jeffinthebag

The one thing I don't understand is your stated tounge wieght. The picture you have shows the tongue weight the gauge just under 500lbs. You say with the vette inside the tongue weight is 650 I recall. So the trailer fully loaded with the car and supplies only weighs 6500 lbs if you go by the 10% guide. That trailer+car+tools+extra tire and etc must way more than 6500lbs fully loaded.

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm....I read hundreds of pages over the last couple months when thinking about getting a Trailer Toad. I read towing and RV/motorhome forum discussions, and never saw anything about the rear wheels of the truck/tow vehicle coming off the road surface.

These units are being pulled by small SUVs to pickups to very large motorcoaches, and I haven't read of that problem at all.

Virtually all the reviews I have read are very positive.

Here's a picture of a Toad with the spare tire removed, and you can see a bar going across between the front part of the unit that attaches to the truck, and hinged to the bar is the rear/main part that has the axle and hitch ball:



There are two shock absorbers that go from the rear part to the front part to smooth out fluctuations when going over bumps - you can see one of the shocks angling across in the pic below:




The guy I bought this Toad from pulls an 18,000 lb trailer with two show cars all over the country. His tow vehicle is a Yukon that has a dually rear wheel mod, and he has never had any problems. He was selling this older smaller Toad to get a new 5000 model to pull a bigger trailer.

So...I'll be very careful, but the way the unit is built, I just don't see any way that the flexible up and down articulating action will allow the rear truck wheels to be raised up off the roadway.

Bob

tcp2

You've handled your tongue weight issue perfectly. enjoy the drive. I chose airbags to keep everything levelled. my truck has 1340lbs of payload capacity. my 2005 sienna has 1680lbs of payload capacity. i suspect these numbers, outside of the legal and marketing realm, aren't really indicative of capability. just my opinion.

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

My trailer is an aluminum Trailex - they normally weigh 2300 lbs.

My trailer has an aluminum cabinet, a winch, and a battery - so it weighs about 2400 lbs.

I have 4 spare wheels/tires on the tire rack in the front of the trailer - they weigh 200 lbs.

So....in the picture where the tongue weight is 475 lbs, the trailer with no car in it, but with the spare tires, weighs about 2600 lbs.

Below is a picture of the scales in the NASCAR tech shed last fall at an event I was running - I had about 3/4 tank of gas:




So...trailer+tires+car=5800 lbs.

By the time I add 300 or so lbs of tools and spare brake rotors and pads, etc., I'll be 6100 or 6200 lbs. Any tools and stuff I put in the v-nose of the trailer will add to the tongue weight, but it will all be carried by the Trailer Toad.

If I put tools and junk in the bed of the truck, it will take up payload capacity - but with the Trailer Toad carrying the tongue weight I'll have plenty of payload capacity for carrying stuff in the cab and/or bed.

I've pulled the trailer with the Vette in it short distances and when I checked the tongue weight it was 650-675 lbs, which is maxed out when I don't have my wife's junk in the cab like I'll have on a trip to a track event.

BTW, I'm going to go to the local CAT scales in about a week. They are up at Destination Daytona, where the local Harley dealer is located. It's Bike Week through next weekend and a little bit crazy up there this week!!

Next week I'll weigh the truck and the trailer and know exactly what the weights are.

Bob

xcntrk

Forgetting the Trailer Toad for a moment, are you using WD on your hitch between the TV and Enclosed car hauler? Your tongue weights really are not extreme at all for the F150 to handle. There's not a lot of difference between the regular tow package and the max tow package that can't be managed via a few upgrades.

Here's my car hauler tipping in at 7k lbs with 825lbs tongue weight. With a solid WD hitch, you barely know the load is back there. Granted this is on a max tow rig but without air-bags or any suspension upgrades, stock P-rated tires, and without swaycontrol. If my car-hauler were enclosed, I would add in the sway control to the hitch.

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Yes - I have an Equal-i-zer WDH.

However, a WDH still applies weight to the rear of the truck and uses up all my payload capacity.

The Trailer Toad carries ALL the tongue weight, so I have ALL my payload capacity to carry more stuff in the cab and bed.

Bob

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

I reviewed a bunch of sources I researched before getting my Trailer Toad, and find nothing about the problem y'all are talking about.

Butt....I also again saw several other products that I came across when researching the Toad, but disregarded at the time. They are somewhat similar to the Toad (like the "Hitch Helper" that jeffinthebag mentions in a previous post). Below is a picture of the Hitch Helper:




That device is rigidly attached to the hitch, and although there is a "suspension" on the unit, that spring doesn't allow much movement. That type of device could definitely lift weight off the rear wheels of the tow vehicle.

The Trailer Toad is nothing like that device. The Trailer Toad has an axle with a torsion suspension, just like a trailer axle. It also has the hinge action between the front of the unit that is hooked to the truck, and the rear part of the unit that has the axle/suspension/hitch head with ball. That hinge allows the platform on the rear of the toad to go up and down completely independently of the truck's rear end, and the torsion suspension adds even more flexibility that allows the Trailer Toad to absorb bumps separately from the tow vehicle.

Another device called the "Hitch Hog" may look more like the Trailer Toad, but it still is rigidly attached to the tow vehicle and doesn't have the hinged section like the Trailer Toad - and that will allow this device to lift weight off the tow vehicle's rear wheels as well. Below is a picture of the Hitch Hog:





To my knowledge, neither of those devices went into full production due to the problem both of you mentioned.

Throughout the years there have been several other devices to help with tongue weight - one modern one is the "Tuff Tow":





The Tuff Tow is a modern adaptation of the "Slimp Dolly" that was in use for many years when trailers were hauled by cars without much tongue weight carrying capacity:







There's an old Lucille Ball movie where Lucy and Desi are towing a big trailer around the southwest behind a convertible, and hey have a Slimp Dolly type device to carry the tongue weight.

Edited: here's a picture from that 1953 Lucy/Desi movie "The Long, Long Trailer" and you can see a Slimp Dolly type device helping support the tongue weight so it's not all on the bumper of the car:





Bottom line - the Trailer Toad not only has a very nice torsion axle suspension, but also has the lateral hinge across the unit that allows the Toad's rear section to swing up and down independently from the tow vehicle so there's no way it can lift weight off the tow vehicle's rear wheels.


Bob

KR Kodi

iTrader: (1)

Well...I don't really want a bigger truck!! I do only several long tows every year, and the rest of the time the truck is a great daily driver.

And, I've got about the perfect tongue weight as is.

My truck can easily pull and stop my slightly more than 6000 lb trailer, but the tongue weight uses up all my payload capacity so I can't carry anything else in the cab or bed.

My car has almost perfect 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, so I don't think loading it in backwards would do anything.

Plus, at around 6000 lbs of trailer with about 650-675 lbs of tongue weight, that tongue weight is right at 11% of the trailer's weight, so it's just about the perfect tongue weight for that load.

I don't want to mess with tongue weight, I just like having the Trailer Toad carry that entire tongue weight so I have ALL my payload capacity to carry stuff in the bed of the truck.

Bob

nihilus

Another solution to your 'problem' would of only 550 lbs payload would be to throw some luggage in a tuff box and onto the trailer.

130428

wtf just happened here?...