Tongue weight + WD hitch weight

[Trout34]

About the time I'm comfortable with my setup, another issue pops up. Here's my current question. I've got a Pathfinder with a limit of 600# tongue weight. Next week a Feather Sport X17C with my name on it will be built in Middlebury. Overall the trailer is lite, it should come out weighing about 3025# with a max of 3500#. But it has a tongue weight of 475#. I've been researching WD hitches with sway control. I'm leaning toward a Reese strait line dual cam system. In doing so and evaluating purchasing/shipping options I noticed that the hitch components will weigh about 110#. That obviously puts me very near the limit of the Pathfinder. Does the hitch distribute the tongue weight, which it now becomes part of, so that the net effect is less than the straight addition makes it appear?

With all the research I've done, all the lessons I've learned from others on this and other forums, I have to wonder how many combos at campgrounds are safe. There's a lot of opportunity to mess up and have an unsafe combination.

[clutch]

I find it hard to believe that the hitch assembly is 110#. I haven't weighed our equalizer and bars and sway control but I am sure it would only be about 60#.

[Wyldink]

My Reese pro series 49903 weighs just over 100 pounds. I bet the hitch alone with a solid shank weighs at least 60.

[SkyBound]

My understanding is that the hitch weight acts against the payload of your tow vehicle. The actual tongue weight of the trailer is what you must keep below the 600lb limitation. Yes, the hitch will send some weight back to the trailer axle and up to the steer axle, but that full tongue weight is still there and cannot exceed your vehicle's limit.

[RogerR]

Take a long look at the Andersen hitch. Not only is it lighter at under 60 pounds, it has built in sway control that is based on the tongue weight on the ball making friction on the cone of the hitch under the ball. No adjustments to make once your hitch is dialed in.

Since we got it I have only had to change it when I changed the way I had the brackets attached. I litteraly just count the threads and I am there every time I hitch up.

[Scott91370]

The hitch does factor in to payload and I would imagine with its significant weight it would be calculated as part of the tongue weight.