Why is There No 1,000 Pound Rated Reese Strait-Line Weight Distribution System

Question:

Why are there no 1000lb. tongue weight spring bars for the Reese Strait-Line system? It is probably the best system out there, and they are missing a big sweet spot. They have bars for 600lbs, 800lbs, 1200lbs, 1500lbs, 1700 lbs... yet no 1000lb. one. Seems like a pretty common tongue weight to want to support. Yes, you can use the 1200 for 1000lb tongue weight, but then you lose a bunch of ground clearance. My ideal worst-case tongue weight is actually ~900lbs and I am using the 800lb bars, but wish they were just a little bit stronger. I end up taking off my spare battery and loading my trailer non-ideally to get closer to 800lbs. If Reese made some 1000lb bars I would buy them today. :-

asked by: Patrick C

Expert Reply:

I don't really have an answer as to why Reese doesn't have a 1,000 pound rated Strait-Line. With that being said I don't understand your hesitation with the 1,200 pound bars, part # RP66009. The weight range is 600 to 1,200 pounds which is actually more appropriate for a setup with 900 pounds of tongue weight. You want your loaded trailer's tongue weight plus the weight behind your tow vehicle's rear axle to fall in the middle of the system's range. With 1,000 pound bars you're much closer to the top end of the range, although admittedly still within reason.

The 1,200 pound bars won't take away any ground clearance. From your picture I can barely see that you have trunnion bars which have better ground clearance than round bar systems (That's their main advantage) but if you replace your bars with # RP66009, which are also trunnion bars, you won't lose any clearance.

expert reply by: Charles S