Trailer tongue weight and W/D hitches

I have a 2009 Double Cab TRD 4x4 long bed truck rated to tow up to 6500 pounds and 650 pounds on the tongue. I have a new travel trailer on the way. The trailer has a max gross weight of 6000 pounds and empty it is about 4900 pounds. It has an empty tongue weight of 590 pounds. I know that this trailer will be very close to maxing the truck out, BUT I have no intention of exceeding any of the trucks limitations. And, I WILL buy a bigger truck if towing this seems unsafe in the Tacoma. So, back to my question: I am concerned about tongue weight. I am not sure if full propane bottles, batteries, and the spare tire are included in the empty weight/empty tongue weights or not. When the propane bottles are filled up, batteries installed, spare tire mounted, and trailer loaded with camping supplies, I suspect the trailer will have a tongue weight higher than 650. I will be buying a weight distribution hitch. Does the use of the w/d hitch give me some credit towards lowering the "felt" weight on the trucks tongue? In other words, let's say the trailer, when loaded, has a tongue weight of 700. If I use the w/d hitch, the truck will "feel" the weight of something less than that on the tongue, maybe 20% less.... Or, 560 pounds. Would I be theoretically ok to tow with this set up since the tongue weight felt by the truck (560) would be under the max tongue weight (650)?

 

Welcome to TW. Check up top in the Mods & Tutorials drop down menu. There is a section for Towing (link here). I suggest you PM the author and ask him the question, as he appears to be the SME on this. Best of luck.

Frank

 

Thanks, I did PM the author. He hasn't responded yet. In the meantime, I was hoping to find info from others.

 

No, it doesn't. The tongue weight of the trailer remains unchanged regardless of hitch. Felt tongue weight doesn't change either, it just helps distribute that weight better (weight distribution hitch... Not weight reduction hitch)

Now how you load your trailer CAN radically change your tongue weight!