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I have a 2004 H210 with factory trailer. I need to get over to the boat to read the actual weight plate on the trailer, but my total weight dry should be about 5,000 pounds, so I am thinking 5,400-5,500 pounds with fuel and gear. Vehicle is rated to tow 5,000 pounds unless I have a weight distribution hitch; then it goes to 6,000 pounds. My first question is, can I put a weight distribution hitch on one of these trailers with a swing-away tongue? Second, if anyone is using a setup like this, anyone having back up issues? I will borrow a vehicle that can tow more if needed, I just prefer to use my own stuff when possible. Any help/input is greatly appreciated!

I do not know if you can put a weight distribution hitch on a swing-away tongue trailer without it causing any damage. The WD hitch transfers load from the vehicle back into the trailer to help level it and I would think that would put undue stress on the tongue hinge. But that is just a guess.

How far do you have to tow? If it's just a short distance (less than 15 miles on mostly flat land) and you aren't getting on a major highway, I would think you would be ok to tow as is. Just take it easy and make sure your trailer brakes are working properly. Anything more than that and you should look at using a vehicle with a larger tow capacity.

Our H180 is listed as #3,200 dry as it sits on the trailer, but I know it's much more than that. That does not include 3 batteries, 200# of fuel (32 gals full), etc. We used to tow with our old '93 Explorer that was rated for 5,400 lbs towing. On flat land, she towed "okay" but on hills it was horrible. It would stress the engine and the transmission just trying to maintain 50 mph thru the Texas Hill Country. I even overheated the transmission once and puked fluid out. That was the last time I tried to make a 45 mile run out to the lake with the Explorer.

I say that as experience with towing more than you should. While it can be done, it's not ideal. Even with a WD hitch, you're still at 90% of your available towing capacity (5,500/6,000 lbs) and that doesn't include anything else you load up into the tow vehicle (including passengers). In my book, that's pushing it. But again, that somewhat depends on how far you're going.

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1999 180 Horizon OB Fisherman Pkg
2013 Grand Cherokee 4x4 w/ 5.7 Hemi
San Antonio, TX

Some years ago I researched WD hitches for boat trailers, there are basically 3 issues:
1) it puts extra stress on the tongue which is already one of the more stressed structural members of the trailer frame
2) you'd need a special adapter to hook up the torsion bars, and need room on the tongue to bolt that on
3) if the WD hitch has chains for the torsion bars, it will interfere with the operation of surge brakes, you really have to use The Equalizer, which is made to work with surge brakes, it does not use chains.

Having said that, I have used Air Lift air bags in the rear coils, these do not re-distribute weight but the do greatly improve towing performance in terms of ride and control. They are cheap and pretty easy to install on most vehicles.

About towing near the limit, well until I actually weighed my '88 H-200 on the trailer, I didn't really understand why our old '98 ZJ 4.0 struggled with it. After all, FW said it was supposed to weigh about 3,000 lbs. The Jeep was rated to tow 5,000 lbs. Well. I weighed it and the boat + trailer came in at 5050 lbs. When I put the boat in the water I weighed the trailer and it came in at 850 lbs. That makes the boat about 4200 lbs.
For the same reason, it explains why our '07 Grand Cherokee 5.7 tows it so easily. It is rated at 7200 lbs. So the boat & trailer weight is about 70% of the Jeep's tow capacity. Moral of the story is, if you tow short distances, at low speeds, you can do what you are proposing if you are careful. However, any high speed towing, highways, hills, I would not do it. The tow vehicle will really suffer.
Last thing, make sure your trailer brakes work. One of things I did was replace the 3500 lb axle with a 6000 lb axle, that allowed me to use 12" brakes, which stop much better than 10" brakes. That, and 225/75-15 tires, preferably Load Range E.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II

Appreciate the replies! I ended up just using my father-in-law's truck. I was finding a lot of the same info that you all provided and determined that it was not worth the risk. PA to MD and about 70 miles. Our previous vehicle handled it no problem but we decided we did not need as big of a vehicle this time around. For the 2 times a year we need to tow the boat, he is more than willing to lend us his truck; and also why having a vehicle with the towing capacity is not a must have for us.