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...
Forum Discussion
myredracer wrote:
I just came across this interesting article yesterday on another thread. How to tow safely
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The author also discusses "back of ball" ratio, or "BOB" for short which I've never heard discussed before. He says that the axles should be 70-80% towards the rear from the overall length ball to bumper for optimal towing stability. I'm not sure how well that would work in the more recent designs of trailers that can heavy components, like say slides, biasing weight more wt. to the front or rear and what it would do to tongue wt.
When looking at possible new trailers, I calculated the BOB whenever I could get the measurements. My old trailer was 76%, with the axle set pretty far back, and very stable towing. Most trailers we looked at were a lot lower, many in the 60's, a few in the 50's. Our new trailer is about 75 and it too is a very stable tow.
But a hihg BOB probably also means a high tongue weight. Both our trailers are a bit over 15% which must also contribute to stable towing.
