John,
Unless your tounge weight is low and the towing vehicle's rear springs
are stiff, you really should have a weight-distributing hitch. The
reason is to transfer some of the tounge weight onto the front wheels of
the tow vehicle and the trailer's wheels. W/O such a hitch, you lighten
the front wheels of the tow vehicle, a situation that gets worse when
you're braking. (the trailer brakes make the tounge go down, levering up
the front of the tow vehicle even more)
I towed my '68 G.T. w/o spring bars, but I have air lifts on the back of
my Dodge P/U to help hold the (only) 400# tounge weight. My present
trailer has well over 600# of tounge weight, and I use the spring bars
along with the air lifts to make the whole rig 'level'.
If your vehicle's manufacturer recommends against a weight distributing
hitch, I'd think twice about towing with it at all.
<<Jim>>
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> In a message dated 07/27/2000 2:13:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> << From your remark, then, the suspension
> travel range on a SUV is the reason for recommending no weight distributing
> hitch?
> Huff >>
>
> This is why I believe they recommend against it. Land Rover and I think Land
> Cruiser too have extremely heavy ladder frames, so that shouldn't be the
> problem. But if you use a weight distributing hitch, it typically levers
> against the back suspension to compress the front suspension. However,
> levering against long-travel coil springs in the rear, I believe, would
> compress them too much as the "default" position.
>
> John
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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