Downside to tongue weight over 15%?
Tongue weight should be between 10 & 15%. It usually is. There is a potential serious safety issue if it's below 10% and that's well documented everywhere. But what is the downside of being over 15...
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Both my trailers have been 15-16% at some point in their lives, and there have been no problems with handling once the WDH was setup right. If anything they were very stable.
5th wheels handle better than travel trailers because of both their high pin weight (15-25%) and it's placement above the rear axle.
Over in Europe where they don't use WDH, they have the 85% rule: the trailer weight shouldn't exceed 85% of the tow vehicles weight. Over here we can exceed that because the WDH puts more weight on the tow vehicle (and I suspect our WDH's have better mechanical sway control).
As long as the tow vehicle can handle it, the more weight the better IMHO.
^ This, plus the truck's rear GAWR and GVWR. You gotta check all three.
Last time we weighed the new trailer, tongue weight was a bit over 15%, 1130#. We were under the receiver rating 20#, under the GVWR by 200#, but over the rear GAWR by 130#. Since then I've moved stuff out of the pass-thru and tightened up the WDH so hopefully the rear GAWR is no longer exceeded .
5th wheels handle better than travel trailers because of both their high pin weight (15-25%) and it's placement above the rear axle.
Over in Europe where they don't use WDH, they have the 85% rule: the trailer weight shouldn't exceed 85% of the tow vehicles weight. Over here we can exceed that because the WDH puts more weight on the tow vehicle (and I suspect our WDH's have better mechanical sway control).
As long as the tow vehicle can handle it, the more weight the better IMHO.
fla-gypsy wrote:
Some receivers are simply not rated for big tongue weight above 1200 lbs
^ This, plus the truck's rear GAWR and GVWR. You gotta check all three.
Last time we weighed the new trailer, tongue weight was a bit over 15%, 1130#. We were under the receiver rating 20#, under the GVWR by 200#, but over the rear GAWR by 130#. Since then I've moved stuff out of the pass-thru and tightened up the WDH so hopefully the rear GAWR is no longer exceeded .
