Trailering

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Ordutch1975

New member
Hi all - this may be a dumb question but I can’t find an answer anywhere and would love to know what you think. I am pondering getting a weight distributing hitch. From what I understand it puts more weight on the trailer axels. The question I have is what happens after I launch my boat ? Will this cause my rear wheels on my truck to come off the ground ? What is the proper procedure - should I remove the trunion bars before launching ? Any input you have from experience would be great. Thanks all!
 
I have never seen a boat trailer use an equalizing hitch. I think one reason is because of their design - no place to mount the bars. They are most helpful on trailers with higher hitch weights. They transfer some of the hitch weight to the trailer axles and the vehicle front axle. Because they take some weight off your vehicles rear wheels - if its a 2 wheel rear drive then you may have reduced traction on the ramp when pulling out.

Regards, Rob
 
I have only used a couple of systems with travel trailer and not boats, but the short answer is, your wheels will not come off the ground but they will be lighter than without a WD setup.

The weight is transferred primarily toward the front of the tow vehicle to lessen the downward load carried at the hitch. The weight impact on the trailer axles, might be a bit more even, due to better leveling of whole rig, but there should not be a significant increase in weight on the trailer. Most of the action it from the hitch forward with a WD setup.

The bigger question, is why do you want one. Do you have too much load at the hitch right now? Could your boat/trailer setup be altered to ease that load and avoid complicating your hitch setup? Give us a few more details and there might be another path to follow.

Greg
 
This has come up before. I doubt it will lift your car's wheels off the ground. However, think about how that Weight Distributing Hitch is working. To equalize the load, it is putting some of the load on your tow vehicles front wheels, while also placing some additional weight on your trailer axles. It's putting that weight on your trailer axle by applying it to your trailer tongue where your spring bars attach. Now, do you really want additional downward stress placed on your single pole tongue? I suspect this is why some boat trailer manufacturers warn against using a WD hitch! Colby
 
Boat trailers with torsion axles (and others, ask your trailer mfg) should NOT use weight-distribution hitches.
I can't tell for sure from your album pics, but your EZ Loader most likely has torsion axles.
When I bought my Bob Austin input/Marc Grove EOH Float-On trailer replacement, Marc explained the reasons Float-On says Don't Do It, but it boils down to this:
The torsion-axle trailer manufactuer advises a Tongue Wgt of 6-7%...my rig likes 9%... (not 10-15% like an RV) for engineering reasons you should NOT try to defeat if your truck can't take the 1,100# the 255 (in Heavy Cruise Mode) puts on your hitch. Don't even try to 'get around' the safety ratings, just FOLLOW them.
Comply with every parameter your truck and trailer manufacturer advises. Get a bigger truck or a bigger trailer or better tires if needed.
There are no safe short-cuts to safe trailer boating.
The RV world is not the same.
Good question, no doubt lots of conflicting advice.
Safe Towing Always!
John
 
If your trailer has surge brakes, I don’t believe WD is recommended. George Roach (now deceased) did use WD with his Cape Cruiser, but had problems with pads and rotors wearing very fast.

My personal fix would be airbags if you can get them for that model truck.

As an aside, I wish George was still with us, he was a great guy to cruise with.
 
I have yet to tow the boat with the new rig - it’s a 17 ram 1500 ecodiesel. It supposedly toes 8500 lbs in my config (4wd crew short bed). My Jeep Grand Cherokee did fine but it was over it’s limit - the short wheel base imo was the worst part of it. I will try it without just was thinking a WDH would keep the headlights down. My guess and I’ll verify next weekend with full water tank, fuel and gear the boat will weight around 6k. My iso rated payload is 1280 (includes 2 skinny people (150 each) and 50lbs. Assuming a 10% ratio which I will have to verify based on our real weights we are looking at 750lbs payload which should be enough with room to spare. I just bought the truck and chose the ecodiesel as I have to commute 50 miles a day. (Getting 24mpg average between highway and city). I do not have airbags. I will test it next weekend and report back. The downside and plus side of the ram is springs in the rear vs leafs. Positive being car like ride downside being more squat from what I understand.
 
I towed my C Dory 25 about 7,000 miles without a weight distribution hitch. I had some very serious tire wear. Also the tongue weight was excessive. There were several possible solutions. One was the Weight distribution hitch.

I then towed over 11,000 miles with a weight distribution hitch. There was far less tire wear (I cannot say 100% that was due to the hitch--and it may have been part of it.) I made sure that the trailer was absolutely level. There was no problem with "excessive weight on the trailer tongue". There are adaptors made for pole tongues, and for boat trailers. There are weight distribution hitches which are designed to be used with surge brakes. My trailer had disc surge brakes. I only had one issue--and that involved a long down hill, where I did not inspect the brakes as I usually did, and there had been some dragging. It was not related to the WD hitch.

No the rear tires of the truck do not come off the ground! There may be some less weight, It is very easy to release the chains on the WD hitch, and thus allow full weight on the rear trailer tires for traction coming up a ramp.

The hitch did reduce any trailer sway. The truck handling did not seem to be affected. The amount of effect of the WD hitch is easily adjusted. The WD hitch takes about 10 minutes more to set up when hitching up..

I believe that there are going to be some trailers and trucks which will do better with a WD hitch. One other advantage was that my hitch had an adjustable ball, so that I could fairly easily move it up and down to achieve the level--although you had to "unload" the spring bar chains to adjust. Level took some experimentation and a few different hitch ups.

I still have the WD hitch and tongue adaptor, if anyone is interested. I don't need it with the 22 and E/H brakes!
 
I use an appropriately sized WD hitch (Equalizer) towing my 22 cruiser, both due to excessive sag and consistent with tow vehicle manufacturer’s guidelines due to overall tow weight. It has been a joy and tows brilliantly!
 
I think you need to use a weight distribution hitch when your tongue weight exceeds the TV manufacturer specified maximum hitch weight. This weight specification is often found in the manufacturer's towing guide for that vehicle and isn't usually reported in TV reviews.

For example some SUVs have a 500 lb limit without a WDH, but 750 lbs with one. Say you have a 700 lb tongue weight which might be the case with the heavier C-Dory boats. You will also need a pole tongue adapter to let the WDH's trunion bars hook up properly to the single tube that most boat trailers have.

Set it up to put roughly half of the tongue weight on the rear wheels and transfer half to the front wheels with the WDH. This will let the TV run level. There is no concern about lifting the rear wheels with a WDH even when going over a dip.

Another way to tow with a heavy tongue weight and keep your TV level is to add air bags to the rear end. These are sort of a kludge. They keep the TV level but put more stress on the rear suspension than it was designed for. But it may be a good solution if you are only a little over your hitch weight spec.

If you don't want to use a WDH or add air bags and you are exceeding your hitch spec weight, then you need a bigger TV.

David
 
Thanks - the TV is fine for this boat, it is within spect with about 30% to spare which I think is acceptable. I think I will go with weight distribution. EZ trailer is not opposed to them - they just say they must be installed properly. also they give this warning "Several models of weight distribution hitches will render the brakes inoperative. EZ Loader cannot assume responsibility or accept warranty claims in such instances. Please make sure the weight distribution hitch you choose is compatible with the trailer’s braking system." which makes sense.

Bob - assuming the WDH you have is for surge breaks and has the pole tongue adapter - I'll take if off your hands if you don't mind shipping it? I of course will pay for shipping etc. I'll email you my address etc.

As Bob stated I think for tire wear, proper ride height of the TV and stability a WDH would be beneficial. I was just curious if my wheels would come off the ground when I unloaded the boat which would of course be problematic on a boat ramp :-). It sounds like I can just remove the trunion bars before launching.

Thanks all,
H
 
We have the Cape Cruiser 23 with a alum trailer tandem torsion
axle that weighs 5000-5200 lb . So 6000lb maybe with a galv trailer and a 150 suzuki and more stuff . We tow witha 07 Toyota Sequoia 6800 tow rating .We ended up putting Timbren helpers on No problem towing We don't use a WDH Good Luck Jim
 
As I recollect I didn't remove the bars, just loosened the chains. There are cams which do the tightening. There has to be enough chain to allow the surge brakes to work. So a lot depends on how the WD hitch is set up.

There are many trucks which have the limits with WD hitches. This is rarely observed--especially by boaters. My Ford Excursion Diesel had a 10,000 lb tow capacity--TW of 500# bare, and 1000# with WD hitch. I was running about 700# TW. Of course there are going to always be consideration of how the truck is loaded.

Not sure how I would package up the hitch and gear--it is heavy. I can weigh the components and see..It might require freight truck rather than UPS or Fed EX.
 
When I picked up my trailer I asked the fella how can I tell how much tongue weight I have when the boat is on. He said "Get your manual, find the max weight. Go get a bunch of guys that weigh about that and have them get on the back of your truck. Measure how far the trailer hitch drops in inches. Now have them get out.

Put your boat on.

Did it drop more than the guys? If so you're too heavy. Move boat back 3" or so until happy.

Love me some [FL] redneck engineering.
 
Except that you have to have all of those guys balance on your trailer hitch like angels on the head of a pin. Not easy. If they are just in the back of your truck, you can end up towing more weight than you should, which is the tendency with redneck engineering.

Mark
 
Not sure how I would package up the hitch and gear--it is heavy. I can weigh the components and see..It might require freight truck rather than UPS or Fed EX.
Click to expand...

I'm planning on being at the Hontoon Island gathering, and then the Friday Harbor Gathering. I'd hate to get stuck with the WD hitch if something fell thru with Friday Harbor, but if you wanted to chance that, I could pick it up from you Bob at Hontoon, and then Ordutch1975 could get it from me when I'm out for the FH gathering. (Either meeting me while I'm at my brother's in Graham, or at where I launch (most likely Cap Sante, but that could change), or if my brother agreed, I could leave with him and he could bring it down to Camas (WA, near Portland) where he works. Worse case, if something fell thru on the FH gathering, you'd still have to pay for shipping, but from Wisconsin instead of Florida. :wink: However, FH are definite plans and on our calendar. Only the usual unexpected circumstances would cancel those plans. There might be another boat from the Northwest at Hontoon that might be willing to transport it as well. Colby
 
We can put it in the truck. The hitch weight is 40#, each arm is 14#, and my best guess on the pole adaptor and plates etc is an additional 25#. Total weight would be 93#, plus either a crate or pallet. I doubt that UPS would go with duct tape and paper... This is far more weight than I can handle...I am limited to 20# because of back.
 
Jbd:
John’s Definitive Guide to Measuring Tongue Weight on Non-Dainty rigs:
Every major truck stop in Florida has a CAT scale.
https://catscale.com/cat-scale-locator/
They all have 3 platforms, for ‘steering axle’, ‘drive axle’ and ‘trailer axle’ (A, B, C).
Position the trailer axles as near the middle of platform C as you can while still having the rear truck wheels just barely on the B scale and so that the trailer jack stand can be (in step 2) lowered onto the C (not B) scale. Push the intercom button and tell them you want a weight. The certified weighmaster will reply something like “ Issha shackles frissioned physicans share sure jaunt shemzzzzzttt?’ CAT Scales, Inc uses the same intercom company as McDonalds. Just say, ‘John Highsmith told me to do it this way.”
On this ticket #1, C is the boat + trailer, minus tongue wgt, which is included in PART of the B scale ‘drive axle’ wgt, but we can’t know which part, because that would make it too easy and inexpensive.
Pay up.
Now drop the trailer tongue jack stand leg and crank the coupler up off the ball. You don’t even have to disconnect the EOH or safety chains or trailer lights (under 5-10lbs). Use the intercom to request another wgt. The weighmaster will think you’re crazy and say something about whether you are here for the keys to the shackled trout; just say ‘John Highsmith told me to do it this way. And the only good trout is a shackled trout.’
On this ticket #2, C is the boat + trailer + tongue wgt. Pay up again.
The difference between #1 and #2 C scale wgt is the tongue weight.
(jbd, aghast: “I was told there would NO math on this post!”)
Your boat transom must be fully supported on the trailer and not hanging off the end, so there are limits to moving the winch post trickery to adjust tongue wgt.
You can’t just drop the jack stand on the end of a CAT scale to get the tongue wgt because 1), it could damage the scale, and 2) that would just be too easy and inexpensive. Nothing about owning a TC255 is allowed to be easy or inexpensive. If you choose to try that while the weighmaster isn’t looking and damage their C scale, just say “Bob Austin told me to do it this way”.
Eileen has a very fancy glass electronic bath scale, and using Bob’s method with the “1 inch iron rod” and blocks and her fancy glass bath scale is a no-go around here. On the other hand, we’ve only been together 40+ years, so maybe she’ll get more mellow about this kind of thing in a couple more decades, Bob. I bet NOT. You know her.
You will pay $10.50 each for the 2 tickets, which is under half the cost of Eileens fancy glass bath scale and therefore an excellent deal.
In Light Cruise mode with 21g gas total confirmed by fuel computers (at 6 lbs per gal), no water in the 30g tank (at 8.3lbs per gal) or 9g holding tank the rig is 10,760lbs, +/- 400 lbs with tongue wgt of 1,160lbs +/- 40lbs and total gross wgt of 17,800 to 18,200lbs with a GMC HD2500 with 20K parking prawl, Allison commercial transmission, turbo diesel with rear LSD for slick ramps. Full water and fuel would add 332 + 870lbs to the towed weight.
I don’t know whether sewage weighs more or less than straight water, but we can debate this around a campfire someday as Eileen is unwilling to allow me to perform this research myself with even her least-favorite buckets.
Inquiring Minds Would Want to Know.
If someone has a better way of measuring tongue wgts over 1,000 lbs let’s hear it.
Cheers!
John
 
Go to your local sand lot or interstate truck weigh station. The first one might charge you a couple of bucks. The second free. Or if you have a dump near you, go ask if you can weigh there. Lots of options if you don't have the old style bathroom scales any more! :)
 
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