Heavy Tongue Weight on Toy Hauler

[Prdonahue]

I have a 2009 27ft Extreme Toy Hauler with 2012 Ford Super Duty Diesel. I purchased a sherline 2000 lbs. tongue scale to find out the tongue on my toy hauler, without the ATV's (Polaris 550xp & Polaris 330) I pegged the scale. When I load the two ATVs the tongue weight is 1850 lbs. I have a Reese 1700 lbs. hitch and air bags on the truck. without the toys in the trailer I have run @ 45 to 50 psi in bags to keep toy hauler level. The Ford tows and stops the trailer fine, but looking for ideas to lighten the tongue load.

[nvreloader]

When I use my DF TH,
I have found out for every 3lbs I put in the rear, as close as possible to the ramp door, I remove about 1 lb from the tongue weight, since all my tanks are ahead of the dual wheels.

I went to a 1700lb WDH and 2-1/2" OEM stinger hitch to get the safety I wanted etc.

Tia,
Don

[1L243]

Was your trailer level when you weighed in? If not that can affect your TW. ONce you have loaded your toys and have moved all the heavy stuff you can to the rear that is all you can do. Upgrade the hitch on the truck run two anit sway bars and live with it..

[allcool]

On a side note...
At GDS last season, came across a guy that had just bought one of those new 30'
"1/2 ton towable" TH.
He had his friend with a 3/4t tow it out to GDS after he bought it. After buying a brand new 1/2t truck just so he could tow his new TH, he came out to GDS and tried to hook up.
Well, he couldn't get the tongue jack high enough to clear the wood block it was on since the bumper was almost on the ground.... lmao when I saw what was happening...

[allcool]

Prdonahue wrote:
I purchased a sherline 2000 lbs. tongue scale to find out the tongue on my toy hauler, without the ATV's (Polaris 550xp & Polaris 330) I pegged the scale.

I hear ya,,, for my TH, had to change out the 2000lb gauge to the 5000lb gauge.

That 2000lb gauge is for toy truck TW's... lol.

I recommend anyone with a 25' or over TT TH order the Sherline with the LM 0-5000 gauge head. Any gauge is more accurate measuring in the middle of its range than maxed out close to the end of its range. If you maxed out the gauge past the end of its range, good chance you've thrown it out of calibration.

The reality is many many of the bigger TT TH are not even close to what they're suppose to be, or advertised to be, when talking about TW.


jmo

[FireGuard]

They are heavy. My 21' has a tongue weight of 1100 lbs.

[steiny93]

do you have items in the extreme front which could be moved to the rear?

like quad gear / beverages / etc? in our old rig wife used to stock all the beverages in the very front of the 5er; moving multiple cases of cool ones to the extreme rear did make a noticeable difference on the pin weight

[Ivylog]

I'm glad you bought a scale to see how much tongue weight you have as I often wondered how bad it is without toys in the back. To solve your problem I would add a 50 gallon tank under the back of the trailer and use water to decrease your tongue weight.

[sljkansas]

Looks like your going to need a beefier Hitch also.

[noteven]

Around our outfit always having to take the toys to "balance the trailer" avoids any chance of hauling found antique/second hand/garage sale treasures/stuff home...

[Prdonahue]

I just fill the water tank (100 Gallons and tank is over axles) and now tongue weight with toys is 1800 lbs. Fuel tank is behind axles at rear and is 3/4 full about 30 gallons.

[Golden_HVAC]

Was your water tank full? Perhaps you can empty that and lower the hitch weight a bit.

The designers are thinking "Someone might load 2,500 pouns of toys 6' behind the axle, so we need to have a heavy hitch, so that after they load it up with whatever, it will still have at least 1,000 pounds of hitch weight. I think they went a little overboard with hitch weight though. To adjust, the designers really needed to place the rear axles a little closer to the hitch, so that more of the trailer weight is behind the axles, and you will then have much less hitch weight.

Not much you can do about it now, except the common sense things, like put the heavy stuff in the back. If the water tank is forward of the axle, do not fill it and check the weight again.

Do you have a fuel system? Is that behind or in front of the axles?

What tanks are behind the axle? Can you fill them - at least part way? IF they are between or near the axle, then that weight will not really matter much.

[wincrasher65]

Sounds like what is happening is proper - putting more weight in the back is lightening your pin weight on the truck, which is a desirable thing.

Have you tested the results from having empty water and waste tanks and fuel tanks?

Generally, shifting weight to the rear of the trailer will reduce the pin weight and help your situation.

[coolbreeze01]

What about when its full of water/toys?

[Prdonahue]

Yes form rear door to axles