tongue weight

LarryJM wrote:

TrooperTaylor wrote:

Huntindog wrote:
One thing that often gets overlooked is that TW can change quite a bit during the course of a trip. Especially important for boondockers.

Water gets used and moves from the fresh water tank to either the black or grey tanks, food gets eaten and drinks consumed, and a lot of it may end up in the black tank. Propane gets used. Even things like clothing may move from the closet etc. to the dirty clothes hamper.

So I cringe when I see someone confident that a marginal TV will be just fine if the TT is loaded to keep the TW low....One of two things is bound to happen at some point. 1. The TW will get too low, potentially cause handling problems or.
2. The TW will get too high, potentially causing overloading problems.

I like to see a TV capable of 15% or more of the GVW TW, and target loaded ready to go TW of 13-14%.

Good point ! Thats why I invested in a Sherline TW scale. I take it with me on my trips. That way I can measure my TW at the campground before returning home to ensure its not out of whack.

Now right here is one smart person. We spend thousands on TV and TT then hundreds if not thousands on WDH/sway, but balk at a paltry $100 to get the most important safety piece of equip which is that Sherline TW scale and then USE IT. It can be the most important decision for the safety of yourself and loved ones you can make.

Sure there are the bathroom scale workarounds and going to the CAT scales, but the convenience of the Sherline is a no brainer and things can and will change even on a trip and ending up in a ditch on the way to the CAT scales makes no sense.



Larry

TrooperTaylor wrote:

Huntindog wrote:
One thing that often gets overlooked is that TW can change quite a bit during the course of a trip. Especially important for boondockers.

Water gets used and moves from the fresh water tank to either the black or grey tanks, food gets eaten and drinks consumed, and a lot of it may end up in the black tank. Propane gets used. Even things like clothing may move from the closet etc. to the dirty clothes hamper.

So I cringe when I see someone confident that a marginal TV will be just fine if the TT is loaded to keep the TW low....One of two things is bound to happen at some point. 1. The TW will get too low, potentially cause handling problems or.
2. The TW will get too high, potentially causing overloading problems.

I like to see a TV capable of 15% or more of the GVW TW, and target loaded ready to go TW of 13-14%.

Good point ! Thats why I invested in a Sherline TW scale. I take it with me on my trips. That way I can measure my TW at the campground before returning home to ensure its not out of whack.

opnspaces wrote:
Yep I stand by my assumption that you will be fine.

You are correct that with a weight distribution hitch your receiver is rated for a total of 10,500 lbs and a max tongue weight of 1,100 lbs.

I always figure about 1,200 lbs with added clothes, food, water, and other camping junk. So you are at
5,620 lbs Dry
1,200 loaded for camping
6,820 total heck round it up to 7,000 for grins. that gives you
910 lb tongue weight at 13%

Trailer is rated at up to 7,600 so you are good there with 7,000 lbs.
Truck is rated at 9,600 so you are good there again with 7,000 lbs.
hitch is rated at 1,100 WDH so you are good there with 910 lbs.

I'm still saying in my opinion you're good with a 1,000 lb WDH.


You also have to take a step back and realistically figure on how the weight is going to get into the waste tanks. If you have say 40 gallons fresh, you're only really going to wind up with 40 gallons combined black and gray. The water in the waste tanks had to start somewhere and that somewhere is the fresh water tank; plus some of the relief after drinking the drinks in the cooler. So as you use the 40 gallons fresh, the water moves into the waste tanks. When the fresh tank is empty, the waste tanks will stop filling.
Figure 40 gal at 8.3 lbs per gal = 332 lbs.

Now if you are at a park with a fresh water hookup, you will be bypassing the fresh tank and will be able to put more than 40 gal in the waste tanks. But then again if you are at a park with a water hookup, they will also invariably have a dump station to empty the waste tanks before heading home.

opnspaces wrote:
Maybe so, but in the end the new truck is already bought. And that 950 tongue weight is with almost 1,400 lbs of stuff above the base weight. If he drops to 1,200 above dry his tongue weight at 13% is ~890.

At this point I see he has only two options,
1) use his existing truck,, buy a WDH and see how it goes.
2) buy a different truck (3/4 ton) and buy a WDH and see how it goes.

I know if I was in his shoes I would definitely go with #1

opnspaces wrote:
Yep I stand by my assumption that you will be fine.


that gives you
910 lb tongue weight at 13%

dadmomh wrote:
As a general rule, we never tow with anything in the tanks....very minor exceptions excluded. Water weighs something like 8.3# per gallon x 30 gallos, if that's your tank size = 240# in the FW. Probably similar in the grey and I haven't asked and likely won't how much the "stuff" in the black tank weighs per gallon. But adding 750 - 800# without realizing it is easy. I couldn't help but think as I hauled the WM bags to Rocky the other day just how heavy they were. I really should park the bathroom scale by the TT and just see how much weight I'm adding just in food, etc for a weekend trip. Probably would knock my socks off.

Slightly OT, but my cousin had his own plane and 3 small children. As the children grew, so did the weight and the "stuff" that came along. It got to the point that his DW "joked" - not really - that when they found they had to weigh the potato chips, it was time to sell that plane. Same principal.

We are very weight concious, but when we started moving stuff from our HTT to our new TT, we were amazed at the stuff that had found its way in there. Likely 1 piece at a time, but it added up. Rocky is on a lifetime diet! If it's not necessary and/or we don't use it regularly, it stays home.