lawrosa wrote:
So not understanding what your saying...
For a given loading condition, a trailer will have only
one value of tongue weight.
That value is the number you would get from a scale placed directly under the ball coupler with the trailer level -- and with no WD applied.
It is this value, when divided by the trailer's loaded weight, which gives the tongue weight percentage.
The amount of load transferred to the trailer's axles is important because it can be equal to as much as 20-30% of the trailer's loaded weight.
If a loaded trailer weighs 8000# and the correct tongue weight is 1000#, the tongue weight percentage would be calculated correctly as 1000/8000 = 12.5%.
If the WDH is adjusted to transfer 250# (25% of tongue weight) to the trailer's axles, the measured hitch load (as opposed to tongue weight) would be 750#.
If you used the hitch load divided by the trailer's total weight to attempt to determine the tongue weight, you would get a quotient of 750/8000 = 9.4%.
And, if you believed the tongue weight percentage really was 9.4%, you probably would conclude the TW% is much lower than it should be -- when, in fact, it is at the 12.5% value which many consider to be close to optimum.
IMO, "tongue weight" is only determined when the WD is
NOT activated.
If load measurements are taken with WD activated, the calculated increase in TV GVW should be referred to as "hitch load" and should not be confused with "tongue weight".
Ron
