Payload question
06-17-2014, 11:43 AM
#11
Just so any thoughts of "creative loading" are educated thoughts and, at the same time, not making any judgements I'll give you the results of a little experiment I tried this last weekend.
Some background:
Amongst other things I'm an ex RAF Air Loadmaster and, as such, my job was heavy in weight and balance calculations. I currently pull a Bullet Premier Ultra Light 31BHPR with a factory tow F-150 XLT Ecoboost with the short bed. My available Payload per the sticker on the door is 1440lbs and myself, the wife, daughter and hitch weigh in at a little under 400lbs. The quoted dry weight of the trailer is a shade under 6500lbs with a quoted dry tongue weight of 795lbs.
Clearly, with a loaded trailer, (despite my attention to minimizing weight), I'm going to be pushing the payload of the TV. So, with that in mind I purchased the Sherline Tongue Scale mentioned above a couple of weeks ago and brought my trailer home for loading and weighing. I discovered pretty much what I expected to find.
1. If my wife lies on the bed which is right by the tongue her weight is transferred to the tongue in a 1:1 ratio. Thus my 140lb wife added 140lbs to the tongue weight.
2. Sending her to stand between the axles had no effect on the tongue weight.
3. Having her stand against the rear window of the bunk house reduced the weight on the tongue by about 1/3rd of her weight.
I was quite sure 1 and 2 would be as predicted and was pleasantly surprised to find that 3 closely approximated my "guess". These ratios will hold for most trailers since most trailers will have the axle(s) in the same approximate position(s) regardless of overall length so the moments will be similar.
I'll admit to being a bit worried about being significantly over payload when I put the partially laden trailer on the scale but when the trailer was loaded and we were about to depart I was happy to see that my tongue weight was just under 950lbs which put me pretty much at my maximum payload weight, (there was nothing significant in the bed).
One thing to note with the Bullet Premiers... Many, if not all, seem to have the fresh tank under the queen bed by the tongue. You can pretty much take it to the bank that every pound of fresh water you carry will go directly to the tongue.
Some background:
Amongst other things I'm an ex RAF Air Loadmaster and, as such, my job was heavy in weight and balance calculations. I currently pull a Bullet Premier Ultra Light 31BHPR with a factory tow F-150 XLT Ecoboost with the short bed. My available Payload per the sticker on the door is 1440lbs and myself, the wife, daughter and hitch weigh in at a little under 400lbs. The quoted dry weight of the trailer is a shade under 6500lbs with a quoted dry tongue weight of 795lbs.
Clearly, with a loaded trailer, (despite my attention to minimizing weight), I'm going to be pushing the payload of the TV. So, with that in mind I purchased the Sherline Tongue Scale mentioned above a couple of weeks ago and brought my trailer home for loading and weighing. I discovered pretty much what I expected to find.
1. If my wife lies on the bed which is right by the tongue her weight is transferred to the tongue in a 1:1 ratio. Thus my 140lb wife added 140lbs to the tongue weight.
2. Sending her to stand between the axles had no effect on the tongue weight.
3. Having her stand against the rear window of the bunk house reduced the weight on the tongue by about 1/3rd of her weight.
I was quite sure 1 and 2 would be as predicted and was pleasantly surprised to find that 3 closely approximated my "guess". These ratios will hold for most trailers since most trailers will have the axle(s) in the same approximate position(s) regardless of overall length so the moments will be similar.
I'll admit to being a bit worried about being significantly over payload when I put the partially laden trailer on the scale but when the trailer was loaded and we were about to depart I was happy to see that my tongue weight was just under 950lbs which put me pretty much at my maximum payload weight, (there was nothing significant in the bed).
One thing to note with the Bullet Premiers... Many, if not all, seem to have the fresh tank under the queen bed by the tongue. You can pretty much take it to the bank that every pound of fresh water you carry will go directly to the tongue.
