Is this a Weight Distribution Hitch?

Hi Im will be maybe using it for this one behind a Magna Wagon Jayco Dove

Any van over 1 tonne loaded weight should be using something better than that toy.

Should be well suited to the magna and dove.
Just get the adjustment right so that vehicle and van are level.
This will take a bit of fiddling but worth the effort.

So $80-100 for that one would be ok?

Bruce

The Shepherds crook WDH is only good for about a 90 kg ball weight. Your ball weight will be over 200 kg. You really should be using a heavier unit. Check the height of your front wheel arches before and after hitching your van. If you are spreading the ball weight evenly over both axles of the van, the wheel arch should be lower after you hitch the van.

Shannon - see reply 4. Don't waste your money on that toy. As your tug is FWD, it is very important that you get half the ball weight on the front wheels.

If the Dove is only about 1200kg it wont have a ball weight anywhere near 200kg.

If by some mischance it does he wont be legally able to tow it with a Magna would he????????????????.

Snoopy

The first part of my followup was to Bruce. He claims his van weighs in at 2.2 tonnes. 10% of that is over 200 kg. Shannon has the Dove @ 1200 kg.

Yeah sorry a bit early for me yet.

I agree a shepherds crook is far too light for 200kg

Should be using a 550 HR WDH for that

The crook is a bit light for the Dove as well as it will have a weight of over 120kg

Hi Peter,
My ball weight is 198 kg near enough to the 10% rule.

I have the 4 bar shepards crook setup which I have set with a high degree of tension.
It takes quite an effort to fit each bar into its cradle on the A frame. The cradles/brackets I had to fabricate myself as I could not get the brackets to suit a 6" A frame.

These things I would suggest come in all weight factors. It takes more effort to fit my bars than my mate requires to tension his Hayman Reece hitch on his Jayco Sterling which weighs slightly more than my van (150 kg or so).

There is no weight limit set my the bars and they are about 40 years old. But... they still work very well. I know exactly what my van weighs as I have weighed it on our cattle scales as I have done with the mates Jayco and the nephews Kimberly Camper.

Anyhow the upshot is that it works well on my outfit and I would not tow without it. I have thought about a Hayman Reece outfit but I have not been able to see the need. I am no slouch when it comes to engineering so I would be aware if the system was not performing.

Hope this clarifies the issue.

Cheers, Bruce

"There is no weight limit set my the bars and they are about 40 years old."

Bruce, what exactly do you mean by that? The manufacturers put a weight rating on their equipment. The limit set is gauged by the maximum capacity of the equipment to effectively transfer the ball weight effectively. The majority of the equipment on the market is supported by manufacturers web sites where you can check up on the specified figure.

However the manufacturer of the shepherds crook WDH has no web site. A few retailers are stating that the bars will work effectively with ball weights of up to 125 kg. I take a more realistic view of them and take Tom Olthoff's recommendation that they will only handle ball weights of up to 90 - 95 kg. Your claim of them being completely effective with a ball weight of around 200 kg is the most outrageous claim I have heard.

Have you done measurements to check how effective the weight transfer is on your rig? There are two methods that can be used. One is to put scales under each wheel and see if both axles are carrying the same extra weight. The most practical for you would be to use the Hayman Reese recommended method. Measure the height of each wheel arch on your vehicle from the ground without the trailer hitched. Hitch up the van. Remeasure the wheel arch heights. If the front and rear wheel arches have dropped by the same amount then the bars are set correctly.

If you are a member of Caravaners Forum, you can go to the Document Storage section and see the results that HR produced at caravan shows by using a scale under each wheel and measuring the wheel arch heights.

Bad choice of words.

Meant to say "there is no weight limit stamped on my bars".

As far as a web sight goes these bars are 40 years old.
You of all people would know that computers as we know them today was not even a twinkle in some engineers eye back then, let alone any thought of the web.
If you look at my picture in the signature line you will see that it sits level.

By the way your language is getting a little over the top with" outrageous statement"

A little more civility is in order.
Thank you.

Shannon - I just looked at the 2010 Jayco brochure off their web site. There could be very well be some variation. The off road model is shown as 1045/130 kg. You should not get too hung up on the empty weights, you need to know the loaded weights. The only way you can find that out is to load it up to travelling trim and put it over a weigh bridge. When you do so, remember some weighbridges only read out to the nearest 20 kg.

If your empty ball weight is heavier than the brochure weight, it puts your unit further out of the shepherds crook league.

If you are concerned about weighridge inaccuracies, use a registered public weighbridge.
They are required to measure to 2 decimal places, eg XXX.YY kg and are certified accurate.

Disco.

Disco - I think you mean XXX.YY tonnes not kg. No weighbridge capable of weighing trucks will measure to parts of a kilogram. Going on those figures it looks like the bridge you use only weighs to YY0 kg at best (nearest 10 kg.) The registered weighbridge I use measures to the nearest 20 kg.