Does anyone tow with a golf cart on back of truck ? What's your set up....this is mine with no distribution or sway bar....haven't towed with golf cart but one time.....but I would like to level the truck a bit more....can I use a distribution hitch to accomplish this ?.....I'm not experienced in this....could use some advice thanks...pic in comments

 

 

Half ton trucks can easily exceed cargo capacity with cargo in the bed and a trailer on the bumper, even a small trailer. It might work out better to shift some of the cargo (coolers) to the trailer instead of in the bed of the truck.

A WDH will help some but there's only so much wiggle room with a half ton truck. In trying to level the rear of the truck with a WDH you may end up shifting too much weight to the trailer axle, which may not be capable of handling it.

 

thanks for reply......I haven't used the WDH yet and it's my understanding that you set it up with the truck and camper empty measure and set the ball then hook to truck jack camper and truck up to set the bars (mine are solid not chains)....well then when I put the golf cart on the truck it will be lower then the set up....am I gonna be able to jack truck and trailer to set bars ?.....and it's my understanding that the solid bar helps with swaying as I don't have a sway bar....any I put would be greatly appreciated...

 

"Able to jack the truck up?", well, that's subjective. My trailer has an electric tongue jack, that is over sized for the trailer, for this very reason. The tongue jack should be able to lift the ball, and therefore the back of hte truck back to normal height.

As for sway control, that depends on the type of hitch you have. It is not clear from your 'not chains' statement, if you have a system where the solid bar rests on the bracket on the trailer, (which provides sway control from the friction of the metal on metal contact, with pressure), or where a short chain on the end of the solid bar connects to the snap up bracket (These provide no sway control, without an added friction bar). There is a third design, which uses one chain from the hitch to the trailer, and has no solid bars.

In theory, you can lift the back of the truck back up with the jack, and transfer weight to the truck front axle, as well as the trailer axle, but you must remember, the axle under the trailer is probably only rated at 3500, or maybe 4500. There have been people who have taken weight off the truck with the WDH and caused the trailer axle to fail because of the increased load.

 

Thanks this is a big help.
yes I have the solid friction bars....the trailer axle is rated 3500 lbs....the camper is 1400 dry.....the golf cart is 700 to 900 lbs I'm guessing....so I'm thinking jacking and leveling the truck I will be ok..what do you think ?

 

Even if it doesn't get it back to completely level, it's going to be a vast improvement over no WDH at all.

 

one more question...with this type of hitch you can back up with it correct ?....and thanks for all the help.

 

You might want to watch this video. He was in a similar situation as you, with extra weight in the tow vehicle, and moving more than just the tongue weight back to the trailer.

 

I'm not familiar with WDH that can't be used to back up the trailer. I've had two different WDH and both work fine for backing up my trailer. It would help to know the exact brand and model of your WDH.

That's an interesting vehicle and backs up what I said in my first post. A WDH in the case of the OP will likely be detrimental to the lifetime of that trailer.

 

Yes, the WDH is supposed to return some of the tongue weight to the trailer (and front axle), but with the OP's setup, its not the tongue weight that is the issue it is the cart in the bed. To do much good lifting hte rear of the truck, he will be moving some of the weight of the cart onto the trailers axle. I agree, overdoing the WDH will not be good for that 3500 axle.

OP, seems you now have a reason to go out and buy a F450 to handle that load. Now to break the news to your wife that is ramen noodles for dinner for the next 5 years.

 

f450 ? Really....this isn't a big load.... less then 3000 lbs. Total.I see trucks with 30 foot campers truck loaded down all the time going down the road......this pulled fine I would just rather have the front end down a little....would air ride work for this ?

 

You missed the and the end of that comment. Sarcasm is hard to detect in written text.

 

Get a WDH and helper spring or airbags and live with the fact that the rear end will only live 250k instead of 500k.