It strains the rear axle of the tow vehicle and may overwhelm your payload capacity.It not only carries the tongue weight of the trailer, but it also carries the additional weight lost from the front axle! And that’s also bad for all sorts of reasons. Meanwhile, the rear axle gets hit with a double whammy. It forces your headlights to point up, not out!.It increases the risk of trailer sway and fishtailing.You’ll be more prone to overrsteer when cornering.It reduces tow vehicle braking performance and handling.The front axle actually loses weight! That’s bad for all sorts of reasons. Remember my teeter-totter analogy? As I said, with a weight-carrying hitch, the front end of the tow vehicle rises up, and the rear axle squats with the added weight.īut it’s actually worse than what you might think. (If you want to calculate your own axle weights, you’ll have to set up your own free-body diagram and solve the equilibrium equations).įirst, let’s consider what happens if you don’t use a WDH. The trailer and tow vehicle can’t form a “V” anymore because the spring bars or chains won’t allow pivoting. That’s how a weight-distribution hitch works. Now, can you still freely move the top index finger without it partially lifting off the bottom finger? Imagine wrapping some Scotch tape around the joint. Now slide one index finger on top of the other one so the first digits overlap. You can still move one index finger around while keeping the tips touching, right? Point both your index fingers at each other. Here’s the simplest way I can explain it. It binds the connection, transforming it from a freely rotating pivot to a semi-locked bridge. And in the same way that one person rises if someone else sits on the opposite end of a teeter-totter, so the tongue weight of the camper on the hitch causes the front end of the tow vehicle to rise into the air.Ī weight-distribution hitch acts as an extended lever and fulcrum.
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