RV FEATURE
Weight distribution hitches are expensive . Money isn ’ t everything , but it ’ s worth investigating whether you need one for your rig because , in my experience , they can make an enormous improvement to towing stability .
The principle is simple . When lowering a caravan ’ s coupling onto the towball , you ’ re adding weight to the rear of the vehicle , which in turn makes the rear suspension sag and lifts the front end , a bit like a see-saw . The result will be a tow vehicle that has reduced braking performance and poorer handling .
In the old days , it was common to see a station wagon with its nose pointing to the sky as it valiantly tried to tow a caravan while staying on the road . But times have changed .
A weight distribution hitch won ’ t reduce the ball weight of the van ; however , it will redistribute much of that weight over all the axles , including the caravan ’ s axles .
Before hitching up , the distance from the ground to the rim of the rear wheel arch was 880mm .
After hitching , the rear had sagged considerably .
WDH DEMONSTRATION
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of WDHs , I ducked out to Goldstream RV , where I found a secondhand van with an unladen ball weight of 257kg .
First , on flat , level concrete , I measured from the ground to the rim of the wheel arch , front and rear , to establish a baseline . The rear measured 880mm and the front was 865mm . My goal would be to return the vehicle to within about 10mm of the starting points through the use of a WDH .
Then , I hitched up the van without the use of a WDH , and took the same measurements . The rear had sagged to 845mm – a 35mm difference ! – while the front had leveraged skywards by 10mm .
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