Tongue weight or hitch weight

[Cathi]

Daniel, there is another question. The tongue weight should be taken with the tongue as it is hitched up.
(By the way, our TV capacities are fine. It's the trailer capacity that is limiting. We can move weight to the TV if necessary.)

And the hitch is supposed to be level. We used a scale to get the tongue weight when the trailer was level according to the bubble levels on the exterior. Whether that is where the tongue actually is when we have it hitched is another question. I understand that the WDH bars should be parallel to the ground and ours appeared to be parallel. What else do you look at to see if you are properly level?

I am miffed at the fact that the sellers had a tow vehicle hitch receiver that was four inches lower than ours. So how could we both be hitched up properly if we hitched in exactly the same manner? Same number of chain links. Does the Equalizer hitch just automatically level out things? I hardly thought so. My impression is that someone has to get that straight, but ours looks level. We will have a close look at the bars again to see if that is the case for sure.

[BCDave]

Originally Posted by mcbrew

Yes, there is such a thing as too much. When the tongue weight is enough to cause damage to the hitch or the frame of the trailer... That is when it is too much. I have seen cracks form on trailer frames where the a-frame meets the body of the trailer. This is usually due to excessive weight on the tongue (and a weak frame). I haven't had this happen on any of my trailers, but I have seen plenty of pics online...

It is just SO easy to add/reinforce the frame (incl tongue) of a trailer, and the tug shouldn't suffer - provided that it was not purchased from Toys R Us!

I am contemplating chopping the entire tongue off my Bigfoot 21 and adding a couple of extra feet to it so I can have a good-sized tongue box to hold extra batteries and a good-sized inverter generator. Somehow I just don't think my Silverado 3500 will notice. Extra steel for the lengthened frame, plus weight of genny plus weight of the box itself and a couple more batteries may add a total of a couple of hundred pounds - most of which will be carried as tongue-hitch weight - IE mostly on the hitch

I`d have to move the propane tanks further back (to the front wall of the trailer which is - relatively - where they are now), then put the generator in front of the tanks (and run the genny on propane), then put the batteries in front of that. I`d have to build the box to match the curve of the front wall of the trailer, so the Bigfoot "nosecone" would fit properly. Makes room for some extra "stuff" though, so it seems like a good idea. Probably switch to a power tongue jack while I'm at it. No decisions yet, but it is within the realm of possibility. I'll likely decide after Bonneville when I take the genny in the back of the truck and then decide if I'd rather have it trailer-mounted, or retain the option of leaving it home for the other 50% of the trailer`s tasks.

[Daniel A.]

Once you hook up measure the distance to the ground and use that as your tongue distance to ground point.
As you already know depending on how high or low you place the tongue to scale it, it changes.

The WDH will pull things into line and you will have a link or two left.
So yes that would be level, I've hooked my trailer up and pulled the trailer out of the carport clearly not level, then hooked the WDH bars on and it goes level.

The bubble levels on the trailer are only for camp ground purposes.

[cpaharley2008]

One more ingredient to consider. The tongue weight can vary, depending on where/how you measure it, all other things equal. I bought a Sherline scale seen here sherline scales - Bing Images
some people will place it under their jack stand into the hole to measure and raise the trailer. I found the most accurate place to be in the coupler itself, that is the place where it attaches to the tow vehicle. Measuring the same trailer at these 2 different locales gave me a 50# difference,
so get the right scale and use it properly.

[Steve L.]

Originally Posted by Jane P.

. . .
Do not have your sway bars/distribution system attached to your TV when weighing. Either leave this equipment home or set it to the side, off the scale. . . .

To each his or her own. The WDH changes the distribution of tongue weight on the tow vehicle and I want to know what it is. FWD vehicles are often operating close to their tire's capacity and I think it's appropriate to know the "going down the road" weights. Further, even my single arm WDH rig weighs about 55 pounds and the anti-sway bar is another 10 pounds or so that is part of the GVWR/GCWR that I want to account for.

Given enough time (no one honking at you to hurry up at the scales) I suppose you could measure the tow with the WDH both hooked and unhooked up.

[gmw photos]

Three trips across the scale: tow vehicle alone. TV and TT, with weight dist not hooked up, and finally, TV and TT with WD hooked up.
By getting a combined weight w/o WD and again WD, you can tell how well setup you are regarding distributing weight fwd to the steer axle and rearward to the trailer axle.

It's generally considered good CAT scale etiquette to pull off the scale and get out the way to disconnect your weight bars, then pull back around for another reweigh.

[Cathi]

George, we did all of those weighings and a couple more that we threw out. No one was ever at the scales when we were but we went off to remove the WDH for another weighing.

The 19' Escape was fully loaded for travel. 3060 lbs. I added the axle weights for the TV without the WDH and subtracted the weight of the unhitched TV to get a tongue weight of 440 lbs. So 3500 total. The TV weight was just over 5000 and since we have a 6300 GVWR, that leaves us more capacity for additional items than the trailer does. I would like to get a couple of portable solar panels and will probably just put them in the TV. No reason to have them in the trailer anyway.

Jim, we do use the Sherline by placing it up in the coupler but we were on such an unlevel site that our number was way off at 362. I had measured the height at which we were hooked up but then found that I came up with a different measurement later for it. Very inaccurate when on gravel or dirt and also a slope. We will have to do the Sherline weighing again to see if we come close to the 440, which I assume is correct. I would like 11-12% on the tongue, don't know why except that I often see 10-12 or 10-11 and 440 is above that. We are taking some items out of the front box which has the batteries. Don't know what those batteries weigh but I know it is plenty, two 6Vs.

The weighing was very easy as we just lined up the axles on the first three scales, no moving of anything to get the three weights. Front and rear TV axles and trailer axles. Went to Love's, formerly Flying J.

We also had changed the chain links after measuring at the wheel wells with and without a WDH. The weights showed that the WDH was working with 280 lbs going from the TV rear axle to the trailer (100) and to the TV front axle (180).

Thank you for your suggestions, Daniel, Jane, Steve and all. It is good to get that checked out and see that everything is within the capacities and basically where expected.