WDH increasing tongue weight capacity

[tbaker65]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Often the receiver sticker is rated for the receiver only, NOT the vehicle it's attached to.
This happens a lot with trucks. The same receiver will be bolted to a wide variety of the manufacturer's trucks, that are differently spec'd and have different towing abilities.

Yep. I have a class IV receiver, factory installed on my truck. So I got the specs from the tow capacity sheets from the Ram site.

[VernDiesel]

Couple things fwiw & examples. Each TV mfg recommends a WDH for trailers that exceed 5k. I believe Each mfg has some type of online towing specs for their trucks. Ram’s is called body builder. I have a 14 Ram 1500 per their site it’s factory class IV receiver is rated for a max TW of 1,150 or 1,290 with WDH & 12,000 trailer weight. My lil Andersen aluminum adjustable hitch is rated to 1,500 TW & 10,000 trailer weight. My Andersen WDH is rated for a max TW of 1,400 & 14,000 trailer weight. Always you are looking to make sure the lightest rating of the receiver & hitch has your trailer estimated then actual TW & trailer weight covered.

Getting your TTs static TW means nothing if you are going to use a WDH. For estimation Use the TT wet weight or if you don’t have it use the brochure dry weight & add 1,000 as that is typical. So if TT is 6k add a 1k for an estimated wet weight of 7K. Now that that times 10 & 15 percent for your actual seen by TV axles on the scale TW range. With good dry weight placement in your TT & good WDH set up 12 percent should normally be easy to attain.

So 12 percent of 7K is 840 pounds of TW that my truck axles would see on the scale. So if my truck with me weights 5,500 & it’s gvwr is 6,950 there is only 1,450 of towing payload available. If this trailer is going to take up 840 of it I would only have 610 left for passengers & bed load. Or I could work the hitch & load to get as low as 10 percent.

That said for actual stability & safety max axle weights, & replacing unloaded TV steer axle weight is far more critical than exceeding GVWR. You generally want all specs inside of rated maximums I’m just making the point that A replacing the unloaded steer axle weight, B staying inside max drive axle, & C keeping your TW in range is the first & more critical numbers again for stability & safety.

[tbaker65]

Originally Posted by VernDiesel

That said for actual stability & safety max axle weights, & replacing unloaded TV steer axle weight is far more critical than exceeding GVWR. You generally want all specs inside of rated maximums I’m just making the point that A replacing the unloaded steer axle weight, B staying inside max drive axle, & C keeping your TW in range is the first & more critical numbers again for stability & safety.

Good info, thanks.

When you say, "replacing the unloaded steer axle weight", you are talking about transferring or redistributing the weight that the that the downward force of the trailer tongue weight puts on the hitch, and therefore "raises" the front end of the tow vehicle, taking weight off the front axle... Correct? And if so, the "replacing the unloaded steer axle weight" is done by using the WDH... correct? Thanks.

[m2kamp]

Originally Posted by VernDiesel

Couple things fwiw & examples. Each TV mfg recommends a WDH for trailers that exceed 5k. I believe Each mfg has some type of online towing specs for their trucks. Ram’s is called body builder. I have a 14 Ram 1500 per their site it’s factory class IV receiver is rated for a max TW of 1,150 or 1,290 with WDH & 12,000 trailer weight. My lil Andersen aluminum adjustable hitch is rated to 1,500 TW & 10,000 trailer weight. My Andersen WDH is rated for a max TW of 1,400 & 14,000 trailer weight. Always you are looking to make sure the lightest rating of the receiver & hitch has your trailer estimated then actual TW & trailer weight covered.

Getting your TTs static TW means nothing if you are going to use a WDH. For estimation Use the TT wet weight or if you don’t have it use the brochure dry weight & add 1,000 as that is typical. So if TT is 6k add a 1k for an estimated wet weight of 7K. Now that that times 10 & 15 percent for your actual seen by TV axles on the scale TW range. With good dry weight placement in your TT & good WDH set up 12 percent should normally be easy to attain.

So 12 percent of 7K is 840 pounds of TW that my truck axles would see on the scale. So if my truck with me weights 5,500 & it’s gvwr is 6,950 there is only 1,450 of towing payload available. If this trailer is going to take up 840 of it I would only have 610 left for passengers & bed load. Or I could work the hitch & load to get as low as 10 percent.

That said for actual stability & safety max axle weights, & replacing unloaded TV steer axle weight is far more critical than exceeding GVWR. You generally want all specs inside of rated maximums I’m just making the point that A replacing the unloaded steer axle weight, B staying inside max drive axle, & C keeping your TW in range is the first & more critical numbers again for stability & safety.

Hi Verndiesel,

Can you post a link for the specs on the factory Ram hitch?

The only info I could find is from the owners manual and online towing guide(2017):

Ram 1500 Class IV 1100 lbs tongue, 11000 lbs trailer

Ram 2500+ Class V 1800 lbs tongue, 18000 lbs trailer

Ram 2500 5th wheel 5000 lbs hitch, 25000 lbs trailer

Ram 2500 Gooseneck 4000 lbs hitch, 20000 lbs trailer

Ram 3500 5th wheel or Goosenect 6000 lbs hitch, 32000 lbs trailer

I could find no information on WD hitch ratings, other than if the bumper pull trailer weights more than 5000 lbs, WD hitch is recommended.

[tbaker65]

Originally Posted by m2kamp

I could find no information on WD hitch ratings, other than if the bumper pull trailer weights more than 5000 lbs, WD hitch is recommended.

I have a Ram 1500. I don't know if you'll find any specs specific to your vehicle when using a WDH. It really depends more on the specific WDH and its design.

If you have a Ram 1500 as I do, you'll not be hooking anything up that's beyond a tongue weight of 1100 anyway or you'll have other unsafe issues. So any type of WDH you'll use probably won't be beyond the 1100 capacity either...

Now you may find something in general like in one of the previous posts, that says 600 lbs or up to 1000 lbs with a WDH... what that means, its assuming the WDH will distribute the EXTRA 400 lbs back off the tongue and on to the axles... So the actual max tongue weight is STILL 600 as per the vehicle/vehicle receiver, even with the WDH, but the WDH will transfer the added 400...

I hope this helps some. Maybe someone else will find something more specific.

[Craigmkd]

Originally Posted by tbaker65

I have a Ram 1500. I don't know if you'll find any specs specific to your vehicle when using a WDH. It really depends more on the specific WDH and its design.

If you have a Ram 1500 as I do, you'll not be hooking anything up that's beyond a tongue weight of 1100 anyway or you'll have other unsafe issues. So any type of WDH you'll use probably won't be beyond the 1100 capacity either...

Now you may find something in general like in one of the previous posts, that says 600 lbs or up to 1000 lbs with a WDH... what that means, its assuming the WDH will distribute the EXTRA 400 lbs back off the tongue and on to the axles... So the actual max tongue weight is STILL 600 as per the vehicle/vehicle receiver, even with the WDH, but the WDH will transfer the added 400...

I hope this helps some. Maybe someone else will find something more specific.

OP here. Thanks for all the input. It seems there is not a lot of clarity in some manuals either from WDH manufacturers or vehicle manufacturers on dead weight tongue load and weight distributed tongue load. Some vehicles clearly state increased tongue loads when using weight distribution. In my case I am going to err on the side of caution and assume the 'max' tongue weight of 850#, as stated in my Armada towing guide, is with weight distribution. That will put me right at 15% of loaded trailer weight and 65% of my towing capacity. Going to upgrade E2 round bars to 1000.

[VernDiesel]

Sorry guys I missed this thread. Tbaker Yes exactly.
m2kamp, Can't seem to locate it at the moment but it is or was in here. http://www.rambodybuilder.com/uopt_files/frame.htm
More accurately I think we should say receiver rating.

[VernDiesel]

Copied this from another forum. Half ton truck max axles 3,900, max tow 10,150, CVWR 15,650, GVWR 6,900

Unloaded truck
steer 3320
drive 2340
GVW 5660


wet TH 7500 driver 200 & WD
steer 3340
drive 3320
GVW 6660

TH 6700

CVW 13360

Meets specs and will be stable. TW is 800 as seen by TV axles. 800 divided by 7500 = 10.67 percent. Still add passengers & to bed load and it quickly exceeds GVWR although that normally to a point positively affects stability.


wet TH 7500 driver 200 poor WD
steer 2940
drive 4040
GVW 6980

TH 6380

CVW 13360

Slightly over drive axle and GVWR. TW is 1120 as seen by TV axles. Joined rig not as stable despite having more TW. 1120 divided by 7500 = 14.9 percent


From what I've seen you do need to keep 10 percent as a minimum TW percentage. When TW percentage of TH becomes too light it allows for sway. That said its normally more difficult to get down near 10 than it is to be well above it. 10 to 15 percent TW should be good to help resist sway. Flat square box nose may need more TW percentage than round trailer or even just round nose on windy days. Regardless you still need good WD between drive and steer with wet steer weight at least matching unloaded steer weight. Also to a lesser degree more weight on TV helps with stability. Better to be minimally above GVWR than to not have enough TW.