Tongue weight is too much
Weighed the awesome PUP the other day and boy was I in for a suprise. The PUP was loaded for camping and the gross weight was only 2720 lbs which is well in the rating for the Awesome Minivan... ...
Forum Discussion
Measure the distance from the coupler to the pop up axle, that will give you a baseline to calculate weight transfer. Let's say that distance is 10' and you need to lose 100 lbs from the tongue. 100 x 10 = 1000 lb "moment" that you need to offset. Moment = force x distance. Forces behind the axle are negative to the tongue because the axle is the fulcrum.
So let's say you had 50 lbs currently packed 4' ahead of the axles and you move it to 1' behind the axles. Removing the weight lightens the load by 50x4=200. Further subtract 50x1=50 for re-adding the weight behind the tongue so 200+50=250.
Now your moment has decreased by 250, so when multiplied by the 10' distance from coupler to axle means you have reduced your tongue weight by 25 lbs.
Think of a see-saw (or teeter-totter, depending on where you grew up), the trailer acts the same way with the trailer axle as the pivot point. Remember when we were kids, the smaller kids had to sit all the way at the end and the bigger kids would need to skootch up closer to the pivot point to balance the see-saw. The force applied on each side of the see-saw is force x distance from the pivot.
So if you know how heavy the stuff is you are moving around, just measure your distances as above and it will tell you what effect you are having on tongue weight.
So let's say you had 50 lbs currently packed 4' ahead of the axles and you move it to 1' behind the axles. Removing the weight lightens the load by 50x4=200. Further subtract 50x1=50 for re-adding the weight behind the tongue so 200+50=250.
Now your moment has decreased by 250, so when multiplied by the 10' distance from coupler to axle means you have reduced your tongue weight by 25 lbs.
Think of a see-saw (or teeter-totter, depending on where you grew up), the trailer acts the same way with the trailer axle as the pivot point. Remember when we were kids, the smaller kids had to sit all the way at the end and the bigger kids would need to skootch up closer to the pivot point to balance the see-saw. The force applied on each side of the see-saw is force x distance from the pivot.
So if you know how heavy the stuff is you are moving around, just measure your distances as above and it will tell you what effect you are having on tongue weight.
