a lot less of a pain.  But for me it didn't work.  Wasn't even close.

[Gary Lewis]

I'd assumed you had to mount the brackets quasi-permanently on the trailer, so it is good to know they can be transferred.  However, my trailers are very different in front.  The boat trailer has aluminum channel to within ~4' of the coupler, and then a single galvanized rectangular tubing from there to the coupler.  The car hauler has steel channel on each side that comes together right up close to the coupler.

Something in the back of my mind says that when I looked at WDH's that the connection to the boat trailer was going to be different.  Was going to require a different setup than to the car hauler.

Am I misremembering?  Not that it is going to change the direction I want to go, but I just want that clear in my mind.

[Nothing Special]

On the hitch I bought, the brackets that attach to the trailer assume that you have an "A" frame tongue, with a right and left frame rail both angling up to the coupler.  In the instructions it says that there is an adapter available for trailers that have a single tube running straight to the coupler.  I have no idea what that adapter looks like, but it is available.

[Gary Lewis]

Makes sense.  I'm sure they've seen all kinds of trailers.

[FuzzFace2]

I have pulled trailers of all types & sizes, some with and other with out WDH and different trucks.
I have never used air bags or air shocks for that matter to level off the power unit.

The thing I don't like about the bags is you are putting all the weight on the rear axle & tires vary little is moved to the front as the trucks & trailer frames are not 1 like with the WDH.
If you were to scale all axles you would see this, the front & rear axle weight would stay close if not the same with air bags because all you did was push the rear of the truck up on the rear axle.

As for WDH set up, once you have it set for that car / truck & trailer combo it stays the same, never changes. So the next time you go to hook up count the links and set the bars and done.
If you have more that 1 trailer that you tow with that car / truck just get another set of trailer brackets and again once set up with that combo the links on the bars stay the same but could be different than trailer #1.

With my car trailer and the 86 K5 diesel Blazer I did not need a WDH and it towed great.
A 8 person pop up hard side camper w/elect. brakes no WDH.
When I towed my 21' TT but did use the WDH, trailer was set up for it, but did not do a lot of towing of it.

Now the only thing I have towed with my 02 Durango is my car trailer and from the second I put the trailer on the ball I knew I needed the WDH as the hitch would drag pulling out of the drive and that was with out a car on the bed. It never crossed my mind to go with air bags with this truck as I have always used WDH and had different bars for the different trailer weights I might pull.

I also feel the WDH will slow sway as you have 3 points of contact with the trailer, ball and the 2 bars.
You can also add 1 or 2 sway control bars if you need them. Only the TT's did we use 1 sway control with as they have big flat sides that wind hits to cause sway.
My car trailer being a open deck the wind does not push it around as much so I don't run sway control on it with the WDH.

Oh I also pulled a 2 car open deck trailer, converted large boat trailer, with a 76 E350 (460/C6) and did not use WHD or sway control so a lot also has to do with what you are using to pull with and what is being pulled.
Dave ----

[Nothing Special]

I don't disagree with any of that.

For what it's worth, my weight distributing hitch did come with one sway control.  I didn't have time to get it installed (it required drilling a few holes in the trailer tongue) and hadn't had any trouble with sway using just the dead-weight hitch, so I didn't worry about it.  I doubt I ever will install it on this trailer unless for some reason we decide to take the trailer on a long trip.  But for to and from the dealer 10 miles from the cabin, or to and from my house 80 miles away I'll just use the weight distributing hitch.

I will say that I've never had any trouble with sway towing a travel trailer.  That probably has more to do with how little I've towed a travel trailer than anything else, but the biggest contributor to sway is insufficient tongue weight.  I've run into that once towing a tractor behind my F-150 and once towing my CJ5 behind an Explorer.  But in my limited experience having plenty of tongue weight is the best way to prevent sway.  And air bags are a way (but probably not the best way) to help a truck deal with "plenty of tongue weight."

I still think that in a case like Gary's, where the truck has safely towed the trailer with a dead-weight hitch and no air bags, adding air bags will help and will be good enough.  But if the truck really was outmatched by the trailer it would be different.

[Nothing Special]

And a little related...

I filled the truck up today.  One tank was 10 miles of suburban driving (mixed freeway and city streets), 20 miles empty on country 2-lanes (45 - 55 mph) and 80 miles pulling that beast up to the cabin.  The other tank was 30 miles of suburban driving and 80 miles coming back from the cabin empty.  So only one tank each, and a little other driving to screw up the results a bit.

But I got 11.3 mpg empty (one of the best tanks I've ever had, so probably artificially high) and 8.0 mpg towing.  About what I'd expect.

[Gary Lewis]

That's not bad for towing something that long and heavy.  

[grumpin]

I like 460’s, 460’s like gas!

Off topic, I was driving the truck the other day and it just seemed nice. Road noise was down, it even seemed smoother. Then it dawned on me that it probably felt smoother because the road noise was down. The road noise was down because I didn’t have my hearing aids in!

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'd always find myself going way too fast on my motorcycle when I had my earplugs in.

Now I know that I can look forward to that!  

[Gary Lewis]

I'm not there yet on hearing aids, but will have to at some point in the not too-distant future, I'm sure.

As for not hearing what is going on, I'm amazed at folks who can ski or roller blade with ear phones in.  I lose my sense of balance to some degree when I can't hear what is going on.  So I, too, find myself going faster if I try to drive with headphones in - and it isn't legal.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Here () hearing protection is fine, but you can't have active sound (like ear buds) in both ears while driving.

[Gary Lewis]

ISWYDT.  

Yeah, in theory I could have my Worktunes on as hearing protectors, but not the Bluetooth part turned on.  Or Air Pods Pros, assuming you can turn on the active noise cancellation w/o music.

Thanks, but I'll pass.