Fixing tongue weight
After years of tenting I just bought a '78 Travelaire so that we can take our one-year old on camping trips this year. When I hitched on, I noticed the back of my vehicle was sagging quite a bit, so I took everything to a public scale to figure out my tongue weight.
The trailer weighs 2,600 lbs, and is no issue to pull for our vehicle (Acura MDX), which has a towing capacity of 5,000 lbs. My tongue weight cannot exceed 500lbs.
Acura does not recommend using a weight distribution system. I do use sway bars.
The challenge I have with the trailer is that the tongue weight is way out of whack. The scale wasn't big enough to fit both the car and trailer at the same time, but I think I got all the weights that I need.
The GVW (trailer hitched, me in it) was 5,357 lbs.
The vehicle (trailer unhitched, me in it) was 4,564 lbs.
I believe this means that the tongue weight is the difference between the two, or 794 lbs.
The trailer was loaded with our regular campaign gear (chairs, pots, pans, etc) but did not have water in it yet. Most of the gear was in the back of the trailer.
When I go ahead and sit in the back of the trailer, the GVW reduced to 5,115lbs, reducing the tongue weight to 551 lbs.
The only other thing I can think of doing is removing the two propane bottles on the front of my trailer when traveling, and placing them inside the trailer. But, it seems odd to me that I'd have to do that every single time.
So, a few questions:
- Does my tongue weight logic make sense?
- Other than moving the propane bottles, and always driving with full water tanks - how can I try to reduce my tongue weight?
- How the heck can a trailer's tongue weight be so out of whack?
Any ideas on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated!
The trailer weighs 2,600 lbs, and is no issue to pull for our vehicle (Acura MDX), which has a towing capacity of 5,000 lbs. My tongue weight cannot exceed 500lbs.
Acura does not recommend using a weight distribution system. I do use sway bars.
The challenge I have with the trailer is that the tongue weight is way out of whack. The scale wasn't big enough to fit both the car and trailer at the same time, but I think I got all the weights that I need.
The GVW (trailer hitched, me in it) was 5,357 lbs.
The vehicle (trailer unhitched, me in it) was 4,564 lbs.
I believe this means that the tongue weight is the difference between the two, or 794 lbs.
The trailer was loaded with our regular campaign gear (chairs, pots, pans, etc) but did not have water in it yet. Most of the gear was in the back of the trailer.
When I go ahead and sit in the back of the trailer, the GVW reduced to 5,115lbs, reducing the tongue weight to 551 lbs.
The only other thing I can think of doing is removing the two propane bottles on the front of my trailer when traveling, and placing them inside the trailer. But, it seems odd to me that I'd have to do that every single time.
So, a few questions:
- Does my tongue weight logic make sense?
- Other than moving the propane bottles, and always driving with full water tanks - how can I try to reduce my tongue weight?
- How the heck can a trailer's tongue weight be so out of whack?
Any ideas on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated!
