Re: Trailer balance

From: hlg@pacbell.net
Date: Thu Apr 06 2000 - 13:31:27 PDT


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        West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
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It's recommended to maintain 10 to 15% of the loaded trailer weight on the hitch. Otherwise the trailer becomes unstable. The 50 lb tongue weight may be a little on the light side. If you haven't already, you can mount a spare tire and/or a dolly wheel on the trailer tongue to increase hitch weight somewhat.

The tongue weight needs to be measured at the height of the hitch; it will read a little higher if the tongue is resting on a bathroom scale near the ground.

Here's the trailer balancing recommendations I picked up from somewhere:

TYPE OF TRAILER PERCENT OF WT. ON TONGUE
Single Axle 10% minimum/15% maximum
Tandem Axle 9% to 15%
Travel Trailer 11% to 12%
5th Wheel 15% to 25%

My trailer tongue was pretty heavy to lift onto the hitch, so I moved the winch mast aft 2 or 3 inches, which made some improvement and didn't seem to affect stability. It didn't appear that I needed to readjust the rollers, but my center roller bracket recently broke and had to be replaced. I don't know if the mast relocation increased the load on the bracket or whether the failure of the 33-year-old bracket was just due to rust and fatigue.

I'm 70 and my hearing has deteriorated also, but I can't blame my lapses on my age; I've always been absent minded. But, Duncan, you don't have to worry; you will always be Young.

Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA

>Mateys, please forgive the lapse in sanity. Iasked about a trailer extension
>and balancing the trailer and got many good responses. As I was looking for
>the trailer balancing info on the Potter pages it dawned on me that all I
>had to do was move the vertical winch mount (what do you call that post on a
>trailer?) aft. I marked my hull where the carpeted bunkers rested and moved
>the boat aft on the trailer about 8.5" and got a much lighter (about 50
>lbs.) tongue weight and everything seems to sit well now. Of course, I do
>have more rear overhang but that isn't a big problem.
>
>That's the trouble with getting older, you lose your hearing and forget to
>think too!
>dyoung@netpipe.com P-15 #2421



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