dieseltwitch

This is my first time towing with this truck. I've been pulling trailers all my life but thats always been with larger trucks. Im worried about how sensitive my F150 will be to variation in the weight of the trailer and the tongue weight. Im building a trailer to haul my dirt bike and ATV for me and the girl when we go camping along with Fuel, food, water, camping gear and a generator. The total max weight of the trailer is 4,500# with a loaded tongue weight of 715# (16% of the total)

I climbed under my truck and found that the rear receiver has a max un-distributed weight of 500# and a distributed weight of nearly 1,000#

How mushy will my truck be being over the max tongue weight by 215#'s and also having more stuff in the bed of the truck? It is worth it to put it on an equalizer? should I rework the trailer to lower the tongue weight. I put the axle where I did to make sure the tongue weight is at least 12% of the overall trailer weight both full loaded and empty and every thing between.

Im wondering if air bags wouldn't be a bad idea for the truck to help adjust for the extra load

My Truck is a 04' Crew/5.5' Bed with a 6" Lift and 35" tires.

zx12-iowa

If 700 lb tongue you will be fine. But how much in bed? I have loaded mine down good but if you are 1500 or more in bed then you will have a hard time. I say keep weight in bed under 1000 lbs and you will be good. 1200 lb tongue weight then keep bed weight very light. Maybe 500 lbs.

dieseltwitch

If any thing goes it the bed it wont be much, Maybe some dirt bike stands, shelters, coolers.... not much. <1000# for sure!

Thanks Im excited to get my trailer done and see how it tows

zx12-iowa

Also on my 05 f150 I added a leaf in the rear and it stiffened it up well. Had overloaded it many times. Like 4k in bed and pulled 20k trailer a short way via farm roads. Extra leaf made big diff but if you aren't moving big weight much it may make the ride jittery.

dieseltwitch

Most of the time I just haul me, my self, my girl, and some tools. So Putting in an ADD-A-Leaf would take away of the much loved features of the truck.

I had another question that I can not seam to find a real answer for. What happens if I have to much weight on the tongue as a percentage of the over all trailer weight? Ie at Times I may have 25-30% of the trailers weight on the tongue? will this make of wonkey handling?

I've been looking at pulling the leafs out and putting in a 4link air ride in the rear and bag/shock combos up front. The trailer will already have air bags so why not I say!?

11screw50

If you are 'building' the trailer, how are you sure the tongue weight will be 715#? Maybe you could play around with where you load things to bring it closer to 13% and drop a little of that tongue weight (or slide the axle forward a little). The truck will handle it fine, the receiver (and where/how it is mounted) may not. At 715#, you're 40% over rated capacity.

dieseltwitch

I know the exact tongue weight will be because I know the weight of every thing on the trailer. From there it's just knowing how far that mass is from the fulcrum (the axle) and how far the axle is from the tongue. Simple math will show you the tongue weight added from each item. I have the trailer is solid works so I already know the CG of the trailer frame.

The problem with just moving the axle is the different load conditions. If the axle is far enough forward to keep the tongue weight good for a full load in a partially loaded state (fuel and water used up) the trailer actually gets a negative tongue weight. Its tricky. Also moving items around in the trailer isn't really that easy. The bikes have special tie downs as does the generator, solar panels, batteries, tools, tents, cooler.... So moving them is not really an option.

I think the hitch can handle it. If it can take 900+ lbs of Distributed weight then I would think the 500 limit is there as a "driving safety limit" not a structural limit.

Once I'm back home I will post some drawings along with the weighs to show.

11screw50

Right, so your plan is to exceed what you see as a "driving safety limit".

Read this: http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...1.cfm#14274751

And this: http://forums.woodalls.com/index.cfm...d/14274564.cfm

That is why the hitch can handle a higher tongue weight with weight distribution (because it really is not handling more weight).

dieseltwitch

WD don't lessen the tongue weight they just leverage it and push the front end back down. they actually reverse the torque on the receiver mounts, Normally the front bolt is being pushed up and the rear pulled down. WD's swap this. Also I can't use a WD as they dont flex enough. The trail Im building is an off road trail. Not crazy 4x4 roads but rutted out, rocky fire roads.

Its not that Im going to blatantly violate safe driving limits but I know for a fact that automative engineers + lawyers = 3x safety factors... at least. and having a max tow of 6000 lbs balancing that to hit exactly 500 lbs is nearly impossible! I think the idea is more or less to get close to 500 lbs not hit it dead on the money. Its the same thing with uhaul trailers that say their max speed is 45mph... Have yet to see any one actually fallow it. Its there to cover uahuls rears.

tomb1269

It sounds as if you should re-locate the trailer axle if you still can. Your tongue is very heavy, I tried to get it back around 550. Also, remeber its usally not the trailer that maxs you out but your payload. At a 700 plus tongue most likely you are down to 800 or less in available payload. That 800 lbs has to include the weight of the driver and passengers as well as what is in the truck bed..........