fleming23

Quick question. I finally sold my super nice, super light, aluminum open trailer and purchased a 24' enclosed to haul to the track. With cabinets, Optima battery, winch, two honda EU2000 generators, and the various things inside the cabinets this trailer is super nose heavy.

I have a Sherline tongue weigh scale to determine how much weight is on the nose. To get the weight down to 800-900 pounds I had to place the car as far back in the trailer as possible. The back bumper is nearly on the back door... Obviously a tail heavy trailer is prone to sway but if the tongue is still that heavy, is this an issue with the weight placed to attempt to balance the load? The trailer weighs around 3500 and the car is probably 3300. Add in the other crap and I'm guessing around 8000 total weight.

I do have the Andersen WDH/No Sway hitch set up with the trailer level front to back. The back of my truck is only down about 1.5-2" from stock height.

Thoughts?

frieed

Typical tongue weight is 12-15%, so 960-1200lb for a 8k trailer.
You also want the trailer nose down just a slight bit.
How much does the nose of the truck rise without the WD engaged and how much does it go back down with them engaged?
I used to set the WDH high enough to recover 1/2 the front lift then adjust the attitude of the trailer using the airbags on the rear of the truck. This was all for a travel trailer with somewhat fixed weight distrubution. With a car carrier, you may have to position the car for desired tongue weight then adjust the WDH and possibly airbags. Then always place the car in the same spot on the trailer.

smokeywren

You want 12% to 15% tongue weight. Since you have the tongue weight scale, then it's a simple job to determine tongue weight. If your loaded trailer weighs 8,000 pounds, then 800-900 pounds TW is not quite enough. Yeah, I know. You hear that 10% minimum TW is okay. But it's not at good as 12%, and the average TW of 13% is even better.


But first you need a better idea of the gross weight of the wet and loaded trailer. Get it to CAT scale and find out how much the loaded trailer weighs. That means two trips across the scale.


1]Tow vehicle and trailer both.


2] Tow vehicle only, without the trailer.


Subtract 2] from 1] and the answer is the gross weight of the wet and loaded trailer.


Divide the tongue weight (TW) by the gross weight of the trailer and the answer is the percent of tongue weight. You want at least 12% to reduce the possibility of sway.


If your estimate of 8,000 pounds gross trailer weight is close, then you want 960 to 1,200 pounds TW. I would probably shoot for 1,000 pounds TW.

acdii

I found my truck tows better when I have the WDH setup to get the front wheel well within a 1/2" of unloaded height. So I suggest you set the WDH up to get the front as close to unloaded height as possible, and go weigh the rig. As suggested, 12-13% TW is ideal. My TW is at 12% and tows very well. Just make sure you dont exceed axle weight and you should be fine.