First time towing with the new van, not fun!

The LeRoys wrote:
Got a chance to go on a test tow after adjusting hitch and tire pressure tonight and also get it weighed. The drive was SO much better, but still not as good as my truck was, however it was night and day to Saturday. I think if I can make more hitch adjustments, I can make it even better.

I really wanted to go up one more notch on the Equal-i-zer, but I didn't feel comfortable as its a 10K hitch. With my tongue weight over the 1K limit, I need to upgrade. I think I'm going to jump to the 14K hitch tomorrow. I probably should have upgraded when I changed the camper 2 years ago.

With the hitch how I have it set today my front axle weight is 3100 with the camper on. With the camper off, I'm at 3380. I feel like I need more weight on the front wheels still.

I can't even guess how little weight was on the front axle before my changes to the hitch.

I'll test again on the new hitch & adjustments and report back.

Thanks for keeping me from going out to buy more gear.

I would hold off on changing your WDH rating. AFAIK the stock receiver's on the Vans are limited to 10K/1K and with the exception of the PullRite 20K/2K system aftermarket hitches for the most part max out at 12K/1.2K so going to a 14K/1.4K is not going to buy you anything. I highly recommend anyone towing much or seeing either a potential of varying by much how much they might carry in either their TT or TV that they spend the $120 or so in a Sherline tongue scale so that the most critical number ... Tongue Weight can be measured and adjusted PRIOR TO GETTING ON THE ROAD. TW is not the whole story, but IMO it's about 90% and with the Equal-i-zer if you have to raise the tongue at least about 1 to 1 and 1/2 the height of your WDH bar than you are at least getting a decent weight transfer.

Just as a point of reference due to some minor changes in how I carried some fairly heavy items in my TT I ran across the scales a couple of months ago in back to back days after I raised my "L" brackets one hole to get a little more weight transfer to the front and here were the details of how much that one hole adjustment resulted in.

Original numbers with 980lb dead tongue wt.

TT axles: 6960
Van rear axle: 6100
Van front axle: 3920

After raising the "L" bracket one hole:

TT axles: 7020 (an increase of 60lbs)
Van rear axle: 5920 (a decrease of 180lbs)
Van front axle: 4020 (an increase of 100lbs)

Somewhere I lost 20lbs, but that could be scale variance or minor change in total loads between the days and and each weigh in was just after topping off on fuel at the Flying J.

With all that being said I come at this whole subject slightly different that most because I have two things bascially in my favor ... one is with the diesel engine I'm already really heavy in the front TV weight and typically my Van when hooked up weighs amost 3,000lbs more then the weight on my TT axles so I have plenty of "dog" so it speak for my "tail" and my dog's head is heavier than normal anyway.

Larry