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Thread: weight distribution hitch.

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    lewy is offline Wizard Silver Subscriber
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    weight distribution hitch.

    Our little kia has a paltry 100kg tow ball weight our camper has 140kg tow hitch weight,whilst overall the camper is legal to tow the camper even when fully loaded the tow ball limit excludes towing it.I can shuffle a few things to the rear like the battery and tool box etc,but does anyone know if a weight distribution hitch will lower the weight on the towball even further and what would the inspectors actually weigh if inspected.cheers.
    Darwin
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    Quote Originally Posted by lewy View Post
    Our little kia has a paltry 100kg tow ball weight our camper has 140kg tow hitch weight,whilst overall the camper is legal to tow the camper even when fully loaded the tow ball limit excludes towing it.I can shuffle a few things to the rear like the battery and tool box etc,but does anyone know if a weight distribution hitch will lower the weight on the towball even further and what would the inspectors actually weigh if inspected.cheers.

    Even togh you can reduce the actual towball weight to 100, I'd definitely get an all clear from the Dept Transport or equivalent in your state. Not worth trying to dodge anything with so little to play with.
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    Go onto John Cadogen’s AutoExpert YouTube channel and search for his video on levelling hitches. I won’t link it owing to possible language issues. You may not like him but he does know what he’s talking about.
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    moving weight to rear is a recipe for disaster.

    Have a look at Robert Peppers towing weight calculator to see if your legal.

    Towing & Trailer Weights Calculator - L2SFBC

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    Quote Originally Posted by lewy View Post
    Our little kia has a paltry 100kg tow ball weight our camper has 140kg tow hitch weight,whilst overall the camper is legal to tow the camper even when fully loaded the tow ball limit excludes towing it.I can shuffle a few things to the rear like the battery and tool box etc,but does anyone know if a weight distribution hitch will lower the weight on the towball even further and what would the inspectors actually weigh if inspected.cheers.
    Is that actual or what they say it is? Have a ball weight tool in the shed if you want to borrow it to check.
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    lewy is offline Wizard Silver Subscriber
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    Quote Originally Posted by Narangga View Post
    Is that actual or what they say it is? Have a ball wight tool in the shed if you want to borrow it to check.
    that's is measured with my tow ball weight tool.
    Darwin
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    I am no engineer, but i expect that a weight distribution hitch is intended to apply a twisting force to move weight from the rear axle to the front axle. But the overall down force on the ball or the car won't be less, and the weight of the wdh would actually add weight onto the ball.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JimN View Post
    I am no engineer, but i expect that a weight distribution hitch is intended to apply a twisting force to move weight from the rear axle to the front axle. But the overall down force on the ball or the car won't be less, and the weight of the wdh would actually add weight onto the ball.
    in part thats why they work.

    the overall force is the same but the distribution is different, by turning the hitch into a "torque point" some of the weight is pulled from the rear axle of the tow vehicle and pushed to the front, following newtons rules theres an equal amount of transfer on the trailer, as its only got one axle (effectively unless its a dolly trailer) the axle acts as a pivot so theres an effective weight transfer from the front of the trailer to the rear...


    Theres a couple of issues with this.

    1. youre unweighting the rear axle and pushing weight to the front axle.
    2. youre unweighting the front of the trailer and pushing weight rearwards.

    like highlift jacks, done right its a good thing, but its easy to get it wrong.

    getting it wrong usually changes the E adjective, you go from being effective to entertaining.
    Dave

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    Why are you towing with the bantam weight Kia when you have a perfectly good tow tug in your D2a V8?
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    My daughter has this exact problem. They have a camper trailer with over 100Kg on the towball of their Kia Sportage Their trailer weighs maybe 1200Kg GTM..
    To know the answer we need to know the GTM of the trailer.

    if it is a say 1000Kg then by all means move batteries to the back as 100Kg ball weight is still 10% so stability should not be such a problem.

    You could change the batteries to LIFePo4 which would lose weight off the front without adding to the back.

    If you trailer is near the 1750 GTM limit of a Sportage , there is no way you should get your towball weight down to 100Kg.

    AFAIK from reading a lot, theuse of a equalising hitch will introduce a twisting force to the towbar. My guess is that the substructure of the Sportage is weak for Kia to have a 100Kg limit as they offer stiffer springs on a Sorento, to raise the towball limit to 150Kg.
    Regards PhilipA

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