smurfs_of_war

Um. Wut?

smokeywren

In the world of towing boat trailers, there are two camps of experts. One bunch says the ideal tongue weight of a boat trailer is 7.5% of gross trailer weight, but up to 10% is okay. Another bunch says weight is weight, physics is physics, and therefore boat trailers live with the same laws of physics as other bumper-pull trailers. So 10% to 15% of the boat's gross weight should be on the tongue. Here's one article that supports the latter opinion:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-p...ng-safety3.htm

ADM1953

In 25 years of boating in Florida. I think I have seen two or three boats towed with weight distributing hitches. I will go out on a limb and guess that more big boats – 25 to 35 feet are towed in Florida than any other state in the union. Some of those bigger boats and trailers weigh in over 15,000 pounds and I really doubt that the owners are towing those boats with 1500 – 2250 pounds of tongue weight. An earlier posting from someone who sounded like a commercial boat tower said he went with 5% tongue weight. I think boats can get by with a much lower tongue weight compared to travel trailers because boats offer less Wind resistance because they generally sit lower and the pointed bow offers less wind resistance than the flat front surface of travel trailers.

it would be useful to know if the people who are advocating 10 – 15% tongue weight for boat trailers are extrapolating from their experience with travel trailers or are those individuals actually towing 30 foot boats on a regular basis?

tomb1269

To get most inboard motor boats to trailer at 15% tongue weight you would have to turn the boat around backwards. As for it being a matter of physics, it is. Boats are tale heavy and therefore the trailer axles are set to the rear as in like 80% of the trailer is in front of the axles. And due to the axles being moved further back and the majority of the weight placed on top the center of gravity, and the point of pitch and yaw is also at the rear of the trailer, therefore minimizing the tendancy for sway. Travel trailer tend to sway when loaded incorrectly as they either become neutrally balanced or negatively balance in relation to the direction of travel. In short, a travel trailer is a see-saw or teeter-tauter where a boat trailer is like a wheel barrel. So to stop the TTs want to pitch and yaw you load it nose heavy and the load force of that wait down on the truck has to be regulated or you cause the same issue in the truck of a tendancy to pitch and yaw on around it rear axle. With a boat trailer the weight is supported at the trailer axle and basically you are just pulling the dead weight as if you were pulling a car out of a ditch. Its also the reason that you see most boat & trailer combos that weight over 3000lbs (i.e. require trailer brakes are tandem axles)

130428

i think that's what smokey is talking about...



(note: sarcasm, sarcasm...) it's all about leverage as Tom explained it.

5.0GN tow

Well stated Tom. My 4k boat and trailer combo is a single axle with brakes on an all welded thick wall ladder frame steel trailer. It's an I/O with the vast majority of weight to the rear(engine, outdrive, fuel tank, batteries, blowers, power trim hydraulics, top stowage etc) the axle sits within 3 feet of the rear of a 23 foot plus trailer. It tows wonderfully in all conditions and I can lift the tongue no problem by hand myself so clearly not 400lbs probably easily very close to 200lbs.

akarakos

I was trying to figure out how much I can really tow as well. At my Ford dealer last night I talked a salesman who told me the 3.5L EcoBoost has a 14,000 - 17,000 lb GCWR and my truck has from 13,000 - 15,000 lb GCWR depending on the truck's axle. I have a 2013 FX-2, SuperCrew, 5.0L V8 with towing package, integrated brake controller, and use a weight distributing hitch when towing my Airstream and have a GVWR 7100lb package on my F150 paperwork that came with the truck. I have no problem towing the trailer. It sounded like the salesman was trying to say I could tow a trailer using the GCWR weight. However, the 2013 towing selector guide I have confirms the GCWR and the table indicates the max loaded trailer weight for my trailer should be 8000 lbs when cross checking my axle ratio and 4x2 wheel base. Am I right in thinking the GCWR would be the combination of my truck and trailer weight? And, that according to the towing selector chart... I can tow up to a max of 8000 lbs of trailer?

smurfs_of_war

Yes and no.
Your GCWR is the sum of every axle in the combo. You're correct there.
The charts are misleading. Your heaviest trailer is typically limited by the amount of tongue weight the GVWR of your half ton can handle after the passengers, etc are all onboard. But- in it's simplest form, ignoring other ratings like GVWR, RAWR and receiver rating- then yes- your max loaded trailer weight is the weight of the loaded truck subtracted from your GCWR

akarakos

Thanks! I didn't bring up hitch weight,because that, my receiver and my weight distributing hitch are areas I have a pretty good handle on. My actual trailer weight is also well within reason for my truck and pretty close to what Airstream says it should be.