I tow a 1999 Baja Outlaw 29' that has a dry weight of 6800lbs. With the gear add 300lbs, +/-, and full tank of gas 1200lbs, total 8300lbs. I normally tow with the full tank and 300 to 450 miles one way.

The trailer is a 2007 aluminum 3 axel Sportline.

I tow with a 1997 Ford F350 Turbo Diesel 4x4 crew cab with 6" lift. (I know, old stuff but it's what I have)The truck is rated to tow 10,000lbs but the stock hitch is 500lbs tongue weight and 5000lbs max towing. To be safe and legal I need to up grade my weight carrying hitch or add a weight distributing hitch.

I like the idea of the weight distributing hitch to not only bring me with-in the max towing weight and tongue weight, but also I understand it will improve the ride (which is pretty stiff) by shifting the load evenly through the whole rig. As I said, we always tow a long way on some pretty bad freeways and rough roads. By the time we get to the lake or ocean, we're pretty beat up. A new truck is not really in the budget.

My question is, why don't you see very many boat trailers with these weight distributing hitches? My understanding is they will work with surge brakes. Do you think it will crack or harm the aluminum trailer?
Anybody have one that can give me first hand information?

Thanks for any help.

Not sure about if will crack aluminum trailer but I used them with surge brakes for years. On an E-Z Loader trailer. I made a bracket for the bars that bolted on to trailer cause trailer doesn't Y out near back of coupler like other trailers. The trick to make them work with surge brakes is you must have chains at an angle so when couple slides to apply brakes it doesn't stay in and slides back out and releases. So made bracket for the lift bars adjustable to fine tune the way the brake couple releases

They will work with surge brakes. I've done it.

But now that I have a setup that is properly setup without the WD setup; I much prefer towing without it. I found that towing with the WD hitch setup on a surge brakes trailer really wore the whole surge brake coupler VERY fast. I had the whole surge brake coupler rebuilt when I upgraded from a 2500 Avalanche to an F-350 Dually.

Upgrade your hitch to a Reese Titan-V or Putnam XDR. Get a proper rated drop hitch, and upgrade your trailer to Electric/Hydraulic brakes. You can't get a better setup than this. Nearly all factory hitches are CRAP. The WD hitch might help with ride, but with a truck live you've got already, you will not notice a difference. You are already driving a teeter-toter. All you would be doing is better balancing the fat kid on one end, from leaning back and forth. He's still sitting on and riding one end of the teeter-toter.

Check this thread for resources and pics.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...tch-balls.html

On my 29 outlaw it was on a Steel tandam Heratige trailer and on truck scales I was right at 10k lbs w little over half tank gas and 2 spares. Are the Alu. trailers that much lighter.

I would get the Reese Titan-V or Putnam XDR and have Air bags installed on your truck with compressor, and forget about it, Air bags are the only way to go.

Sydwayz, Who you callin a fat kid?... you hurt my baby's feelings.lol

I did'nt think about the surge brake unit wearing out but can understand why it would.

I took a look at the Reese V and the XDR, either one looks like a good way to go, but the XDR is a 2" reciver tube and I already have a number of 2" ball mounts for other trailers I tow so I won't have to replace all of them, just one for the Baja.

I do have air bags, but thought if the WD made a big improvement in ride it might be worth it.

Thanks to all for the info.

The W/D will handle a lot better on the highway. I have trucks 1/2 ton with air ride and 3/4 ton. I use the bars all the time they put some of the weight to the front axle of tow vehicle improves handling and ride. Go to a car parts swap meet you'll be able to find the whole set up for $75-$100. I keep a set of bars in the toolbox of each of my trailers so if I am heading down the road and don't like the way it loaded and truck not handling right. Just pull over and slap em on and off I go. You change the tension on the bars with the chains to get the ride you like. Keep the roller on the surge brakes coupler and the pins on the master cyl. greased and you shoudn't have any problems