Tongue weight help

Thanks all for the assistance. I raised the trailer bracket 1 hole and will see if I feel better about some added weight to the front of the truck. I'll be taking it on a 3 hour drive in a few days to see how it reacts. I appreciate the help of using a bath scale for figuring tongue weight and will definitely give it a shot as soon as I have the needed materials. I almost got a third scale reading without the weight bars that day, but wasn't sure how still having all the trailer weight on trailer axles and the tongue jack would give me an accurate reading. I think I know next time I weigh to get 3 sets done. Thanks for the help!

Here is a good article on Etrailer that gives you easy do-it-yourself instructions on how to get accurate tongue weight with bathroom scales.

You took over #300 off the front end. Added #980 to the rear axle with the WD attached, so I'd think you need to move a bit more off the rear axle to the front and you can only do that by adding more tension to the WD bars.

Not sure what WD system you have, but if you are talking about moving brackets, I'd have to guess you have the Equal-I-Zer hitch setup.

You might be able to tilt the hitch head back by a few degrees. That will put more tension on the bars without having to move the brackets.

With a WD setup, you also move some of the weight to the trailer axles, so that's why it's hard to say what your actual "tongue weight" is..

It's heavier than #640, but without knowing how much it took off the front end and added to the rear end without the WD bars attached, it's only a guess..

It really only takes basic hand tools for the brackets, but might require larger size sockets for the hitch head adjustment..

Depending on your DIY skills and tool box collection will determine if you can/want to do this fine addjustment yourself.

Good luck!

Mitch

I thought I followed the directions from GMC. I weighed the truck/trailer combination first. I kept the weight bars attached to the brackets on the frame of the trailer. It is a Husky Centerline hitch with 800-1200 bars. Pulled off scale and unhitched and also removed the hitch and got the second weighing of the truck alone. We tried to load the trailer exactly with the items we will be taking on our next trip as well as all cargo including full tank of gas. Occupants and dog stayed in truck during both scale uses. Placard on trailer says 6455 dry weight, 1,112 lbs cargo weight, gvwr 7,605lbs, gawr of front axle 3,500 , gawr of rear axle 3,500lbs. Its a 32 ft trailer. Truck is a 5.3 shortbox crew cab 4x4 with a gvwr of 7000. 3,42 axle ratio. Yes a 3/4 ton truck probably would have been much better, but this is the one we have for the next few years to work with so I need to make it work. We have pulled the camper several times and I feel the truck pulls it ok, but passing semis on interstates going 70 while we're doing 60 pushes us frequently. Somtimes passing suv's do as well and I dont like the feel ofsome loss of steering. From the beginning, to me the truck feels light on the front end, although I have not encountered problems to curves or turns. Dips in the pavement can give a bucking ride sometimes. I mainly want to feel more weight on the front end. We left the hitch setup as was done at the trailer dealer where we purchased the trailer and hitch. Before taking the rig to the scales, we measured distances from the top of the wheel wells to the ground which was pretty level. Unhitched the truck and front wheelwell measured 36 1/2 inches, rear wheelwell was 37 1/2 inches. Hitched up trailer without using the bars and front was 37 3/4 inches and rear 35 1/2 inches. Then hooked up the bars to trailer bracket and front was at 36 3/4 inches and rear was 35 3/4 inches. I can raise the bracket higher to move some weight off the rear tires, but am half afraid to try as pulling a trailer is new to us. Hate to drive the whole thing back to have dealer just raise the bracket if that is all I need, but again I'm hesitant to pull it out on the roads for fear of I might make it a wild ride if I am wrong. never towing before makes it hard for me to judge if that front end feeling is normal or not. I was shooting for tongue weight of 12% (859lbs) and if I am at 640lbs I'm not even at 10% if I calculated the trailer weight correctly.

Knowing the tongue weight is half the battle, and for about the cost of going to a scale you can make your own tongue scale. Two 2x4's about 7' long, two short pieces of pipe, 1/2" copper pipes a foot long work, a patio brick, and a cheap bathroom scale from walmart. Put a mark every foot on the boards after screwing them together, place the 1 foot mark on a pipe on the brick, the tongue foot on the 2 foot mark, and at the 4 foot mark the other pipe on the scale. Zero the scale then let the trailer fully down on the boards until it is level, Multiply the scale reading by 4 and you have your tongue weight.

Now that you have the actual TW, setup the WDH so that the truck sits the way the manual tells you it should by measuring the wheel arches. Knowing what your truck weighs with you and a full tank of gas, and knowing the TW, you should be able to figure out the weight distribution easy enough.

Assuming the truck was loaded approximately the same for both weighings,
the numbers indicate that very little (if any) load was transferred to the trailer.

The load increase of 640# would be pretty close to the tongue weight.

Ron

One thing we do know, is that it is at least 640 pounds, and probably more. The WDH does return some weight back to the trailer axles. You still have 340 pounds off the front axle. May want to tilt the head or go for another link...or both.

All you know from those weights is that you added #640 to the truck.

That's not the trailers actual tongue weight however.

As was said, you will need to get the weights without the WD and compare to your unloaded truck weights.

What's the trucks GVWR? Since you are sitting at #6880 loaded with the WD installed, you could be okay on that part anyway? If it tows okay and the front end does not feel "light" while steering, leave it alone.. If it feels light up front, you can tighten up the tension on the WD to put more weight up front.

Mitch

You have to get a weight with the WD unhooked also. As it would seem too you need to get more weight on the front axle...

See here..

http://towingplanner.com/ActualWeights/TravelTrailerCatScales


The trick is to restore front to original weight without going over..

See mine here.. I did this all by measuring the wheel wells when setting up the WD hitch. I then went to the scales and just happened to be right on the money..

Truck only



Truck without WD engauged..




Truck with WD engauged..see how I restored the front axle.