It's still good for 5K - which is more than most folks tow. Anything over 3500lbs requires brakes in MN. I steer clear of rental trailers since they all seem to have surge brakes rather than electric. Anyone who has ever gone down an icy hill with a fully loaded trailer and surge brakes wouldn't do it again

 

Now you all have completely confused me. I thought I understood till I read this thread. Here's how I understad it and someone please tell me where I went wrong.

A properly loaded trailer will have approximately 10% of its gross weight on the trailer tongue for stability. That's fine for a 6,000lb trailer because a Class IV can support a 600lb tongue weight. To tow 10,000 or 12,000lb trailers though a Class IV hitch can't take a 1,000 or 1,200lb tongue weight. The weight distribution systems all use the principle of leverage so the trailer remains stable (55% of the weight ahead of the axles) while the hitch only sees 500 or 600lbs.

So, as I understand it, weight distributing hitches allow us to pull heavier trailers, safely, while still not exceeding the weight limits of our hitch. It has nothing to do with distributing weight on the truck's frame.

G

 

Very true. My Titan had the brake controller...I never needed to use it once. The biggest thing I towed was a small U-Haul trailer once.

 

Good info, i was wondering this aswell. now i can install the hitch.

 

Hello, just bought the same kit for my Ram and it didn't come with the bumper cap. When I called the place I bought it from, they said that there was no part number for it. Can anyone who's installed it look inside their bumper cap and see if there are any numbers when they get a chance?

Thanks for any help!
Joe

 

Inside of mine has 2 different numbers.

1st: #112670 TEO
2ndd: #68055052AA (The 2nd number has the mopar symbol beside it so it may be the more likely number)

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I appreciate you monkeying about with your hitch stuff at this hour!

Joe

 

Just bought the mopar hitch kit and was curious if anybody who installed the same thing ever actually used a torque wrench to tighten the bolt. The last time I checked a torque wrench that could do 300lbs was over $200 bucks. Should I do it the old fashion way with a socket wrench and a metal pipe?

 

bingo

 

I have never towed a trailer with surge brakes in the snow but I kinda liked it when I picked up my 72 chevy 4600lbs, trailer was well over 2000 and I towed this with a rental trailer with surge brakes with my 03 Durango R/T, pretty much a full load for this SUV, 60 to 70 mph in the wind and I was fine.
Second time I rented a trailer from the same place that had something wrong with the surge brakes or the tongue itself seemed almost like the transmission was winding up before it would go but it was the trailer, it would let the trailer go for a second then it was like the brakes grabbed for a second then let go, so for 100 miles in construction and lotsa stops I learned when to let off the gas so it would not put so much yanking on my truck. Got my money back on that rental.
Then the last trailer was from U-haul, it was late when I picked it up the guy had it hooked up before I got out of the building signing all the paperwork, I said all set he says yup. So off I go. Strange when I look in the passenger mirror I barely see the trailer, on the drivers side seems I have to keep the truck on the right line or the trailer will be in the next lane. So I pull over go check, its dark, I make sure everything is locked on at least. Off I go home, back the trailer in and load the 72 again so I can take it 20 miles to the body shop. It was a weird trip seemed the trailer would be on one side, then it would be on the other but it was not swinging back and forth, not pulling the Durango around or anything. So I drop off the truck and notice a red tag hanging under the trailer near the hitch. It reads DO NOT USE THIS TRAILER, NEEDS SERVICE so off I go back to u haul luckily my truck was at body shop safely but uhaul does not know this, I was pissed I could have lost my classic truck. I showed them the tag, and the guy just pushed on something and the whole thing fell apart...and he said thay could have happened if I would have loaded anything on there. Well I said good thing I noticed that before I loaded my truck....another freebie but I don't like those kind of freebies. U haul is a bad bad place, worse part is this is one of the big depots that does service and maintenance. Crazy.