What so special about this product as compare to other brand?

Cheapest online show $544.45 for a 12,000 lbs GTW with 1,200 lbs TW. Found an ad for sale of Reese Weight Distribution Hitch 12,000 lbs GTW comp and sway control for $250 firm. Other weight distribution control brand "Manufacture by Curt" sale for $252.97 found it on "TheHitchStore.com"

Should I buy it, what should I look for to see if it fit the Excursion.

Thanks,

 

What are you towing? If its a big, heavy trailer a weight distributing hitch with the proper length bars and tensioned snap up chains will let you tow without the rear squat often associated with a heavy load. It re-distributes the weight forward on the tow vehicle. Some come with a small ball for an anti-sway bar too. The excursion tows very well without a WD setup but if you need it then it is worth it's weight in gold. It does take a bit to properly setup and a WD hitch will fit in any 2" receiver like on an excursion.

The expensive one you looked at includes the anti-sway control and has the highest rating for tongue weight, up to 1200#. Some of the less expensive models only go to 800#'s

Don't forget that many don't include the shank.

 

A WD hitch really needs to be correctly matched to the trailer intended to be towed or you could be throwing your money away. It should be correctly selected based on the application. A undersized hitch or oversized hitch will not perform as it should.

What do you plan to tow?
What is the trailer weight and tongue weight?
What is the trailer length?

All sway control products are not equal. The old standard single side arm sway control works on smaller trailers - some of the cheaper hitches may have this. The mid range style hitches are the Reese Dual Cam and Equalizer. The top of the line sway control is the Hensley arrow and Propride.

Do you have a link or picture of the hitches you are considering?

 

Have not towed anything yet, and everyone suggest a distribution hitch. Since I am a newbie with this towing stuff, seem to be a good idea to have the weight distribution for sway control.

the ad said the Reese Weight Distribution is 1 yrs old, the pictures show two long bar "shank?", hitch with ball, chain. It said $250 firm, where as the new one cost more than $500. Question was is this a good price to grab, and why is it cost much more than other WD hitch.

For all I know, I might not even tow anything at all. But the reason I bought the Excursion is to tow a boat (wife wants a boat). Now that I have a tow vehicle, why not get a travel trailer to go camping instead of stay at Motel like before. I alway like to have a RV, now with the Excursion I can deal with a travel trailer

I know there are things about the 6.0 L need attention before I do any long distance towing. It will be a while before I can get the upgrade EGR cooler, Oil cooler, HPOP on the engine and the springs. Just found oil leaks between the oil pan and the transmission, I think it the rear main seal. that's will delay the upgrade a little longer

 

Archtaan and Red Ex,

I guess just wait until I do have a heavy enough trailer to start considering a WD hitch, and pass on buying a used Reese WD hitch. As for towing a 18' to 22' boat, do I need to have WD hitch at all?

 

You should not need a WD hitch for a boat. I would hold off on buying a WD hitch until you know the specifics on the trailer it would tow.

My guess on the $250 hitch is that it is only WD and not sway control. The new Reese at over $500 is probably the Reese dual cam which is a great hitch with integrated sway control. But even the dual cam needs to be properly sized for the tongue weight on the trailer. A good rule of thumb is to select a WD hitch that is rated for a tongue weight of around 15% of the trailer GVWR. I am using a 1400lb bar set-up for my trailer which has up to 1300lbs of TW.

 

Reese is mid range! Hensley cost more! Ouch.

I don'd have the picture since it on an ad of Auto & Truck recycle.com but it's looks very close the link attach Reese Round Bar Weight Distribution Hitch (800 lb) with Adjustable Hitch Bar 67509

Round Bar Weight Distribution Hitch (800 lb) with Adjustable Hitch Bar

Reese (Part Number:67509)

 

Okay, I'll pass on this used WD hitch.

 

So riddle me this guys...

Our equipment trailers are dual axle surge brake models. We don't have access to a tongue scale, but I ran some numbers by driving my rig over the weight scales, then again with the trailer.

Can someone confirm my calculations?

Truck unhitched:
Front axle - 3740
Rear axle - 4180
Sum - 7920

Truck with trailer:
Front axle - 3420
Rear axle - 5240
Trailer axle - 4520
Sum - 13180

It makes sense for me to take the unhitched weight and subtract that from the total weight to figure out the trailer total weight. So...13180-7920=5260 total trailer weight.

If I subtract the trailer axle weight from that, I should have the tongue weight, right? 5260-4520=740.

Am I calculating this right? I'm not sure if I need to take into account the 'lighter' front axle weight when hitched or not. Can someone verify my calculations?

Also...do WD hitches work with trailers with surge brakes? We use Mirage 16' enclosed trailers, dual axles...like these - but with the surge brake tongue:


Would the vertical load that a WD applies interfere with surge braking?

 

x2 on the Reese Dual Cam. A friend of mine (Ford_Camping) is an expert on weight distribution and towing products. He basically convinced me to go from the friction sway control that I knew so well up to a dual cam system. I have my trailer because I wanted it- I bought and sold four Sunline trailers in my younger years, cleaning/fixing them up and re-sellling them. I'm very dedicated to Sunline and after I sold my last one, I was lucky to find one of the last remaining new Sunlines available (since the company closed). We took the '05 Ex out to NJ to pick it up and I installed the dual cam system myself at the dealer. I may not have many miles on it, but I was so impressed with this system (as was my dad), we installed dual cams on his toy hauler TT as well, upgrading it from friction sway. Both are about 30' long, but his is a bit heavier. They are just remarkably sturdy compared to friction sway.

I'm not saying the dual cam system is the be all, end all answer. They aren't super easy to get perfect, and many factors can affect it not performing quite at 100%. Like what was mentioned before, you can't just get a WD hitch and use it for just anything because there are many variations for many kinds of trailers.

Also, when you decide on a trailer, DO NOT use the advertised brochure tongue weight to choose your hitch. Many TT tongue weights increase dramatically with cargo and water in the trailer. The front bedroom models seem to be the worst- many have pass thru storage under the bed and people load them up, which could close to double your tongue weight. Mine is a front kitchen model and has a brochure/dry tongue weight of 910#. So based on that, I could get away with 1000# bars if it were always empty. With it full of water (lines and water heater only, not holding tanks) and loaded up to go on a trip, my tongue weight jumps to 1175#, and that was just for a weekend. So I have 1200# bars and they may be close to overloaded sometimes too. Basically, I recommend looking at the brochure tongue weight, round up to the next closest bar size, and then go up another, unless you are just over one bar weight rating, then use your best judgement.

As for a boat though, no, you don't need WD unless it's a huge boat, like a really really big cabin cruiser, barely small enough to go on the road. My parents have a 23' bowrider (about 31' on the trailer overall) that I've pulled with the Excursions many times. The tongue can't be picked up by hand, but it can be held by a small trailer dolly. The Ex rides like it has no extra weight on the back end, and the boat and trailer is somewhere around 5500#.

 

I'm pretty sure you couldn't do a dual cam system on it, but you could probably just get away with a simple WD system. But NO sway control. The sway control would put force against the action of how the surge brake system needs to go.

You may want to check if no one else responds, WD and a surge brake trailer may not be recommended for the coupler, I don't know.

 

On our trip to Monterey, I didn't really notice any sway issues in crosswinds, but then again it was a fairly calm day. If the V code/modded B code spring swap I do still leaves me with a lot of rear sag, I wanted to know if a WD hitch (no sway) would work to keep the rig level. The FD has plans to buy more gear for the trailers, so we may have more weight on the trailer tongue.

 

Ideally in terms of WD only (even though it involves the dual cams in that system), the optimal situation has the rear of the Ex dropped no more than 2" and the front raised no more than 1". Obviously the less in the front, the better. But the front going down is bad, it means less weight on the rear end and a messy towing experience to put you all over the road. I check these with a small piece of electrical tape on each fender, putting the tape measure exactly through the center of the hub cap. Make sure to move the trailer a little first and don't stop hard to make sure you have the full settling.

This is the exact reason why we put airbags on the '05, because it was sagging horribly and the bars just wouldn't pick up the Ex enough to be less than about 2". The trailer was that heavy (it did bend the receiver tube...) and the Ex rear suspension is so soft. Granted I had no idea about the V/B option at the time. About 50-60# in the rear bags allowed me to use the WD to pick it up enough to get in that optimal range. Towed much better too. I don't know how it would have been with the dual cam and no airbags though.

For a fire dept though, I'm guessing you'd need to hook up to this trailer quickly and get going? And these would be fairly short trips with just a little highway maybe? If the V/B doesn't quite do it, airbags may help you then. With an on board compressor, you could inflate them to what you find works and go.

I heard a long time ago that using WD and airbags is a no-no, use either one or the other. But with really heavy trailers on the Ex, that seems to be the one exception.

 

What kind of tongue weight were you applying that you bent the hitch?

The trailers are for both local response (hook up and go "right now") and for response anywhere in the state (hey guys, tomorrow at 0500 we are leaving for <insert earthquake ravaged city here>). I'm picturing the use for those state-wide calls...for local stuff I can handle it sagging when just moving it around the city/county.

 

I haven't had that one weighed, but since it's a toy hauler, with nothing in the back, it was probably in the ballpark of 1400#. I'm sure it was over the 1250 sticker rating. 1080# dry according to brochure. Maybe not quite that much, but when my dad went off roading with it to get to his hunting spot, it didn't help matters... We upgraded from 1200# WD bars to 1700# and it certainly helped strengthen things up, but we only did that after getting the DC.