Tongue Coupler VS Jack Stand Weight
 

With one summer of towing our TT completed, my thoughts are already turning to next summer and what modifications I may make to improve the towing experience. Not saying it was bad, but there is room for improvement.

One thing I did last summer that was really useful (being my first season towing something this big/heavy) was to get a tongue weight scale. I used it all the time. I was able to really dial in the exact tongue weight range that worked for my truck/trailer combo.

I got to thinking the other day what the difference on the tongue weight scale might be from weighing under the jack stand VS the actual tongue coupler. For ease of use I always use the Jack Stand. This method works fine, but in the calculation of tongue weight percentage of the total trailer weight I may have been a bit under.

Has anyone tried weighing at both points?

With my TT packed away for the winter I will have to wait until spring to try it out.

You put the tongue weight scale under the jack stand instead of between the jack stand and the coupler?


The difference would be the weight of the jackstand. Real world TW does not include the weight of the jack stand.


Your way will work okay, but you need to subtract the weight of the jack stand from the scale weight to get actual TW.

My bad on the terminology. By 'jack stand' I meant the built in trailer jack. As it is part of the trailer it would be added to the tongue weight.

By placing the scale under the trailer jack it is 6 - 10 inches behind the actual trailer coupler that sits on the hitch. What I am wondering is if that 6 - 10 inches makes much difference on the weight as measured by the scale.

The scale is small, so to measure the weight at the coupler I would have to build up a platform under the scale (cinder blocks/wood, etc..) and get it all level. Much easier to weight at the trailer jack.

It would depend on the distance the jack stand is behind the hitch and if the jack stand is centered or mounted to one side as on some "A" Frames. In the real world won't be enough difference to worry about it.

I use the tongue jack to get the coupler off the ball, then move the tow vehicle out of the way, then build the platform you described under the coupler. Put the Sherline tongue weight scale on the platform under the coupler, then lower the tongue jack until the tongue jack is off the ground and the coupler is resting on the scale.


So you put the scale under the raised-up tongue jack, then lower the jack until the coupler rises above the ball?

I agree with bubbabud- In the real world won't be enough difference to worry about it.

There is always a margin of error for this which is taken into account when TW is concerned. That short distance between the ball and jack is small enough not to be a concern. When driving down the road, the TW will vary enough not to matter. 10 maybe 20 pounds difference? A lot more than that changes when traveling, especially if there is water in any of the tanks.

You can only change the balance so much per chain link on the WDH, so a difference of a few pounds wont matter, you will be in the ball park.

By the way (or weigh), the ball weight will be slightly LESS than the stand weight. Longer lever.