When I had my 89 F250 I bought a 24'TT. They installed an equilizer hitch at the dealership. I am pulling the trailer with an 04 PSD F350. I have had several folks tell me I no longer need the equilizer hitch! Reson I am asking is another fella bought a 23'Toy Hauler and is pulling it with a 1/2T Chevy, and when I told him to get a hitch he said he doesn't need it since he is going to get a 1T truck of some sort.

So now I am curious as to whether the hitch is needed or not?

Hank

 

How does the truck behave with the trailer on and no bars attatched?

The primary purpose of the weight distributing hitch is to distribute the tongue weight over both truck axles (and some back onto the trailer axles as well), so the truck tows level and with good front/rear weight balance. If your truck has a stout enough rear suspension and the trailer doesn't sink it below level and the truck steers and stops good and doesn't porpoise much when going through dips without the bars, then it's not needed.

I would still have a sway control on it though.

 

Remember not to overload the hitch. Even 1 tons don't usually come with anything bigger than a Class III hitch, which is usually only rated for 5000lbs without the weight system. Check the hitch, it should be stamped or stickered. If you are under that limit, the truck isn't sagging, and the wheels are all firmly attached to the ground, then no, you might not need the system anymore.

 

I have a F350 with a class V hitch rated at, I believe 13,500. I tow a smaller TT, 6500#, 22'. I have tried towing with and without the load equalizer (LE) hitch and I think that my truck tows much better with the LE than without. I tow on so-so roads, alot of curves, frost heaves-bumps and mtns.

I also tow a 18' car hauler and have never used a LE on that trailer. It tows fine without. One day I might have to try it with the LE to see if there is any difference.

 

I have a 20' Car Hauler and always use the equalizer. It helps keep the two vehicles level and allows the rig to handle better on the open road IMO.

I would definitely consider the sway control, and I'd watch to make sure your tongue weight doesn't exceed what the hitch has stamped as its tongue weight. A hitch that will tow 12,500 lbs can probably only take a 1250 lb tongue weight. The TT maker might have the tongue weight for you based on configuration. Otherwise you can get it from a scale, or just use the good old 10% of total weight rule to guess it.

I'm of the view that the LE can't hurt if you already have all the stuff and it works. Otherwise, I fully understand not wanting to splurge. It depends on how it handles, how much you can take, and what kind of travel you plan to do with it.

 

Just remember that an antisway system and a load equalizer system aren't the same thing.

 

You might be able to tow without an equalizer system, but why?

The ride and control with an equalizer setup are heads and heels above the plain old ball hitch. Your rig will be more controllable, will sway and bounce less and you will be much more relaxed at the end of a tow. I would only tow with a regular hitch if I had a light load, say 1-2K pounds or a very short(20 miles) trip and I was too lazy to hook things up.

My 94F250 with equalizer tows an 8000# trailer like it wasn't there. I can foolishly get it to 80 with no problem with sway. Towing a 4,000# trailer without equalizer was bouncy and anything past 65 was a nightmare, course not comparing apples to apples here, a short trailer acts different anyway.

An antisway bar is good gravy ontop of everything else. Well worth it when it gets windy or you see a lot of trucks.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

check the fine print on/for the hitch, it is probabaly not rated to haul much more than 6000 lbs without a load equalizing hitch.