Tongue Weights weighed
I finally weighed. Someone said something about having no WD hitch and the rear axle as a fulcrum unweighting the front axle, so I did math. I weighed my small trailer only so far. I weighed abou...
Forum Discussion
No, driving the truck, no matter how much weight is or is not back there, feels the same. I imagine it would take an extreme situation for the front end to unweight due to a heavy tongue that would have to be bouncing a lot somehow, and cause steering issues. The steering will only feel different if geometries change.
I did ride in a one-ton tow truck towing my class-c (460 motor) and that front end did come off the ground a few times, it felt odd, but that was a 13,000lb vehicle being towed with almost all the vehicle weight in front of the rear axle....
The point is that in my head I am always disagreeing with the people that poopo air bags who say you cannot increase the towing tongue capacity. Well, no, of course not, the tires, wheels, leaf springs and frame always have the same limits, but the weak link has always been the springs. You can increase the spring capacity easily with bags and at the same time stay within the limits of the other components.
Air bags do increase tongue weight (*edit*, tongue weight capacity*) to a limit, of course, bc it removes the sag that is created within the weight limits of the vehicle.
I can drop more weight on my ball safely and drive level safely with bags, where without bags the rear would be sagging so much or riding on the bump-stops that it would be undriveable.
I can stay within the weight limits on all other components safely doing this.
A WDH only helps so much and all the force is transferred to/through the trailer tongue. I think my little rig is light enough that the springs could support having the rear truck axle off the ground, but on a bigger truck with bigger trailer weight something would bend or break if one accidentally drove through a deep dip in the road, and those are out there.
WDH's are springs, smoother springs than leaf springs, and do not have shock absorbers so they do provide a smoother ride for the small bumps, and even big bumps. They do make the rig ride smoother no matter trailer or tongue weight and reduce porpoising by a lot.
The downside is they are not meant for extreme angles where the truck points up and the trailer points down.
So, if you stay within the weight limit of the truck's carrying ability, and do not have so much weight that the front end is unweighted beyond a safe measure then bags are fine. I will poopo anyone who continues to post that bags are a bad band-ade, sorry. I have driven 10's of thousands of miles with bags and also WDHs.
Girtdog, no, I think you are only half way there. Lots still to learn it seems as reality demostrates.
I did ride in a one-ton tow truck towing my class-c (460 motor) and that front end did come off the ground a few times, it felt odd, but that was a 13,000lb vehicle being towed with almost all the vehicle weight in front of the rear axle....
The point is that in my head I am always disagreeing with the people that poopo air bags who say you cannot increase the towing tongue capacity. Well, no, of course not, the tires, wheels, leaf springs and frame always have the same limits, but the weak link has always been the springs. You can increase the spring capacity easily with bags and at the same time stay within the limits of the other components.
Air bags do increase tongue weight (*edit*, tongue weight capacity*) to a limit, of course, bc it removes the sag that is created within the weight limits of the vehicle.
I can drop more weight on my ball safely and drive level safely with bags, where without bags the rear would be sagging so much or riding on the bump-stops that it would be undriveable.
I can stay within the weight limits on all other components safely doing this.
A WDH only helps so much and all the force is transferred to/through the trailer tongue. I think my little rig is light enough that the springs could support having the rear truck axle off the ground, but on a bigger truck with bigger trailer weight something would bend or break if one accidentally drove through a deep dip in the road, and those are out there.
WDH's are springs, smoother springs than leaf springs, and do not have shock absorbers so they do provide a smoother ride for the small bumps, and even big bumps. They do make the rig ride smoother no matter trailer or tongue weight and reduce porpoising by a lot.
The downside is they are not meant for extreme angles where the truck points up and the trailer points down.
So, if you stay within the weight limit of the truck's carrying ability, and do not have so much weight that the front end is unweighted beyond a safe measure then bags are fine. I will poopo anyone who continues to post that bags are a bad band-ade, sorry. I have driven 10's of thousands of miles with bags and also WDHs.
Girtdog, no, I think you are only half way there. Lots still to learn it seems as reality demostrates.
