Wazrus Australia

[Wazrus]

I have a heavy (about 2/3 ton empty) tipping trailer which I use fairly regularly behind my tractor and that's OK. Recently, however, I changed my usual vehicle from a pickup to a sedan-type and I plan to tow the trailer behind the sedan, on the road. Being a tipper, the trailer has a pretty heavy load on the towball - as it's a tipper, the axle centre is more towards the rear of the trailer than the ball - that's OK., too. With all that in mind, I've had fitted 'pump-up shockers' to the rear of the tow car and these do indeed raise the back of the car and allow good clearance over steep ramps and gutters.
When I bought the car, I had the maker's heavy-duty (2400kg) towbar package fitted and this looks OK., too. The HD tow package came with a load distribution hitch. My question of the readership is that one of the systems seems to be a bit unecessary: the pump-up shockers do pretty much the same job as the LDH, or am I not understanding the ideas behind both or either???
Note that the shockers seem to do a good job - better than when the trailer was used on the pickup - of levelling the rig. When on the pickup, the trailer had a 'nose down' attitude; I had often thought to raise the towball height, but the sedan came along before I got around to it!
Thanks
Wazrus

 

[allenr]

I reckon the pump up shockers are prob'ly all you need.

Having said that I'll admit I'm not sure what a load distribution hitch is.

Maybe it's as I've seen on caravans - a couple torsion bar type springs attached to the A frame and then hooking up to the towbar?

 

[Wazrus]

Allenr
That's pretty much what I'd come to understand, too. Yes, the LDH is a couple of torsion bar-type springs attached to the trailer A-frame, by a chain lashup and the other end to the lower 'deck' of a sort of 'double-deck' towball isert which fits, as per normal, into the square-section towbar on the car. The 'double deck thingo' is a massive casting and its exact purpose had me tricked, too! Seems to be an awful lot of hardware and it all seems a bit crude, in a way. It is, however, a genuine Commodore part, ridgey-didge, as are the high-lift shockers.
What I've got is the original belt-and-braces setup, or so it seems....
Wazrus