Trailer nose down?

acritzer wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
I'm going to say you got it on the money. There is several reasons to have your trailer down in front.

#1. You will get "slightly" more tongue weight and that is a good thing.

#2. The trailer will cut the wind better. It sounds like a minor issue but it really can add up and make a big difference in mileage over years of towing.

#3. This is a big one. During panic braking the nose of the tow vehicle will dive because of weight transfer. When this happens the back of the tow vehicle and front of the trailer will raise up. This is not a good situation because the weight of the trailer will try to lift the back tires of the TV off of the ground. Braking with two tires is not a good thing and you want all tires of the TV braking equally. When the nose of the trailer is down like you have it; it will form a straight line when in panic braking mode; which is a good thing. I say leave it. :)

Thanks. I'd like to be "done"...but also want to get it right. Sounds like level is the best, most agree on that. The question really is, how much nose down is OK.

There really is very few disadvantages to nose down and a lot of advantages. One is it "slightly" loads the front tires a little harder on a tandem axel set-up. It's so small it's not really worth mentioning.

Another is it will add a "slight" amount of tongue weight. This may be a bad thing if you are close on payload of your TV. If not, added tongue weight is a good thing.

I have towed a lot of different trailer in my time. Nose WAY up, nose WAY down, level, and almost every conceivable combo there is out there. They all towed just fine and didn't seem to make much difference on nose attitude.

The thing that made a HUGE difference was tongue weight. If you don't have enough tongue weight your trailer will want to kill you. I've towed 3000 lb trailers with 0 tongue weight and it would sway to hard it would almost lift the back tires off of the ground with a 3/4 ton diesel truck!

Like I said, if it was my trailer I would leave it.

BTW, another advantage of nose down is rear end drag. A few inches up in the rear can make all the difference in the world as far as whether you drag or not coming out of a parking lot.