I was NOT going to comment on your question because I did not
consider myself a garu, HOWEVER, after reading all of the good
advice you have received I feel I must comment. I AGREE that
TOO LITTLE weight on the tongue is a REALLY BAD and DANGEROUS
condition, but have seen disasterous occurences cause by TOO
MUCH WEIGHT on the tongue. Seen a few UHAULS force the two
vehicle right off the road and flip. They APPEARED to be very
tongue heavy as the back bumper of the tow vehicles were
obviously too near the ground.
I had always heard 5 to 10 % of the trailer weight, but a search
of the internet look like 10 to 15% is recommended. Thats a
wide range in pounds.
I believe that the most important thing to consider is that the
tongue weight should not overly affect the ride of of the tow
vehicle. Too little weight causes the trailer to swerve. Too
much forces te back of the tow vehicle down and may even force
the front of the vehicle up. Either of these conditions affects
steering and as Lars said can be scary on an off-ramp or a
curve.
I have towed various rigs and in my experience you need enough
weight that the tongue never is trying to lift the tow ball and
never enough to push the tow ball down.
I guess what I am saying of that TOO LITTLE IS DANGEROUS and TOO
MUCH IS ALSO DANGEROUS. The trailer should track directly
behind the tow vehicle and not surge around. The tow vehicle
needs to be TOWING the trailer not CARRYING it. <BG>
Ted Duke
WWPs19 #626 The Duchess
Hot, Dry Mountains of Virginia
JBlumhorst@aol.com wrote:
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> West Wight Potter Website at URL
> http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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> Hi Webgang,
>
> I'm hoping to get some sound advice from one or a few of our trailer gurus...
>
> My P19 and trailer weigh about 2000-2100 pounds (fully loaded with gear. I weighed the tongue today using a home scale and it read 250 pounds. The conventional wisdom says that tongue weight should be between 5 and 10% of total weight, right?
>
> I'm bringing it in tomorrow for a warranty repair on something else -- should I have them move the axle to get the tongue weight down to 200 pounds or less? What is the effect of having the tongue weight too heavy?
>
> I have noticed that the trailer causes my tow vehicle to "bounce" a bit when the trailer goes over a bump. (Dodge Grand Caravan with factory tow package consisting of heavy duty shocks, tranny cooler, factory tow wiring. Rated to pull 3500 pounds)
>
> Thanks in advance. Judy B
> WWP19 #266 Redwing
> Sailing SF Bay, CA