vehicle weight ration to trailer weight?

debraindi wrote:
I set my boost at 6 because with my lml because I want the truck slow down and save the truck brakes , still experimenting and may lower it to 4 . There is no jerking at 6 with my new keystone 311 toyhauler.

Think you misunderstood me. I have a Prodigy. It has of course many gain settings. But only 3 Boost settings. The gain (6.5, 4, or 8) has only to do with the power being sent to the trailer brakes during the stop. Not with the trailer brakes leading the TV.

debraindi wrote:
That was confusing I thank the trailer brakes should come on stronger first to prevent from heating up the truck brakes .

In other words your thought is not to worry about overheating the trailer brakes, but worry about overheating the much larger and stable disk brakes on the pickup?

I don't like the drum brakes that came with trailers in the 70's and today they are not much better. While drum brakes are a thing of the past for most cars and heavy trucks, disk brakes are standard on most car front axles. Disk brake systems for trailers have been around for about 15 years and work much more effectively than the drum brake and magnet system.

The brake controllers are better than in the 70's but the brakes on a trailer can overheat. There is not all that much cooling surface, and typically they will not use aluminum rims to assist with that cooling.

As for the original post, I would be happy and comfortable towing a trailer that is barely any more weight than the truck pulling it. Even at twice the weight of the truck, the load can still be stable.

Fred.

AH64ID wrote:

Terryallan wrote:

Golden_HVAC wrote:
So your truck is about 600 pounds heavier than the trailer that it is towing. You are concerned?

Most big rigs have a 20,000 pound truck towing a 60,000 pound trailer!



Fred.

True, BUT. Once the 60k trailer is hooked to the 20k truck. the truck is carrying about 1/2 of the weight of the trailer. So it becomes a 50k truck towing a 30k trailer.

No it doesn't. It is still a 20K lb truck, and the trailer is still "responcible" for stopping its own 60K lbs.

Just becuase there is weight of the trailer on the TV doesn't mean he trailer is lighter. TV stops the TV and trailer stops the trailer.

Disagree as it applies to 18 wheelers we were referring to. You really don't think the 8 trailer wheels will stop the 60K trailer. Especially when they are only carrying 30,000 lb of the weight. They will stop that 30k. But the other 30k will be stopped by the 8 drive wheels it is riding on. That is the way road tractors are designed. You really can't expect 8 wheels to be responsible for 60 K, and 10 wheels to only be responsible for 20 K.
The trailer wheels will stop the weight they are carrying.

Terryallan wrote:

Golden_HVAC wrote:
So your truck is about 600 pounds heavier than the trailer that it is towing. You are concerned?

Most big rigs have a 20,000 pound truck towing a 60,000 pound trailer!



Fred.

True, BUT. Once the 60k trailer is hooked to the 20k truck. the truck is carrying about 1/2 of the weight of the trailer. So it becomes a 50k truck towing a 30k trailer.

No it doesn't. It is still a 20K lb truck, and the trailer is still "responcible" for stopping its own 60K lbs.

Just becuase there is weight of the trailer on the TV doesn't mean he trailer is lighter. TV stops the TV and trailer stops the trailer.

I set my boost at 6 because with my lml because I want the truck slow down and save the truck brakes , still experimenting and may lower it to 4 . There is no jerking at 6 with my new keystone 311 toyhauler.

No, adding more weight to the truck will not make it stop the trailer better.

debraindi wrote:
That was confusing I thank the trailer brakes should come on stronger first to prevent from heating up the truck brakes .

Set the boost to 2 and they will. then they will apply at
the same rate as the TV brakes

That was confusing I thank the trailer brakes should come on stronger first to prevent from heating up the truck brakes .

I don't understand. How can you ration out the weight of the vehicle to the trailer? :h

Golden_HVAC wrote:
So your truck is about 600 pounds heavier than the trailer that it is towing. You are concerned?

Most big rigs have a 20,000 pound truck towing a 60,000 pound trailer!



Fred.

True, BUT. Once the 60k trailer is hooked to the 20k truck. the truck is carrying about 1/2 of the weight of the trailer. So it becomes a 50k truck towing a 30k trailer.