For those of you wth lifted trucks and weight-distributing hitches...

[Havasu Hangin']

...I thought you might find this interesting.
I weighed my truck alone:
Front Axle- 3,678 lbs
Rear Axle- 3,261 lbs
Total- 6,939 lbs
Then I weighed it with my boat attached and the weight-distributing hitch cranked up:
Front Axle- 3,400 lbs
Rear Axle- 4,980 lbs
Total- 8,380 lbs
The funny think is that I have almost 1,500 lbs in tongue weight, but the rear axle picked up 1,717 lbs (and the front axle lost 278 lbs). I figure I am transferring a few hundred pounds up to the front axle, so it would have been even worse without the weight-distributing hitch.
Conclusion- get the ball as close to the rear axle as possible, or those rear tires will work very hard...

[riverroyal]

so just a sway device with no weight dist would be better???

[cruser]

Looks like to me that you need to increase the pre-load on the weight distributing hitch's spring arms (or whatever the technical term for those levers are). The load of your front axle got lighter and it should have taken some of the load from your rear axle. That is why they call them "weight distributing".

[Havasu Hangin']

Believe me guys...those bars are cranked up. In fact...I'm starting to wear the top of my tongue where the ball sits (from all the stress). I have to wrench them on in steps (a few links at a time varying sides). It does raise the rearend.
The problem is that my Reese Titan shank is 16" from pin to ballmount. The farther back the ballmount...the less effective the weight transfer leverage. Before I lifted the truck, and before I put the longer drop shank on, the truck rode level.
So riverroyal, to answer your question, I think it would be worse without the weight-distributing hitch. Lifting the truck (put the rear axle higher), and using a longer shank definately makes the weight-distributing hitch less effective.

[riverroyal]

my F250 is still stock,i put air bags on thr rear for my 5th wheel and thats it,I hate that it looks so"stock",but it sure pulls nice.

[Riverkid]

I found the same problem with my last truck pulling big diesel generators... It was a pintle hitch so no weight dist but when I lifted the truck and had to drop the hitch down there was a big diff in the tongue weight/handling of the truck. You could really feel the difference...