Does My Weight Distribution Hitch Add to the Total Tongue Weight of my Travel Trailer?

Question:

Hello, I have the 1000/10,000 equalizer and my travel trailer MAX tongue weight is 957# which 12 of 7900# max trailer weight, keep in mind that this is a fully loaded trailer that I will never have fully loaded, I figure I will be at max tongue weight 838# after I load my travel trailer this weight is before adding the weight of the hitch itself. It seems that I have to add 100# for the weight of the hitch to tongue weight which puts me at 938# TW, which is 12 of 6987#, Should I upgrade or will this be safe as I am so close to the max tongue weight of the equalizer hitch? Thanks,

asked by: Ramon G

Expert Reply:

This is a great question and we've actually spoken to Equal-i-zer about this issue and they have said not to take the weight of the weight distribution hitch into consideration when calculating your trailer's tongue weight. The reason for this is that when it comes down to it, the weight distribution hitch is actually what the trailer is sitting on and a majority of the components' weight is not actually being applied to the trailer.

When it comes to your particular trailer, you're going to want to get an accurate tongue weight when you've got it loaded in the manner that you typically would travel with. You can use the etrailer Trailer Tongue Weight Scale # e99044 to help you get an accurate weight and determine whether or not you've got your trailer loaded properly as well as whether or not you'll need to upgrade your weight distribution hitch to something like the Equal-i-zer # EQ37120ET. This weight distribution hitch has a tongue weight range of 800-lbs to 1200-lbs, so if your loaded trailer falls towards the middle of that range, it might be a good decision to upgrade.

If you can get an accurate tongue weight on your trailer, this is going to help us determine exactly which weight distribution hitch you'll want to use.

expert reply by: Erik B