TW = 690 Get 750 or 1K spring bars?
Brand new/first time owner of a not so brand new trailer. Picked up a 2001 Thor Wanderer Lite 240MS over the weekend. Never had one before, total noob, I'm trying to learn how to hitch/tow/set it ...
Forum Discussion
UTCoyote wrote:IMO, you got excellent advice from the Blue Ox rep.
So, called Blue Ox and they said get the 750's. S
Seemed to think it was almost kind of a dumb question, even. Went kinda like - you weighed your TW at 690? Get 750's then. I brought up the possibility of loading more weight in the trailer and possibly going over 750 TW at some point and the answer was pretty straightforward - if you really think you'll get that heavy, get the 1K's. They said from their experience, they really doubt I'm going to end up that heavy though, if the trailer was already fully loaded for a trip when I weighed it at 690, which, it was.
Even if you did load to its GVWR value of 5600#, an optimum tongue weight percentage for that length of trailer would be about 12.5%. That would put the maximum tongue weight at about 700#.
If you do add more load to the trailer, you should try to keep the TW% below 13%.
Furthermore, WD bars probably still are rated under the assumption that they will be used to overload the TV's front axle to achieve "equal squat" as was done in the old days.
Even at 750# tongue weight, if the WDH is properly adjusted per modern standards, the 750# bars should have should have a good margin of safety against overload.
And, the WD bars should not be used to compensate for TV bed load. The front-end reference height or axle load should be the height or load for the fully loaded TV -- including everything carried in the rear of the TV.
IMO, the 750# bars are well matched to your application. The 1000# bars would have been unnecessarily stiff.
Ron
