The purpose of a weight distributing hitch isn't to eliminate squat, it's to redistribute a portion of the tongue weight from the rear axle of the tow vehicle to the front axle of the tow vehicle and trailer axles. Quit worrying about leveling the truck and/or trailer, and worry about the loads involved. The rear of the truck will squat due to adding weight in the bed or tongue weight on the trailer. That's perfectly normal and precisely how springs work. Don't worry about that. Adjust the hitch based on the *loads* on the axles. You're conflating the terms weight, force, energy, and pressure. It's a pet peeve of mine and doesn't help people understand what's involved. We're talking about forces as a result of weights, not energy or pressure.

I like the idea of reinforcing the A frame at the point where the weight distribution attaches which is the fulcrum. Adding rear suspension enhancement to a to the rear of a mid size or half ton truck will decrease the amount of weight distribution necessary to keep the truck level. Timbren or Sumo springs as well as air bags make towing with a lighter duty truck much more pleasant. Adding Timbren springs to my Tacoma was the best thing I did to enhance towing.

Reinforced my trailer A-frame. Using a 1 ton truck and WDH is in full use as it takes all twitchiness away. No issues at all after 5 years and 50000 miles of travel, including to Alaska and back twice.

Another thing to mention is the force put on the frame when you cross a rough bridge as your tow vehicle is bouncing up and down! Imagine what the pounds of force would be then. A lot more than what pressure your putting on the frame originally. Manufactures are always cutting back on materials because the more materials the more cost of production. Stay with a RV manufacture that has a good reputation for good frames. Norco frames have been trouble free when compared to Lippert frames.

JD, proper setup of weight distribution hitches paramount. They should level the trailer then back the tow vehicle up to the hitch. Then adjust the height of the ball to match the trailer hitch. This will help eliminate some of the down force.

WDH is basically like adding wheelbarrow handles to the back of the tow vehicle. Then the A frame of the trailer holds these handles in place.

Content providers these days are moreless giving us what WE want to see or what a particular sponsor wants them to show us. We need to take a minute and appreciate people like yourself. Thank you for constantly educating your audience and maintaining a balanced channel JD. Love it!

It’s high time the frame manufacturers engineer and build these frames, bumper pull or 5th wheel, to the max instead of the minimum.

Nonsense. The frames are breaking because they are too cheaply made.

Simplified.. Picture a wheel barrel...with the handles being the arms of the weight distribution hitch. When put under tension they have a lifting affect essentially transfer- ing weight off the rear of the tow vehicle and transferring that weight to the steer axle

All great tips. I find it amusing that you use your 240bhle as a spare living room in your yard 😆 I use it as our summertime park camper with the wife and son. We have a half ton Lariat, pull it up and down the East coast in the summer. Easier to pull something with payload wiggle room 👌 My rule of thumb. Stay under 85% of your paylaod and towing capacity respectively. If you're pushing it and uncomfortable. Get a smaller trailer or a bigger truck. I'm not here to critique others. I know how the the weights and measurements guys can be a pain in the balls. Side note, I enjoy your Class A reviews with guest appearances from Matt. Thanks JD.

This is why we invested in airbags for our truck. About 60 lbs will level our truck with trailer.

Anyone else subscribed to big truck big Rv and big truck big travels? The second channel actually has a huge setup! Both good channels.

Just another reason I love my 5th wheel RV and my gooseneck flat deck.

Some people really think they need to have the truck not squat. 1/2 ton trucks are designed to ride better than 3/4 trucks. A couple inches of squat is not the end of the world. I set mine up to sit level with the front end and have the trailer sit level with the truck. I have a 5k trailer for my 150. It tows fine without a wd hitch. I use one since it helps with sway. My equalizer hitch has sway built in to the design. I feel like this is ideal for my combination

One thing that was not mentioned in this video, and a LOT of folks, and I mean a LOT over load their trailers and tow vehicles. You can have the best WDH out there, but things will bend and break eventually if the trailer/tow vehicle are over loaded. If you have to crank the crap out of the WDH to get things close to level, you are over loaded and/or unbalanced on your load. 1/2 ton pickups don't have a lot of payload capacity, and once you load up the family, hook up the trailer, you are going to be close to its limits because even the tongue weight is added to your tow vehicle payload. A 4000lb trailer will typically have about 400lbs of tongue weight. Add a 4 people fam and you can easily be approaching another 400-500 lbs, add bikes, add fuel and so on. Doesn't take long. Manage your weight, keep it all within the limits placarded on your trailer and tow vehicle, size the WDH accordingly (you can go too big and break things) and use some common sense.... you shouldn't have any issues.

If you load your trailer properly, and you tow with the right vehicle, you don't need weight distribution. There are a lot of people who never use these hitches because they know how to distribute the weight in the trailer.

Great topic. To bad rv dealers don’t educate potential customers on the risk of towing large travel trailers with typical half ton trucks.

When I bought our new 30 Foot Airstream I bought a dually in order to keep from using a weight distribution hitch I used on our previous trailer using a 1/2 ton pulling a 25 foot Airstream. I was always over payload with this setup too. I decided I'd had enough of this setup. After towing it 50K miles all across the country without any issues I am glad I went this direction.

The older trailers didnt have that problem cause the frame was bigger but now people want to tow a 25ft with a tacoma so they make the frames thinner=weak plus frame makers are probably buying the cheap china steel which rusts fast ....just to save what? 300pounds? if i would buy a new one probably reinforce the a frame in front with heavy gauge angle iron and that would add maybe a whooping 50 pounds to the trailer....

interesting points. I have towed 6,000 to 7,500 lbs travel trailers with 1/2 ton trucks for over 20 years and never had any such issues however, I have always used WDH units with flex bars rated for the trailer weight range I am towing.

We have a 2005 Sunnybrook travel trailer. Dry weight is around 7500 lbs. GVWR is around 9800 lbs. The entire chassis on this travel trailer is 100% Box steel. The tongue is 2x6 rectangular tube steel, the full length of the chassis is double stacked 2x6 tube steel. The main reason we still have this RV is that you can not find a comparable unit on the market today. Fully boxed steel frame chassis and 100% aluminum frame roof and walls. Full fiberglass end caps front and rear. Thank you, but I’ll keep my old one. Engineers now are so obsessed with weight, they’re sacrificing what matters.

Because of advice I've been getting from you. I don't put my weight distribution bars until I'm on level ground. My driveway is steep, and the departure angle could cause unnecessary stress. Some of our boondock sites also have dips and rises. So I will remove the bars before intering. I've mentioned this to some of our fellow boondockers, and they are surprised that they never thought of it. Driving into these sites, you're usually driving at lower speeds and don't need your bars for sway control. The only downside is finding a safe place to stop and remove my bars.

I use my distribution hitch for anti sway. It is soposed to do both. Yes I have a 35' camper and a 2500 Suburban. I do not have a lot of tension, just enough for the anti sway. With the kitche in front bedroom in back super slide and a bed slide. And a wife with a lot of clothing. Somtimes it is rear heavy. Thats what the hitch is to be used for. Truck squatting should have springs, or air bags to correct.

The WD Hitch creates a triangular platform that resists side-side roll on the trailer. This is great for resistance to wind, sway etc. So you need some load on the L-brackets to make that work. For rear suspension drop, using airbags to set ride height, provided the truck axles are ~ evenly loaded, there's your optimal towing setup. Trailer length doesn't necessarily have high hitch weight.

JD, Marc and Trish@ KYD just had this very experience, ( NEW SEASON 2024 ) while driving through NM or TX they found that they couldn't open the battery door on the A-frame. Marc disconnected the WD even though it was very windy didn't seem to cause any sway. Marc said he will do a follow-up next week.

KYD took theirs off last week because it was causing the frame to flex and their tongue box wouldnt open. Also seems to be a potential cause of the Airstream frame separation.

I just went out and tightened all the bolts on my hitch and camper. We just came back from Colorado. I am going to put this out there for everyone. CHECK YOUR BOLTSAND NUTS. Every trip you take, recheck your sway bar bolts and nuts, If your hitch hardware is loose, you lose that tension you need to evenly distribute the weight on your vehicle and trailer.

Never ever thought about the physics of where and how the weight distribution worked. Thanks for the info. I run a aluminium toy hauler with a heavy can am inside. I definitely going to take a link out of the chain on my weight distribution. I think I may be putting too much pressure on my frame. Great info to have . I should be more in tune with my set up. Thank for the info.

My RV dealer installed a 10,000# WDH to my 3000# trailer before I really understood what they were all about. About a year into using it, I hit a bump in the road and the a-frame bent. Thankfully I wasn’t stranded and could get the trailer home. I had the bent frame repaired by an RV repair shop then tossed the WDH to the side. I never really needed it to begin with. Lesson learned.

Mark on Keep Your Daydream in this weeks video with their first tow of new Airstream found that weight distribution caused front storage door to bind because of that frame flex. Because they have an F250 they pulled off the bars and no more binding.

Reinforcing the A-frame section is just chasing moving goal posts. Reinforcing the A-frame would add tongue weight which means you need to add more weight distribution spring force, which means you need to reinforce the A-frame more. Also, you would just be moving the point of failure somewhere else and I expect replacing a damaged A-frame is much easier (i.e. costs less) than whatever the next point of failure would be. The only real correction for a overloaded truck is to get a bigger truck.

I feel a slight difference in steering without a wdh, the part that makes it dangerous for the front end to be too light is steering and braking in snow, rain, gravel and high speeds. 2023 Ram 3500 swd, 4000 payload towing 10,000 toy haul.

Keep Your Day Dream is just experiencing the impact of to much weight distribution. Check out there last video.

Another great video! It just seems like the RVers that need this info the most don’t watch videos like yours. It’s so common to see, especially toy haulers, with truck and trailer way down at their connection spot. On this trip while stopped and having lunch in our trailer, we watched a 1500 Ram truck pulling at least a 30 foot toy hauler trailer, not a 5th wheel, as he had to disconnect his truck, Jack up his trailer in the front, to make it able to get the loading ramp low enough to load his Harley trike into the trailer. Very heavy trike loaded and connected to his truck again and I’m certain the truck would have been very light in front end steering the front was so high up and the rear of the truck and the trailer hitch were so low down. Add to it a full truck of 4 adults and several ice chests in the truck bed he loaded with bags of ice and water, sodas and beer from the market. We were amazed!

I have a BS in physics. I am salivating at the opportunity to post this comment. One simple way of reducing the pressure is of course to reduce the tongue weight. But the other way would be to lengthen the weight distribution bars. With most setups, the length could be almost doubled.

Thanks BTBR. This is extremely helpful. As an owner of a 34 ft toyhauler greywolf owner, who used to tow with a 1/2 ton but moved up to a 250 and this really helped me understand how my hitch is working better on my trailer with the different trucks. Keep this up!

The old original and proper concept for the ball hitch was to allow pivoting around all 3 axis. You have a WDH on there and you go even slowly over a bend like a driveway or over a railroad grade crossing or rough dirt road it's going to put a tremendous torquing moment on the weld where the A-Frame meets the main frame. I suspect that in too many cases there is a dealer trying to sell a WDH and/or trailer to an under-educated buyer who has a tow vehicle with inadequate capacity and/or the TV hitch height is too much of a mismatch to the trailer. It's been a long time since I took a Statics or Dynamics class, but I'm willing to bet that a properly designed and weight adequate frame that doesn.t use a WDH isn't going to bend under the trailer body. No matter what they say about frames being designed to flex, if the body structure isn't designed to accept the flex, it's going to pull out mounting screws and bolts or break the walls. Flex equals fatigue equals failure. A certain manufacturer of a popular line of small trailers had a bad run of models where the frames were made too small and light and unable to mate successfully with the lightweight body structure over more than a few years. Add that to overly aggressive marketing to buyers with poorly matched tow vehicles and they almost but not quite ruined their reputation. It appears that both suspensions and frames have been strengthened.

JD, you didn’t mention anything about sway control. Sway control is based on the downward force for friction.

Great educational video. Gonna save this one for future reference. Especially if looking at older units to haul. Thank you, most appreciated.

My f250 has air assist springs and they have helped tremendously, no need for the weight distribution hitch, 25 psi each bag and good to go

Solid information. Similar things happen with 5th wheel toy haulers that they overload them and all the weight is in the back of the 5th wheel. Then they wonder why the frame cracks at the hitch.

Light Duty Trucks with Leveling Kits…. Then they use the WDH to try and keep their truck level while towing. Trucks have rake for a reason. WDH is for returning steering and braking performance to the front of the truck, you’re only supposed to return half of the weight back to the front.

GM recommends a WDH when towing more than 7000 lbs with a 1500. Ford recommends it for towing over 5000 lbs with an F-150. I don’t know if you have a contact with any of the manufacturers, but it’d be cool if you could do a video talking with them about this.

Add an adjustable air suspension system to the truck and the sag problem is solved. I did this on my truck and it makes setting up the Weight Distribution system simple.

We didn't have any problem when the WD bars where TAPPERED and effectivelly worked as a spring. These new WD models with bars that have a straight profile don't flex, they seem to be designed by people that have no clue why they are called spring bars... If you have a "spring" bar that can't flex , when you need that to work as a spring it won't and something else will give up, if it is not the hitch then the trailer frame. That is the reason I always used the tried and true round bar system. Andy, from CamAm Airstream had an article several years ago saying exactly that. They set up minivans and cars for towing 30ft trailers (airstream in Canada) and never had a problem with it.

Very interesting video! Thanks for the info. Humid air gets inside steel and it rusts from the inside out regardless of whether the tube steel is capped.

Thank you for the simple common sense explanation. I found it very helpful.

I enjoy my shockerhitch with my e4 weight distribution hitch. Wife use to get car sick, not anymore. Been using this for years, no problems. People need to go to a very level flat area and work it right. Your call outs of: could be, maybe, possibly, etc - is just that... but I get it.

You have finally articulated the misinformation that is prevalent out their among RV dealers about weight distribution hitch. The average RV buyer does not understand the amount of force being applied the frame section of the RV and how that force is amplified by various driving condition.

Never thought about this. I have a 7000# TT with a 10k WDH on my ram 1500. Squats crazy but I always just used the WDH to transfer weight to steer tires. Never cared to much about the squat really. Though I will be adding airbags soon for aesthetics and squat reduction. My truck is rated to pull 10,500.

It may just be me, but I found your explanation of a weight-distribution hitch wanting. I'm only understanding like 1/3 to 1/2 of what you are saying. You pointing and curving your hand, etc, help some, but it's still unclear. Maybe on your next attempt, you could draw a simple diagram and show with arrows the forces & levering action involved? Or, even better, you can make a model and SHOW the difference between a regular hitch and a WD-hitch? Just saying...

Great video and much appreciated. I’ve never felt safe using weight distribution on my 30 foot travel trailer but I do use an anti sway bar. I pull it with an F450 and with generators, extra water, air compressor, and floor jacks in the back of the truck was always worried that going over a bump that it would just crack the A frame at an in opportune time when it transferred weight onto the a frame via the WD hitch.

some things I did is to sorta equalize the weight load. we do have multiple storage on our 28 1/2 foot trailer. When it gets too heavy on front I shift some of the weight at the back since there’s aome storage space underneath the bunk bed. The RV was preset with tge new WDH from the dealer but as soon we start filling it up I adjusted it once then that’s it!. For a half ton owner (Tundra) I think I lean towards the “safety” side by staying between 20ft to less than 29ft max. Anything over that like a 32 would leave you with a trailer with more stress on the front A-frame.

Good video but.... A lot of it was subjective. How does one quantity whether they're applying too much weight distribution?

I have a 94 Jayco 26 footer. The frame is much beefier than the newer ones I see at the parks.

This is the reason I Went from a Weight Distribution Hitch to a BP Conversion. The overall towing experience is like a night and day difference.

I have installed load leveling airbags on all of my trucks. I haven’t had to use a weight distribution hitch since I did that.

That tree interests me!

Overloading the truck bed and/or trailer tongue, then trying to compensate with an equalizer hitch is the recipe for bent or sbapped trailer frame.

Enjoy your videos. On this one specifically you should have also added the advantages of improving the truck suspension to work with and compliment the weight distribution system so sag prevention is not solely the responsibility of the weight distribution bars putting more pressure on the tongue frame. Again. Great info. Great videos. But the entire truck trailer system should all harmonize for the proper balance. JDL

That's one of the very nice things about the Weigh Safe hitches, it has the gauge in it that lets you know how much weight you are distributing (generally 2-3 times the tongue weight).

So many stressed RV frames by even the entries and exits of some campgrounds and parking lots - that big dip… 😬. Those big grade transitions are bad news for your hitch mount and trailer frame if your weight distribution is on tight… oh boy I wince.

Dont forget about A-frame failure back in the early 2000's with Weekend Warrior which turned into a lawsuit and recall. I think alot of RV manufactures learned from that scenario and improved the A-frames.

One recommendation that should have been mentioned is to remove the weight distribution arms once you leave a paved road. The articulation and bouncing of "primitive roads" creates excessive downward force on the A frame and could cause it to fail and bend.

That’s why all 1/2 Ton Trucks that pull any sizable T/T should install Firestone Air Bags on axles. This will aid in less squatting in the beginning therefore less arch effect

That Surveyor rig has a fairly whimpy A-frame to start with. The Forest River trailers always have crappy welded Lippert frames. The BAL frame is huck-bolted, much larger sections and built for heavy WD. The frame should be a top consideration when buying a trailer. I have done 12,000 towing miles with my BAL framed Venture RV in two years with an Equalizer hitch and it is rock solid on the road.

One of the biggest concerns, especially if your really applying lots of force to the bars, is when you drive into a sharp uphill approach into a gas station, parking lot etc, those forces are even more insane to the extreme. My biggest fear is ferry ramps going on and off the ferry, they are extreme and you often don't have the opportunity before and after getting on and off the ferry to loosen up the bars so you can reduce the stress. I use my bar tension mildly, but the ferry access always makes me cringe.

Just watched this weeks KYD video and interesting that they took off the weight distribution bars on the new airstream. I am interested to see how both you and them talk about this

They should look at Dimond C and the engineered beam design they use on their trailers. It's an excellent design feature that puts metal where it's needed and saves a good amount of weight while still adding strength

The other thing my hitch does is prevent and mitigate trailer sway.

You can also easily overload the rear axle on 1/2 ton trucks so you need to transfer the weight to the front or you can balance the trailer better. In my case including hitch, 2 batteries and gas bottles my hitch weight is 1500lb or 22% of 7k trailer. My rear axle is over rating by 200lb that's without weight distribution. I have to re-balance the trailer and drop the tongue weight by 200lb without using weight distribution. My numbers are from CAT scale ⚖️ and i have 1/2 ton F-150. Everything is perfectly level because I have Timbrens....

While I agree with your description of the stress on the A-frame caused by WDH, you seem to have neglected (unless I missed it) the mitigating effect of spring bars... They are rated in pounds for a reason: controlling the forces in the system... Taken to the extreme, the WDH can be rigid, which would exponentially increase the static and dynamic stresses on the frames of both the tow vehicle and trailer... As stated earlier, a couple of simple diagrams would have helped the presentation... Just sayin' 😎

If you select the proper weight classification of hitch for your camper, the components of the hitch system will likely fail before the a-frame. The problem is when people think they're "playing it safe" by using a 14k WD setup on a 6k trailer for example.

Try a northwood RV. They build their own frames.

We like to keep it tight. The wind is a major factor. Hopefully our RV doesn’t fold in half.

The rear of the tow vehicle is supposed to squat. Whats important is the rise of the front of the tow vehicle. Correct the front and the rear takes care of its self. Most trucks have a 2-3" higher rear. They're meant to sag.

I just learned a few things. WOW I had no idea. I could have ruin my camper back when I was pulling it with my SUV. What's sad is though when we bought it, they knew that and didn't tell us. FYI: I don't have an SUV any more. I have a 2500 RAM diesel that properly pulls it. Retailers shouldn't be allowed to legally sell and set up something that is dangerous.

I agree with you. We use and engineered hitch. Pro pride p3 . The hole experience with this setup is way different. Then an curt or blue ox or any other bar system. The other thing is I am over trucked for camper because of your videos. Including the travel trailer I saw on your channel and bought it.

What you are saying about pressure points is correct, but the biggest issue is inadequate frames. I have a 3860# single axle TT that's 23ft long and produces 800+# of tongue weight dry. My 10x6 enclosed trailer has twice the framing under it. The frame has always been a fear of mine and im seriously contemplating setting my camper on a reputable built flatbed trailer, unfortunately that's going to make my rig 3000# heavier.

Arctic fox and outdoors RV, which is made by the same people custom build their frames and they are very strong

Our 25 ft couples trailer came with a weight distribution hitch??? I just used it 🤔 My lifted 95 Ram doesn't sag at all 🤔...I looked at it as sway control...Great video 🏕✌🏿

I added air bags. That raises the back of the truck.

Don’t you think the frame manufacturers build in the use of weight distribution hitchs? To compensate for the weight of the trailer

I like your explanation. Being a first time USA RV trailer user coming from Europe I wonder why the trailers here typically have a lot more load on the hitch. In europe we typically have between 100-250 lbs which is no real problem for most truck here. Another question I have is: have you heard of any problems with the hitch connections to the truck. The truck hitch suffers just as much as the trailer A-frame like you point out.

I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with that tree in the background. Oh, nice video.

Are there any documented cases of a WDH causing a failure as described? Water intrusion and rust seem like a separate issue that can compromise any trailer frame or towing scenario. I suppose perhaps there are people who use a stronger WD setup for their given trailer type/weight, but that seems to be again a separate issue as well.

Weight Distribution Systems have been around a long time and this frame problem is a relatively new phenomenon, therefore, it’s logical to assume the problem falls to the manufacturer of the frames. Probably some cost cutting measure that weakens that part of the frame….

I am a bit shocked that you put a video out that puts weight distribution and “leveling” in the same sentence. WD is NOT for leveling by any means. WD is for distributing a prescribed amount ( usually the vehicle manufacturer) of weight back on the front axel. For example, my F250 recommends 50% back. This is done crudely by measuring the front wheel well before and after loading. You can dial it in by using scales if you have the time. The only way to prevent squat or “level” a truck is properly equip the springs or add air bags. Actually, adding airbags and leveling the truck with the load requires reworking the WD to ensure, in my case 50%, of the weight is transferred to the front axel. A well balanced WD set up could still leave a truck looking squatted in the rear. When the dealer set my truck up initially, they had the bars so tight it bent the 2” shank. All to “level” the truck. If you would like to know more, we can chat on the side.

I'll comment on the roads, Our roads are the worst in the country. (Louisiana). When I pull it's usually strenuous knuckle driving going down the road, Lol

If it’s installed correctly it is not a problem

Maybe offer some ideas of those proactive approaches? Airbags in the truck to offset some of the sag? But would that reduce the friction for the sway control in some of the hitches?

Maybe they can start spreading the space between the 4 wheels of the rv just a little bit. The wheels are so close together on the tandem axle trailer. More wheel space I think makes more balance.

I think the manufacturer designers are building these trailers thinking the buyers should use a capable truck designed for the weight. Its not their fault people don’t research and educate themselves before making a big purchase like a travel trailer. The state should require a training and test before allowing the travel trailer tag to be purchased IMO

Your encabsulated turbinator is leaking blinker fluid into your horn bell.

As I see it … weight distribution is a compensation for NOT having enough truck. Parts of the industry advertising travel trailers as “half-ton towable” is a large part of the problem. You can “fix” the sag with weight distribution but, as you point out, at the cost of large forces on the frame.

Question for you BTBRV, I have a travel trailer that weighs approximately 10500, tow vehicle is the 3500 Ram SRW w/ air suspension so weight isn’t an issue and the trucks suspension lifts the vehicle up almost without sag without any problem. So I use my blu ox for a sway control more than weight distribution., but still cinch it pretty good for sway. Your input please would be greatly appreciated.

It is simple. The Travel trailer manufacturers send a spec to the frame manufacture. That spec needs to be upgraded to handle the stress of the weight distribution hitch. They can't continue to advertise to the half ton truck owners, if it requires a hitch that overloads the frame of the trailer.

If the ball on your tow vehicle is set at the right height, you shouldn't need much pressure to level out. When i went from one tow vehicle to another (same travel trailer) i had to set it up all over.

How does a WeighSafe hitch come into play here? It’s using tongue weight, math and lengths/angles to determine how much weight to move around; it’s not taking into account HD truck suspension vs. F150/1500 suspension. From your video, it sounded like you would dial the hitch in LESS for a HD truck since a HD truck would need less help, however the WeighSafe doesn’t care what you’re pulling with. Can we just trust the WeighSafe math regardless of what you’re pulling with?