Increasing Hitch System Capacity

[Adam]

Ok I went and weighted my new Arctic Fox fully loaded and found out the tongue weight was 1120lbs, which as it turns out exceeds my reciever and WD bars limits of 1000. Now I am shopping for a new tow system. I turned to Reese, mostly because I have always used them and been happy with their dual cam system. I am considering the Titan 45 series class V reciever with its WD rating of 14000lbs and a TW of 1,700lbs and the new 2002 High Performance Trunnion 1,200lbs WD kit. This WD kit will require me to use a 2 1/2" reducing bushing to adapt down to 2". Does anyone have any thoughts on this system or on using the reducing bushing?

 

[hertig]

Increasing Hitch System Capacity

The WD kit rating of 1200 lbs is real close to the current tongue weight of 1120 lbs. If you add stuff or change stuff in the trailer, it could possibly change the tongue weight to over 1200 lbs. Is there a WD kit with a bit higher rating available?

Is there any other component of this system you haven't verified the weight limit of (for instance the ball)?

 

[Adam]

Increasing Hitch System Capacity

Thanks for the reply Hertig, I have been thinking about that also, but when I weighed the trailer it was packed for a week trip including food and all 60 gallons of water. Normally we only travel with about 1/4 tank of water and are only gone for the weekend. The receiver I chose has a WD tongue rating of 1700lbs. The WD bars I chose to get have a 1200lbs rating. If in the future when I reweigh the trailer the tongue weight has increased beyond these bars capacity I only have to trade out the bars for the next step up. Which would be the 1700lbs WD bars. I have been reading in "other" forums about bar weight choices, the general concenus has been underweighted bars are a bad idea period but bars to far over weighted are not good either. Hence my decision to go with the 1200lbs bars. As for the ball I have always used one with a 10,000lbs rating. Once again thanks for the input. The searchable info in these forum and the replies to my questions have really helped out>

 

[hertig]

Increasing Hitch System Capacity

Sounds like you have done your homework. Let's just hope you don't decide on a 2 week trip Just out of curiosity, what would be the weight after using the black and grey water tanks for a week?

 

[Adam]

Increasing Hitch System Capacity

You ask a good question there Hertig, (just when I thought I had covered every angle) :blush: Mostly in the interest of mpg and max hill pulling power I usually dump on the way out of the park, but now you got me wondering what would be my total weight with full grey and black tanks and how would that affect my tongue weight? Looks like the weigh master is going to make some more money!! I am also trying to find out what the GCWR is for my Pickup, I see it referred to in my owners manual but I don't find the spec listed in the book and I have not found anything on the net as of yet.

 

[hertig]

Increasing Hitch System Capacity

I suppose you could try the dealer. The following specs appears to be the component values for the 2003 F250 Extended Cab Long Bed. I got them by 'tricking' the Ford site, so these should be used as a sanity check only

Maximum Trailer Weight...12,500 (Ford seems willing to provide this)
GVWR..............................8,800 (get this off your door jamb)
Maximum Payload.............3,000 (passengers, options, cargo, etc)
Curb Weight......................5,800 (Base vehicle weight + driver)

If you can get either Maximum Payload or Curb Weight, you can figure out GCWR.

Using these numbers, GCWR = MTW + Curb Weight = 18,300 lbs ..OR..
GCWR = MTW + (GVWR - Max Payload) = 18,300 lbs
(again this value is subject to model/equipment variations and/or inaccuracies on the Ford website)