Tongue Weight
Sorry for the posts lately, but I want to get this right. I'm looking at two different TT's. One is 4500lb with a 450lb hitch weight, the other has a front kitchen with a 5500lb weight and 700lb hit...
Forum Discussion
davisenvy wrote:
The guy I sold it to has a Dodge 2500 and lives just down the road. He has the same complaints I had. The Sprinter had a dry tongue weight of 870lbs and almost 9000lbs. I was not happy with how it towed. I had a couple different people take a look at the set up, had etrailer involved, and got tired of putting money into trying to get it to quit bobbing down the road like an old Cadillac. New Bilsteins, new DrawTite 1500lb hitch, Reese dual cam/trunion, etc, but I digress.
Others will jump in here and tell you the same thing, 870lbs of tongue weight is TOO LOW for a 9000 lb trailer.
I had 550 lbs tongue weight on my 6006 lb trailer. I didn't realize the tongue was so low until I went out and had sway. That is when I went to the scale and was shocked. I moved everything forward and drove to the campsite a couple hours away. The weight on the tongue was increased to just under 600 lbs (still too light) and the sway almost disappeared.
Once on the campground I did some checking in the trailer to figure out the problem (never had a tongue weight problem prior to that) and found that the last people to use the trailer filled the black and grey water tanks. They dumped the black and grey water, but for some reason filled them up with fresh water. He thought that I kept them full??? I wasn't expecting to have full waste tanks... they are far behind the axles. It also raised my total weight to above my trailer rating (rating is 5780 and actual was 6006)
