I've been reading here about how some hitches can be back breaking to take off and older folks have gone to motor homes to avoid hitch weight. I've watched more than a few youtubes on the Equalizer wdh and I don't understand where all the weight is. Is it in the ball and shank that fit the receiver on the truck that some people have trouble with? That can't weigh 100lbs can it?

Been looking at Anderson but the Equalizer 4 point does not look too bad to me although I've never handled any WDH in person.

 

my lighter duty pro series wdh weighs 102 pounds according to amazon and its only rated for 10k pounds

 

Curt lists teh shipping weight of my hitch at 87 Pounds. The heaviest item is the ball-mount part that goes into the truck. Need two hands and stable footing to move that thing. The bars themselves are pretty beefy too.

 

The shipping weight of my Andersen WDH was no more than 60 lbs. It's rated to 16K.

My review of the hitch can be found here: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ion-hitch.html

 

Good review, thank you.

I'm 64 and in good shape except for one rotator cuff tear in my right shoulder. No problem lifting until I need to go over my head. It's healing slowly but surely.

We, my wife and I, plan on something not exceeding 7000lbs and 700lb tongue weight and probably less. This will happen next summer (God willing) so I have time to plan and review. Now I'm concerned about moving weight to the front axle on my light f150 with the Anderson. I have a decent payload but have no idea how it will squat. I'm guessing the Anderson can distribute enough to the front axle but I'm terrible at guessing.

 

Unfortunately, the only scale weights I have are with the WDH and trailer fully connected. Someday, I'll do the disconnected weights, but there are no CAT scales near enough to me to make it a quick trip.

Do consider calling Andersen and asking how much weight their WDH can transfer.

For what it's worth, my prior truck was a 1/2 ton and I used it to pull a dual axle, enclosed, utility trailer. While I never got it scaled, I suspect that it weighed close to 6K when fully loaded. I don't recall feeling any unsteadyness with that configuration and it did make the truck squat some. I'm not saying this to make you think you don't need a WDH, just that a light trailer will require _some_ weight distribution, not a tremendous amount.

 

I've heard that the Anderson doesn't transfer as much weight back to front axle as some others. I can't prove or quantify that however.

 

Based on my experience with both an early model Andersen and now a new 16K model I think you would be fine with what you are considering. I purchased the early model back in March 2015 and used it for almost 5 seasons with a low-payload '14 RAM 1500 and a small Jayco. With close to 500lb tongue weight I had no trouble getting 100% load restoration to the front axle. Put ~25K miles on that combination before moving up to a '19 F-250 gasser and a '19 ORV 23DBS. With the new truck/trailer I picked up the 16K Andersen - shipping weight was listed at 54lbs. While I have the empty scale weight for the truck I don't yet have any scale weights with the new trailer. However, when I picked up the new trailer a couple weeks ago it was estimated to weigh in around 7200 empty + ~660 cargo as they sent me off the lot with full water tanks - so close to 7900. Tongue weight as measured with my Sherline tongue scale was ~940. I did my own hitch install at the dealer as none of them had seen an Andersen before. Based on front wheel well measurements before and after applying the weight distribution I was easily able to achieve close to 70% load restoration without any fine tuning and that was plenty good for me. It towed home very stable and no sway - just what I would expect based on my previous experiences. My feeling is if you can get at least 50% restoration you should be good. We have our first trip out with this new combination early August so I will have some actual loaded scale weights at that point. The main reasons I originally went with the Andersen still apply with our new combination - it's lightweight enough that my wife can handle it by herself, and it's simple enough to connect that she can also do that by herself. Once we identify just how much compression of the red urethane bushings is required to achieve the desired weight distribution it's a simple matter of connecting up the chains and tightening to the measured compression.

 

In all of the RV forums that I frequent, I have never seen confirmation that the Andersen hitch can replace all of the weight back on the steer axle except for really light tongue weighs. The geometry is just not there. With a Super Duty pulling a light camper the Andersen should do fine. With a 1/2 ton puling a heavy camper, 1 of the other WDHs with integrated sway control might be a better fit.

 

Love my Equal-i-zer hitch and yes all the weight is in the hitch head with ball (pretty damn heavy) but once that's in your trucks receiver with a locking hitch pin you never have to touch it again. The bars unpin and come out individually. Lots of weight transferred to the front wheels.

 

Or if you need to use a different hitch, I've unpinned it from the receiver and left it hanging by the ball on the tongue of my trailer with a locking hitch pin. You just need a very trusting helper to hold it up while you perfectly back it back into your trucks receiver.

 

That's what I've heard too. I hang out with a lot of half-ton guys who pull at or near max, and it seems like a poor choice for them. Don't get me wrong, it's a VERY nice hitch for the right application, you just need to do your homework.

 

All good answers and info; exactly what I'm looking for.

 

To add my answer to the original question: There's just a lot of steel in them. It sounds like you're up to it though.

One tip, even if you can muscle a heavy one around, why do it? Get your WDH, put it in the receiver, then build or find something that would make a good stand about an inch under it. The hardest part of a WDH being so heavy is holding it up while aligning with the receiver while hunched over. With the little stand, you carry your WDH to it, set the ball end on it, then hold a lot less weight up while you slide it in. It will really pay off when you're sore from other travel activities and then go to hitch up to head home.

 

I use one of these to install and remove my WDH from the receiver....they work GREAT!

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Orang...C0EC770CE60F3E