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
waynec1957 wrote:
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I agree with you on the tongue weights as far as what I would be comfortable with using a WDH. I don't necessarily think these lighter tongue weights make the trailers more stable during towing, but if I pull one off the lot, empty and brand new, hitched up to a draw bar and ball I would think it would have to be stable to some extent. Otherwise there would be a serious flaw in the design.
The "Hot-shot" trucks I've seen delivering trailers without sway control have all been pretty heavy duty, 3/4, 1 ton, some dualies. If the trailer wags on these, they probably wouldn't notice.
But yes, my guess would be that a trailer that is properly balanced from side-to-side, would require less frontal tongue weight to maintain stability.
It's just that I'm not convinced that low advertised dry tongue weights imply that the manufacturer has consciously designed the trailer to be stable at those low tongue weights. "By guess and by golly" seems more likely to me.
On the other hand, European trailers look to have very low tongue weights; the ones I've seen place the axles almost in the middle of the trailer, and WDH's are unheard of over there. Not sure how they engineer their trailers to reduce sway, but they all do seem very close to the ground, maybe that's one approach. I would think they have to be doing something ...
(apologies for the ramble)
