Tongue Weight Rating
Hello, We are buying a trailer for our daughter and son-in-law. They now have a Ford Expedition with 8,900# tow rating. 80% of that is 7,120#, but they should stay below 7,000# loaded (5,500 to 6...
Forum Discussion
Crespro wrote:
I have two ways to measure. We can use the Sherline and measure the freestanding tongue weight of 895#. Alternatively, we can use a CAT scale to weigh the Expy with and without the trailer.
Going to a scale is one of the best things you can ever do for your TV and TT.
You'll be able to get the actual payload capacity of the TV, the actual tongue weight, the trailer's total actual weight (GVW), the amount of weight transferred by the WDH to steer, drive and TT axles and the percentage of tongue weight (tongue/GVW). You will be able to learn how close you are to the TT's GVWR too. It takes 3 passes at the scale with a TT - one with just TV, one with TV + TT + WDH engaged, and one with TV + TT without WDH engaged (put bars in TV). You can either load the TV up as you would for camping, or come up with a weight to use for passengers, pets, groceries & camping gear which is often in the 400-500 lb range. Don't forget to fill the fuel tank too.
A Sherline is nice to have to keep an eye on your tongue weight when you load it for a trip and may have the load shifted around somewhat and biased more toward the rear or front of the TT axles. You'll be able to know if you are in the 10-15% range or not. Some have reported that the Sherline scale is not all that accurate. You supposedly need to jump up and down on the tongue a bit to get the scale to settle to be accurate. By going to a scale you'd be able to compare figures.
It's not a great idea to tow near the towing capacity of a TV. You will find it slow to accelerate and really slow on steeper hills and it's harder on the TV. You could find yourself down to around 30-35 mph on the hills (BTDT).
