theoretical towing question

Rick, ideally, you want the trailer to be level when it is being towed. That will equalize the load on the two axles. If your trailer is somewhat "nose-down", try raising your ball on the tow vehicle one increment. You should have that adjustment I believe. Then, when you get the chain length setup to put equal compression on the two tow vehicle axles, you'll find the trailer nose will be somewhat higher.

You may not get it perfect, but you should be able to find the ball setting that minimizes the trailer tilt.

My WD hitch says to set the ball about 3/4" higher than the trailer hitch to compensate for compression when tongue weight is applied to the TV. This setting is dependent on the spring stiffness of the TV though. A 3/4 ton or 1-ton pickup would start out with the ball not so high.

(And I may be wrong about the 3/4". My instructions are in the trailer and I'm too lazy to go get them - and it's too cold out.)

- Jack

JackandJanet said:

Rick, ideally, you want the trailer to be level when it is being towed. That will equalize the load on the two axles. If your trailer is somewhat "nose-down", try raising your ball on the tow vehicle one increment. You should have that adjustment I believe. Then, when you get the chain length setup to put equal compression on the two tow vehicle axles, you'll find the trailer nose will be somewhat higher.

You may not get it perfect, but you should be able to find the ball setting that minimizes the trailer tilt.

My WD hitch says to set the ball about 3/4" higher than the trailer hitch to compensate for compression when tongue weight is applied to the TV. This setting is dependent on the spring stiffness of the TV though. A 3/4 ton or 1-ton pickup would start out with the ball not so high.

(And I may be wrong about the 3/4". My instructions are in the trailer and I'm too lazy to go get them - and it's too cold out.)

- Jack

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I agree Jack. Having the ball slightly higher is better than being lower because of the TV settling. I don't know of many people doing it, but you should do your setup with the TV and trailer both loaded up and ready to roll.

hilltool said:

There is a truck stop not far from my house that I have used to weigh the set-up. A couple of "plates"- but I don't think there is a good way to separate the two axles on the hi-lo. They are so close together I'm not sure I could get each one isolated. ....Rick

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I should have been more clear. By separate axle weights I meant the the two truck axles separately and the two trailer axles together. In other words, three weights: truck front axle, truck rear axle, and trailer axles.

Raul

Okay! I kind of thought that was what you meant but didn't know for sure. That would be an interesting thing to know, it could be surprising to find out the difference between trailer axle weights.

In thinking back- one of the issues I had last year was the angle of the ball. My f150 has some lift in it and sits pretty high unhitched-and I need to put a bit of air in the "air springs" to get it level side to side as there is also a sag on one side. With the Hi-lo sitting so low, and the back of the truck so high, I had to have the ball assembly tilted pretty far back towards the trailer to get things level. Subsequently, i was having difficulty hitching and unhitching the trailer as the the hitch didn't want to go completely down on the ball or release when I wanted to unhitch. I had to, eventually, watch my language and volume of my voice when doing either task. So- I altered that a bit but it changed the rest of the set-up and i was still trying to find a more correct solution at season's end.

I think this link has been posted before but it is pretty comprehensive and, as usual, there are some differences on how folks approach things. I am planning a trip to land Between The lakes in Kentucky ( anyone been there???) in mid march so , Hopefully, I will have enough decent weather before we leave to try it all again. All in all, things tow well. I did buy an anti - sway control towards the end of summer but never got it on as it involved a bit of drilling and/or welding to get it attached. Hopefully I will get that done before i go.

here is the link: RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Towing: Travel Trailer Hitch Set-up Procedure

rick

theoretically......

I was lurking around the f150 forums and found a post that said the standard class III hitch put on f150s of my vintage (97- 203) had a max tongue weight rating of 500 lbs. This true?? Because mine is a bit over that.....and I didn 't know if the WD set-up altered that at all. Seems like a lot of people on this forum towing with 1/2 ton trucks and I'm assuming the set-ups are similar. Truck is too old to still have any stickers on it giving me what the ratings are. I'm running close to 600lb, I think, with the two batteries and propane tanks filled and an electric jack up there. Kind of goes to the previous posts.....Any insight is appreciated.

rick

hilltool said:

I was lurking around the f150 forums and found a post that said the standard class III hitch put on f150s of my vintage (97- 203) had a max tongue weight rating of 500 lbs. This true?? Because mine is a bit over that.....and I didn 't know if the WD set-up altered that at all. Seems like a lot of people on this forum towing with 1/2 ton trucks and I'm assuming the set-ups are similar. Truck is too old to still have any stickers on it giving me what the ratings are. I'm running close to 600lb, I think, with the two batteries and propane tanks filled and an electric jack up there. Kind of goes to the previous posts.....Any insight is appreciated.

rick

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The tongue load capacity of the hitch is increased with the use of a weight distributing hitch. For example, look at the Ford towing guide for the current pickups, specifically the table titled, Hitch Receiver Weight Capacity: http://www.ford.com/resources/ford/general/pdf/towingguides/13flrv&tt_f150.pdf. Notice that the hitch weight capacity goes from 500Lb to 1130Lb with the use of a weight distributing hitch.

Keep in mind that the tongue weight contributes to the tow vehicle's gross weight. This gross weight should not exceed the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, even if a weight distributing hitch allows for a higher tongue weight.

The way to think about weight ratings is as a number of limits, any one of which should not be exceeded: tongue load capacity, tow vehicle Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating, tow vehicle maximum trailer weight rating, tow vehicle axle ratings, trailer Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. etc.

Raul

Raul

Thanks for the clarification on that. It was discussed in the previous threads and I sort of skipped over it---but I wanted to make sure based on what I was reading on other forums.

I hear loud and clear on all the other parameters but, unfortunately, unless I am willing to sell the either the truck, trailer, wife, or dog I'm going to be over GVWR 200-400 lbs. However, GVCWR, Axle weights, and gross trailer weight are all good and my tires exceed the axle weight. From what I can tell- if I had the larger V8 engine as opposed to the smaller one I'd be closer on the GVWR which tells me that I'm stressing the engine and tranny more than I am the frame even with the tranny cooler.
Ford basically built the same truck from 97-03 but the GVWR climbed every year a bit based on ....I'm not sure what. So, this is not a good situation but it is right now what it is. Admittedly, when I bought the trailer I went off dry weights and trailer weight and towing capacity did not calculate tongue weight as part of the equation on GVWR. Live and learn. A 6000lb GVWR rating is pretty low by most standards these days....but i almost pulled the trigger on a 2001 f150 super crew last week that had a 6750 GVWR----and so I always wonder just WHAT is getting tweaked to change the ratings. I'd love to talk to a retired engineer and see what they were doing because I dont think they were using different frames or appreciably larger brakes from one configuration to the next over those model runs.

i will keep my eyes peeled and when I see something that makes sense for upgrading I will do it....but right now I have other $$ priorities and will suck it up with the dog and wife and keep trying to lose weight, myself. But, thanks fort all the insights.