Class III Trailer Hitch and Weight Capacities Review
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Review of a Class III Trailer Hitch and Weight Capacities
Traditionally a class III receiver hitch is good for trailers up to 5000 pounds and 500 pounds tongue weight. There are a few different variances from that, well show you that here in a second. Again were going to start with the stickers and show you the differences, as you can see here the max gross trailer weight is 5000 pounds as we discussed. The tongue weight looks to be 500 pounds, again about 10percent of your trailer weight. On the other side of the class III youll see a sticker for weight distribution. Thats a specification when you use a device that goes in between the truck and the trailer that takes up the tongue weight. What it does is distributes the weight between the truck and the trailer and allows you to carry a heavier weight. As far as a class III hitch is concerned, that increases the rating the hitch can handle.
This one goes up to 6000 pounds and 600 pounds in tongue capacity. On different vehicles, that can change. Some can be 7500 pounds, 8000, even 10000 pounds on a class III hitch. Those will all vary in a class III hitch. As you notice the weight distributions capacities do vary again that is going to vary which is going to be dependent on the vehicle. The heavier the vehicle, the heavier the weight distribution capacity. Traditionally speaking though the class III will always be 5000 max weight. To cover some of the aspects of a class III receiver hitch, again it has a 2 inch receiver which is an industry standard. Basically theyre going to be made out of a thicker material than the previous two classes. Another thing is youll see variances in the cross tube. In this example here we have a round cross tube, while other examples will be a square tube. When looking at a hitch you may hear things about one being stronger than the other. Up to a certain capacity, yes the round tube is a bit weaker than its square counterpart. However thats an application that doesnt involve towing, those are structural applications and stress going in different directions. You can up to 10000 pounds with a round tube hitch, after that traditionally square tubes take over. As long as you know the basics of the weight capacities of the hitch you can figure out exactly what you need for your application. These rules will apply to all three classes even the fours and fives which are reserved for heavy duty towing.
