I am towing a boat. Last March I towed this same boat from MA to Miami, but used my son's Silverado 2500 Dura-Max. I didn't use my WDH because it wasn't really necessary.
Hooking up the WDH is a bit of a pain in the neck. I also have a very sharp u-turn to bring the boat out of the boat barn and I dislike the stress put on the WDH. I'll be taking a 400 mile round trip next week so I will put the WDH on for that. For local use the regular hitch has worked fine.
I asked the question because in going from a 2011 Expy Limited to this vehicle I thought I read that the WDH wasn't necessary. I was incorrect. By the way, are the Gen 4 towing capacities the same as Gen 3?
Boats tend to have a lower tongue weight, but that’s a heavy boat. I’d still run the WDH for it, even locally.
I understand your reasoning behind not wanting to run it, but as the load doesn’t change much, once you set it up the first time, there shouldn’t be much in the way of changes needed, so setup should be relatively quick after that. For my trailer, the initial setup was about 15 minutes, but now that it is set, as long as I don’t vary the load hooking up takes me an extra 30 seconds versus the non-WDH. I’m not sure which type of WDH you are using, obviously.
A sharp turn may sound bad, but the WDH should handle it just fine. I have been using the same WDH on my trailer since 2015 and just pulling out of my yard requires a turn so tight that I’m inches from the tongue hitting my truck and there has been no adverse effects.
The HD trucks like the 2500 and Super Duty normally have the same capacity whether weight-carrying or weight-distributing. They are correctly built for it.
The 3rd and 4th gens are close to the same, the 4th gen EL and 4x4 are rated a few hundred pounds higher than their 3rd gen counterparts.