Weight at the back bumper and balancing the load?

Wow that's a lot of weight in the back for a bumper pull TT. And you actually have a bumper that can hold that weight?

I dont think its a great idea to have more than 150lbs back there with out knowing exactly what its doing to your tongue weight. But its just as bad to put heavy object in back as it is up front to try to compensate. You sort of rob Peter to pay Paul but its never an even trade. lol

And what sort of rack are you putting the little quad on back there? Even if your bumper or frame mounted hitch could hold the quad, the rack must weigh 50-80lbs on its own doesn't it?

Man...this does not sound good!

Bob E's suggestion is the best. As well, you would use a front mounted hitch and not worry as much about overloading the rear end. A front hitch and rack will hold your little quad and rack easy, but it would sure catch some eyes! That's better than catching some cars or trucks when should the quad fall of the back of the trailer! OUCH!

Look at a Diamond Back Truck Bed cover and haul both quads on the truck. Yeah, I know they are expensive, but so is a new camper...or an accident caused by an ill-handling rig. Just double check your truck payload capacity first.

You are lucky you made it home. You have made your trailer unstable by not having enough tongue weight. One evasive movement and the sway will get worse taking you to the scene of the accident.
Even a bigger truck will not solve the problem. You need a small TH trailer for the 50.

Paul-ish wrote:
For Christmas this year I bought my son a 50cc Quad. I have seen quit a few guys with bumper boxes on their trailers and didn't think the extra 300 pounds would really make a difference...

But driving back home today after a great 3 day trip I got quit the shock when my trailer would really want to sway at high speeds.

You already have an improperly handling combination and you now want to make it even worse by adding another 300 lbs to the far rear of the trailer?!! :S Good luck with that, let us know how that goes! :W

Sorry, but it seems to me you have much greater problems than worrying about mounting an additional 300 lbs exactly where it shouldn't be on any trailer, but most particularly on such a short trailer as yours. :R

FWIW, I recently declined the opportunity to purchase a low mileage 2015 Ram Hemi 1/2 ton, mostly for one specific reason - significant lack of payload capacity when compared to the Chevy Silverado 1/2 ton I did buy. The fact your truck / trailer combination handles so badly could easily be attributed to having a quad in the back of the truck while also towing the trailer - hard to believe you're not already significantly exceeding the truck's payload capacity and most particularly it's Gross Rear Axle Rating. :E

Time to go to the scales and determine what your tongue weight really is.

Do this loaded as when you were having the sway problem.

300 lbs on the back of the trailer may be too much for the trailer.

Does the trailer have a factory hitch and what is the weight capacity?

Adding that much weight to the back of any trailer is a no no. To track properly a trailer must have at a minimum 10% of its total weight on the tongue.

Could it be possible...just possible...that after loading the back bumper with your son's quad and not having any water on board that your trailer tongue weight was affected to a degree that caused sway even though others have mounted items on the back bumper?- "Quit" a few of them..two. And trailers don't need balance. They need sufficient tongue weight.

Alright, you came back with no water and had sway.

If you put a 300# quad on the back with a rack that will probably weigh 150#, that's 450#. Divide that by 7# per gallon and you'll need to have 64 gallons of water up front to offset the quad - and that takes you back to having the same weight distribution that you had today with no water and no quad.

So if you need the water for stability, you're going to need more than 64 gallons of water up front for stability to offset the quad and rack.

How big is your water tank? Can you move other weight up front?

Bill