Squat with WD Hitch

I have a decent amount of squat when my TT is coupled with a WD hitch. I know my weights, payload is not maxed. I watched a few videos made by the manufacturer (EQ) and they do state some squat is ok or even a good thing. I think maybe the hitch is not set correctly. I see some posts on here of heavier TT’s with WD hitches looking very level and even. And some say no Sumo springs or anything, just a “properly” adjusted WD hitch.

So then, should a properly set WD hitch eliminate squat? If not, is it really necessary to invest in Sumos or similar to get the squat out? Or is a little squat a good thing?

Thanks everyone.

 

First thing - measure your FRONT wheel to fender clearance before hooking up the trailer, then measure it again after hitching up with the WD hitch. Why measure the front fender height? The WD hitch distributes the tongue weight of the trailer between the front axle, rear axle, and trailer axles. Ideally, it can transfer up to 33% of the tongue weight forward to to front axle, 33% to the trailer axles, and the remainder to the rear axle. This is hard to achieve so we want to at least restore the weight taken off of the front axle when you loaded weight on to the hitch (the rear axle axles as a fulcrum when you load weight on the hitch, which lifts the front of the vehicle).

If your front fenders are higher after hitching the WD hitch, you need to transfer more weight with the hitch. If it’s the same height, you are transferring some weight. If it is lower than when the truck wasn’t hitched up, then you are getting good weight transfer.

The WD hitch usually transfers about as much weight forward as it does backwards to the trailer axles. If you are seeing excess squat, you may need to adjust the hitch to transfer more. But the front fender height is a good way to judge. You can go so far as multiplying the height difference in inches by 700 to find out how much weight is being transferred (or removed) from the front axle. The stock front spring rate is 700 lbs/in.

Edit: additionally, the WD hitch doesn’t eliminate squat, but it mitigates and minimizes it. You still want some of the additional weight of the trailer tongue on the rear axle. Technically, with the right [crazy and not all useful in the real world] setup, you can actually redistribute the entire weight of the tongue AND the weight of the rear axle to the front axle and trailer axles. This would be horribly impractical and dangerous, but the rear axle is the drive axle so more weight on the axle gives you more traction in good conditions. Traction improves handling. So you want the weight distributed to all axles if you can.

 

You have to remember how weak the rear springs are. It doesn’t take much weight to sag a tundra. Great post above. Its entirely possible you will transfer weight to the front wheels and still see the back sag. I added sumos because it rode like crap sagging down in the back even with wdh

 

Might be worthwhile to post what has been done to your truck... Are you on totally stock suspension? Did you level the truck? Stock you have around 2-2.5" of rake i believe. with the WDH and a heavy trailer, you hope to only squat around 2" making the truck sit level. If the truck starts out leveled, you are already behind.
What kind of WDH are you using? I had a Camco R6 that was a nice unit, but even with 1000lb bars and maxed out, it never seemed to distribute as good as the equilizer hitch with 1000lb bars that replaced it. This was with 700ish lbs of tongue weight.

You say you know your weights, as in you've made a trip to the scales and have axle weights front/rear/trailer with and without the distribution bars attached? What do the numbers say?

 

Post pics with the trailer hooked up. Post pics of the WDH as well so that we can see how it's set up. Are the spring bars parallel to the ground? Even when I had worn leaf springs, my max drop was 3/4 inch.

 

The factory rear springs are hardly adequate to carry the unloaded weight of the truck alone. They are absolutely terrible.

Put a set of Firestone airbags back there and enjoy your new truck. It will look and handle completely different... and you will wish you had them sooner.

 

Not to be condescending but just to eliminate a variable...Does this mean you know your specific options configuration's ratings, weighed the trailer, and have accounted for passengers and cargo? Quite possible you do indeed have all that straight. But the guy who snapped his Ram 2500's frame was so confident in his numbers he went at Ram with both barrels on social media and then had it explained to him that he looked at all the wrong numbers when putting his truck and camper combo together and was well over ratings.