Load leveling airbags

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I can tell you right now that the dealer is full of shit. With WDH you do need to get the correct one since there are different capacities on a lot of them. With how light the trailer is you technically do not need to get a WDH when it is empty but when you have it loaded down it is a differnt story.

Also if you dont like the ride then it may benefit you to change shocks on the truck to help with the ride as well. If you domt want to lift or level the truck then I would recommend either the Eibach or Bilstein shocks. Both will help the ride quality and improve overall control.

Hope this helps.
sorry, but you are incorrect. Please note in my original post I stated the *manufacturer* will void the warranty if you use a WDH. Not the dealer. I also purchased this directly from the manufacturer and asked this very question.

The trailer is an ultra-lightweight all aluminum enclosed car hauler from Trailex. With the way the trailer is constructed, they do not allow for any WDH.
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Ford does not require the use of a weight distribution hitch.
 

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its an aluminum trailer and the manufacturer states it will void the warranty as it wasn’t designed to carry that kind of pressure along the a-frame.
Kind of scary on a trailer carrying that kind of weight and tongue loading
 
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Correction sir, Ford does not require a WDH up to 5,000 lbs.
can you point that out in the manual, please? I can’t seem to find that anywhere, and my hitch (with the tow package) doesn’t say anything about needing a WDH up to a given weight.

to get back on topic, this is about ride quality when using airbags to level things out. Airbags do not redistribute the weight anyway, simply correct the stance, which is important for a lifted truck.
 


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Ford doesn't require WDH at all on the ranger up to full tongue weight. There's a video of one of the engineers explicitly stating this.

Honestly, not a lot of great options given your description. Leveling a truck you plan on towing heavy with is just not ideal. The rear sag isn't the real issue, it's the weight taken off the steering axles that negatively effect braking and handling. Air bags and stiffer springs just exacerbate the issue. WDH would be the best solution, but that's not an option here.(and yes there are many aluminum trailers that don't allow for WDH because of the localized stress it puts on the A frame.

You best bet would be if you really want to use this truck to tow, is put it back at stock ride height. Other than that, maybe go ahead and try the helper bags and give it a test run to see how if feels. Bags aren't a huge investment and you can always sale or return them if they don't work out.
 

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I tow a 8.5x20' enclosed that's 7500lbs and I'm using the 10k Equalizer WDH hitch. I'm thinking the bags would nice to return the rear to right height so at night I'm not pointing my headlights at the stars. But the feedback about droop limiting is discouraging.

I used the Firestone Ride Rite on the RV and looking at the installation instructions it doesn't appear as if it would limit droop.
Firestone Ride Rite instructions
 

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Curiosity got the better of me, so I did a quick statics load calculation on the amount of weight shift from the front axle at max tonque weight. I made one estimate as to the distance from the rear axle to the hitch ball of 55 in. If your measurement differs sub 55 for yours. 126.8 in. is the wheelbase: 750 lb. is max tongue weight; Y is weight transfer from the front axle
Y(126.8) - (55)750 = 0
solving for Y yields: Y = 55(750)/126.8
Y = 325 lbs
 

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I tow a 8.5x20' enclosed that's 7500lbs and I'm using the 10k Equalizer WDH hitch. I'm thinking the bags would nice to return the rear to right height so at night I'm not pointing my headlights at the stars. But the feedback about droop limiting is discouraging.

I used the Firestone Ride Rite on the RV and looking at the installation instructions it doesn't appear as if it would limit droop.
Firestone Ride Rite instructions
Why not just tighten up your bars a little more?
 

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I tow a 8.5x20' enclosed that's 7500lbs and I'm using the 10k Equalizer WDH hitch. I'm thinking the bags would nice to return the rear to right height so at night I'm not pointing my headlights at the stars. But the feedback about droop limiting is discouraging.

I used the Firestone Ride Rite on the RV and looking at the installation instructions it doesn't appear as if it would limit droop.
Firestone Ride Rite instructions
Airing up bags to lift the rear would take tension off of the spring bars, negating some to all of the effect of the WDH. If you did use both you'd want to adjust the bags first, then adjust the WDH. You'd have to find the balance, as you don't want to take too much weight off the drive axles.
 
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DT444T

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Sashimi_Moto

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Do yours not work by just picking a tighter link in a chain?
Nope, I have the Equalizer hitch. No chains.

With that said, once the tongue is lowered onto the ball the bars are pretty much under tension, and the subsequent squat after that only adds to the tension - so functionally even with bags raising the rear to return to "level", my load leveling bars are still in play, just not as much.

I don't think it's that much of an issue for me. I'm only curious about them due to the fact that at max towing weight, this light truck with a narrow wheel base is a little squirrely. I was theorizing that if I raised the rear under load (functionally stiffing spring rate) and put more weight onto the front that the tail wouldn't wag the dog quite as much. I also thought combining this with E-rated 10 ply tires would also aid in reducing the squirrely-ness.

It could be that there's really just no way to over come the fact that my truck is 3k lbs lighter than the trailer with a narrower wheelbase and that this is as good as it gets.
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