Surprised that there are no trailer hitches with tongue weight indicators

RjCorazza · Mar 22, 2025

JRTJH said:
Other posters have moved into some of the "why it's important to know "based on trailer loading".... It's also important to know for safety/mechanical protection for the tow vehicle. If you look at the receiver under the tow vehicle it will have a decal stating maximum tongue weight/trailer weight for "ball mounted towing" and for "weight distribution towing"... There will be a SIGNIFICANT difference between those two ratings. Even the "larger receivers" especially on half ton trucks, will have a maximum ball weight of around 500/5000 pounds unless you use a weight distribution hitch, and using one will increase the tongue weight capacity to around double or even triple that 500 pound rating...

Does it really matter ??? If you consider that an empty 14' flatbed trailer probably has a 150-250 pound tongue weight, just putting six 80 pound bags of cement (480 pounds) on the front of the trailer can cause a tongue weight of around 600 pounds, overloading the receiver on the truck. Just moving those 6 bags to sit over the trailer axles will eliminate that potential, but the "value of knowing what the tongue will weigh is important, even with small loads that don't look like they could overload the truck....

So, yes, there's great value in knowing the tongue weight, not only when considering the trailer equipment, but also knowing the potential it has to overload the truck equipment/components, even with what might seem to be "no cargo at all"...

Very true, even on 3/4 ton trucks. My F250 with factory towing limits the non-equalized tongue weight to 600lbs, which runs out quick with a 12k trailer. Once setup, the equalizer bars take only an additional few minutes to put on and they significantly improve my towing experience.

BlueKnife · Mar 22, 2025

ZiggyD said:
I've seen the mechanical ones. They're too expensive and bulky for casual towing. Still surprised that there's no electronic solution for this.

Too expensive and complicated for what it's worth. If someone is green enough to need something like that, they should be limiting themselves to small loads in general or seek hands on instruction from someone with more experience.