Should have bought a half ton

Stock gearing works fine as long as their owners don't keep installing larger tires than what this truck was designed for.

 

Exactly. Anything over 33's should really get regeared

 

Thats a negative ghost rider - Air bags are about the worst solution. It focuses all the weight on the already too-lightly rated axle.

Get a weight distribution hitch first, it distributes the weight across the front and rear axle of the truck. (physics is awesome) if that doesn't completely solve the problem, then maybe consider air-bags.

 

color me impractical, but I failed to see how a so-called weight distributing hitch can put weight from a trailer up on the front axle

 

Thats what it does apperantly, it transfers some of the weight to the tront of the vehicle. I read about a while ago.

 

While still being plugged into the hitch receiver on the back....

Time for some research

 

Physics baby

 

WDs go from a pin joint to moment joint. About the same as lifting up on the hitch receiver.

 

What is this, an episode of Phineas and Ferb?

Ah.... Yes. Yes it is

 

I pull a trailer to the dump maybe once / mo. LOL it sucks but it gets the job done. I have the same sentiment as you when i see people loaded up with "overland" gear and ALSO pulling a trailer..... -__- Pulling a trailer will nearly guarantee you could have gotten there in a full size chevy lol

 

Who's Doofenshmirtz?


Pretty neat and most likely a must for any trailer big enough for trailer brakes.


For this thread, even though the OP checked way out, I've recently seen F150s draggin' ass down the freeway and Ridgelines pulling sizeable TTs, leveled nicely. On my commute, I also have repeatedly seen an Escalade doing the speed limit or more while heavily riding bump stops with a thrashed 20fter+ behind.

 

There's a guy near me with an ancient Chevy cavalier who tows a lawn trailer with a walk behind that's got at least a 28 inch deck on it. Might even be a 32. And he delivers pizza when he's not cutting lawns. What a trooper

 

It actually does, I saw my buddy's before and after CAT scale printouts, I was amazed.
He also weighed yet again, and realized how much extra weight his wife "packed" shit for the trip. I think a family meeting was cancelled and she was ordered out the night before to undo her mess.

 

Holy crap! A malaise era GM in the midwest? How does it survive?


I need to remember to grab a screenshot of that 'Slade if I ever see it again. The only thing that I can hop is that he is hauling lead.

 

there's a fair number of early '90s GM still running around the Midwest. I'm guessing is they park at home when the weather's bad.

 

Unexpected and interesting. I see them all the time here, but corrosion isn't a problem.

 

I have a 5x10 utility and can confirm...towing it isn’t that much fun but if I did it all the time I would’ve got a bigger truck. The Tacoma does just fine for once in a while towing

 

Trading mine in this week for 4x4 f150 with locking diff. My 2018 4x4 already has major mechanical issues at 32000 miles.

 

A properly set up weight distributing hitch makes a tremendous difference when towing a heavier trailer, the hitch greatly dampens the trailers ability to "leverage" the truck by limiting the amount of tongue weight change that the truck will feel.

How it works:

Lets say for example you took a heavy bungee strap from your rear bumper, ran it under your hitch and then attached it to the front cross member of the trailer. The bungee is trying to pull the the truck and trailer into a letter A shape with the point of the A being the hitch ball (pivot). Obviously our bungee can't make the A shape but it can keep the truck and trailer frames fairly level in relation to each other.

If you apply extra weight to the trailer tongue trying to force it down (pivoting on the hitch ball trying to make a V shape) the bungee will be stretched tighter resisting your down force keeping the 2 frames level (still trying to make the A shape).

The bars that go from the hitch back to the trailer tongue are torsion springs (a metal bungee).

The front of the bar is attached to the hitch mount on the truck (not the ball), the bar extends behind the truck (a lever). If you were to lift up on the bar (with no trailer) you would first raise the rear and eventually lift the rear axle off the ground. This is how you are putting weight on the front axle.

The rear of the bar is attached to the trailer frame a few feet behind the hitch ball (the pivot). This is where lifting the lever comes in. Since you are behind the pivot point the spring is pulling down on the trailer frame, the lever effect continues to move the force back toward the trailer axle.

If you stuck with me this far, sorry to write a novel, hope it made some sense.

Footnote: I see lots of folks talking about towing at 80 mph... First of all speed limits here aren't that high (and roads not that good), second - well - damn, I just can't imagine doing it. Take a couple thousand pounds behind you on a pivot, add some extra profile for the wind to play with, plus a few more tires -- just too many bad possibilities available for fates selection, just my opinion, stepping off soapbox, thank you.

 

What major mechanical issues?