Taco wrote:
I tow a living quarters cargo trailer to haul atvs and dirtbikes. With it hauling a lot of heavy cargo i have a fair amount of leeway in how I load it so I can manipulate the tongue weight quite a bit.
If there is a 1000+ lbs in the bed of the truck how important is it to have the normal 13% or so tongue weight. Could I get by loading it to have less tongue weight because of the weight in the bed. Or is there some other reason that it is important to have the tongue weight?
NO, you can not "get by" just because you load up the back of the vehicle.
Trailering is all about proper "balance" of the load ON THE TRAILER.
Too much weight at or behind the axles of the trailer makes for an extremely unstable tow. This weight basically takes control of the trailer and makes the trailer act like a long, long lever.
This lever effect can remove enough weight from the rear of the vehicle and LIFT the tires right off the road (I personally have seen this happen once when I was loading a pickup truck onto my flatbed trailer, picked the tow vehicle rear tires up off the pavement when I forgot to put blocking under the ramps :S). Even if it doesn't lift the tires it will substantially remove enough weight that you will lose traction which can push you sideways .
It is for that reason you want to have a minimum of 10% and ideally 12%-15% of the trailer weight SITTING on your hitch at all times.
