So the RV dealer tells me

michael_h · 08-12-2015, 10:04 AM

I stopped in at an RV dealerships this afternoon to look at a larger trailer. The salesman tells me after I expressed my concern over 800 or over tongue weights that with the WDH tongue weight is not a concern because the hitch eliminates all the weight to veichiel connection point as proven when they took the rear tires off a front wheel drive car and both remained level to each other then drove it around . . . Hummm, is this a fish tail or factual, i'll let the experts that arn't trying to sell me anything get the facts straight

Blrmaker · 08-12-2015, 10:07 AM

Well I can't wait for the replies to this one.

inspecterbake · 08-12-2015, 10:36 AM

My BIL hooked his new camper up to his Yukon and had it to tight and it raised the rear wheels off the ground so I say maybe they did I need to see the video first.

BirchyBoy · 08-12-2015, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inspecterbake

My BIL hooked his new camper up to his Yukon and had it to tight and it raised the rear wheels off the ground so I say maybe they did I need to see the video first.

Was the trailer jack still down? I can't see how a WDH would lift at least 3k pounds off the ground.

SteveC7010 · 08-12-2015, 12:55 PM

Way back there was a Reese ad showing a front wheel drive Buick hitched to a trailer and no rear wheels on the car. If you hunt images on the net, I am sure it can be found.

So this one's actual.

TandE · 08-12-2015, 03:34 PM

Travis

BirchyBoy · 08-12-2015, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TandE

Travis

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!

**JRTJH** · 08-12-2015, 06:12 PM

LOL... While you're "peeling your bananas" take a look at the front wheels on that Toronado. They are "bottomed out"....

Anytime you "shift weight" from the hitch to the trailer and vehicle front axle, it doesn't "disappear", it doesn't "evaporate" into thin air, it is "levered" from one focal area to another. It's like a "teeter totter" in that the weight is shifted from one place to another, but the trailer still puts the same weight on the tow vehicle, the hitch just "moves it from the hitch "bearing point" to the front axle.

There is no such thing as the ability to hitch a trailer with a 800 lb tongue weight to a tow vehicle and "somehow" cause the weight to "become suspended above both vehicles".... The 800 pounds is still being carried by the "pair". About 70-80% is on the hitch/rear axle of the tow vehicle, about 10% is "shifted forward" (the ability of which is so well presented in the photo of the Toronado) and about 10% is shifted back to the trailer axles.

The salesman who tried to describe the hitch as "supporting all the weight" so any tow vehicle can tow most any trailer, should apply for America's Got Talent" as some kind of magician or comedic "nar-sayer".... It simply "don't work that way in real life"......

If you look carefully at the pictures, you'll see that the Toronado's front end is grossly overloaded. Essentially, if you tried to drive it, chances are you'd lose the front end within a very short distance. Today's vehicles and trailers are "capable" of the same "feats of magic", but keep in mind that even with the largest WD hitch, you can't make pounds disappear, you can only shift them to the tow vehicle front axle and to the trailer's axle. Trying to "overload the front end to unload the rear end" isn't a safe way to set up a hitch as is well pictured in the PS article.

ADDED: Here is the original Popular Science article with the "boat trailer/Toronado" photos and the explanation. Scroll down to page 158 to read the article from PS, June 1967 edition. https://books.google.com/books?id=jS...page&q&f=false

michael_h · 08-12-2015, 07:19 PM

I knew you guys would come thru, now that I own a TT and have done research after the fact and learned a lot from this forum it never surprises me the sales tactics that are used to move a unit off a lot

Ken / Claudia · 08-12-2015, 07:20 PM

I once purchased used a Wilderness travel trailer. It was about a 1980 model, 19ft light weight. All the manuals were still with the TT including a full page print of a chev citation (front wheel drive) without rear wheels/tires hooked up to the trailer. Fine print said something like do not do this, this is only to show how light wt. the trailer is. Dumb ad I thought at the time and still do. And those cars, I was a deputy at the time. The dept purchased a fleet of those to save fuel. At the time patrol vehicles lasted several years and not many of those lasted a year. Going code 3 up Mt. Hood the 18 wheelers where safe, It could not go much over 45 mph only with the A/C turned off.

BirchyBoy · 08-12-2015, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRTJH

LOL... While you're "peeling your bananas" take a look at the front wheels on that Toronado. They are "bottomed out"....

Anytime you "shift weight" from the hitch to the trailer and vehicle front axle, it doesn't "disappear", it doesn't "evaporate" into thin air, it is "levered" from one focal area to another. It's like a "teeter totter" in that the weight is shifted from one place to another, but the trailer still puts the same weight on the tow vehicle, the hitch just "moves it from the hitch "bearing point" to the front axle.

There is no such thing as the ability to hitch a trailer with a 800 lb tongue weight to a tow vehicle and "somehow" cause the weight to "become suspended above both vehicles".... The 800 pounds is still being carried by the "pair". About 70-80% is on the hitch/rear axle of the tow vehicle, about 10% is "shifted forward" (the ability of which is so well presented in the photo of the Toronado) and about 10% is shifted back to the trailer axles.

The salesman who tried to describe the hitch as "supporting all the weight" so any tow vehicle can tow most any trailer, should apply for America's Got Talent" as some kind of magician or comedic "nar-sayer".... It simply "don't work that way in real life"......

If you look carefully at the pictures, you'll see that the Toronado's front end is grossly overloaded. Essentially, if you tried to drive it, chances are you'd lose the front end within a very short distance. Today's vehicles and trailers are "capable" of the same "feats of magic", but keep in mind that even with the largest WD hitch, you can't make pounds disappear, you can only shift them to the tow vehicle front axle and to the trailer's axle. Trying to "overload the front end to unload the rear end" isn't a safe way to set up a hitch as is well pictured in the PS article.

ADDED: Here is the original Popular Science article with the "boat trailer/Toronado" photos and the explanation. Scroll down to page 158 to read the article from PS, June 1967 edition. https://books.google.com/books?id=jS...page&q&f=false

After reading that, I want to go to a junkyard and get torsion bars to build my own WDH for $15. The article says I can!

**JRTJH** · 08-12-2015, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BirchyBoy

After reading that, I want to go to a junkyard and get torsion bars to build my own WDH for $15. The article says I can!

Remember, back then, a new car was $2000, today it's $40,000. So, that $15 is probably closer to $300. Likely close to the same price as a new WD hitch from one of the major manufacturers....

Besides, where are you going to find torsion bars from (of all things) a Plymouth??? LOL

Seabee · 08-13-2015, 02:33 AM

Anyone willing to recreate this with modern equipment?

GmaPaTime · 08-13-2015, 03:44 AM

This is the stuff that makes this forum so darn interesting to read. It's become my morning news paper. It's both educational and entertaining in the same read...

Steve

BirchyBoy · 08-13-2015, 04:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Remember, back then, a new car was $2000, today it's $40,000. So, that $15 is probably closer to $300. Likely close to the same price as a new WD hitch from one of the major manufacturers....

Besides, where are you going to find torsion bars from (of all things) a Plymouth??? LOL

Late model GM 4x4's

**sourdough** · 08-13-2015, 05:32 PM

You know, back in 85 I purchased my first TT. 25' Terry Taurus by Fleetwood. Had a WD hitch installed by a hitch installer at an RV dealership (not a tech but a genuine person that had his own shop off to the side and did welding/hitch fabrication etc.). He set it up and told me if it didn't perform well to just "adjust" the links in the chains. In my travels with it I felt it just pulled the truck too much so I just kept tightening the links. When we were at home one day I thought I would just pull it up a couple of more links and try it. Adjusted it, took off down the street and the first dip I hit on a cross street my rear tires just went in the air, the engine revved and I plopped down on the other side of the dip with a chirp.

The WD hitch will move the weight around.....but it doesn't disappear as John said. It will be somewhere in the trailer or TV; in my case it was on the front of the TV. Improper distribution could be catastrophic.

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