Change weight by adding washer to WD hitch?

Thanks for the help. This is the second time I've hit the scales with the new to us TT. We picked up the TT from a dealer, tossed in our gear from the old unit and went camping. The hitch was set up with use of a tape measure and eyeballed it. We weighed on the way home. It was just DW and myself, few cloths and a little bit of left over food.

After that, I lowered the hitch head by one hole and added a washer. We rearranged our stuff, added a tv, added more towels, dishes ect. It towed well on numerous local trips.

The current weight numbers were made while leaving on a 5 day trip we made to the beach with our DD. Loaded with all food, clothes, coolers, firewood, fishing gear, ect. It was almost 600 miles round trip and pulled fine. Just thought I might be able to fine tune the set up a bit.

jerem0621 wrote:

lbrjet wrote:
Jeremiah, the 2K version will be more accurate unless your TW is approaching 2K.

OP, 60 lbs is not worth worrying about. Your TW is probably around 1000 lbs with a couple hundred lbs transferred to the trailer axles.

Thanks for the insight on the Sheline scale! I didn't know that..

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Sherline says to size your gauge so it reads approximately in the middle. For most people that is the 2K gauge. By the way, there is only one scale with three different gauges. You can unscrew one and screw in another. I know because I have two gauges. I started with the 1K gauge with my first 21 foot trailer. When I got my 34 footer I called them and they mailed me the 2K gauge for 25 bucks.

lbrjet wrote:
Jeremiah, the 2K version will be more accurate unless your TW is approaching 2K.

OP, 60 lbs is not worth worrying about. Your TW is probably around 1000 lbs with a couple hundred lbs transferred to the trailer axles.

Thanks for the insight on the Sheline scale! I didn't know that..

Thanks!

Jeremiah

You add/remove washers to ensure your bars are PARALLEL to your trailer tongue when under tension. First determine how many chain links are needed to be parallel, THEN add/remove washers until tension is correct.

I see so many people driving down the road with their bars pulled all the way up to the trailer tongue with about only two links on the chain in order to get the tension they feel they need. THIS should be avoided...

Jeremiah, the 2K version will be more accurate unless your TW is approaching 2K.

OP, 60 lbs is not worth worrying about. Your TW is probably around 1000 lbs with a couple hundred lbs transferred to the trailer axles.

Basically, as noted above, adding washers puts more tilt in the head and more tension on the bars thereby transferring more weight to the front axle, as a general rule.

Adding a washer is about the same as dropping 1-2 more links. Drop the links to get the desired distribution, then add washers as needed.

OP...

I am a proponent of using as much head hitch tilt and the minimum number of links hanging free as possible. More hitch head angle means that your hich distributes weight easier.

With that said, there is no secret formula to finding out your tongue weight.

You can go to a cat scale and do three passes

1) weigh the truck full of gas without the trailer hitched
2) weigh the truck with the trailer and WD
3) weigh the truck and trailer hitched and no WD

For #3 take the # from the steer and the drive axle and subtract the weight from #1. That will give you a close measure of the tongue weight.

You sound like a "I got to know" kind of person... Kind of like me!

So, my plans for 2015 are to purchase a Sherline Scale so I can accurately measure my tongue weight whenever I want too.

Here is a Link to their 5000 lb model... It's just a few dollars more than their 2000 lb model.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

If your that close then I would tow with it and see how it handles but he answer to your question is yes, that will force the weight forward. I really think you'll be ok though.
FWIW, one washer equals two links.