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I weighed my setup

opnspaces
Navigator II
Navigator II
My trailer has not changed, but the tow vehicle has changed. My 1996 Suburban 3/4 ton 4x4 is dead and I now have a 2001 Suburban 3/4 ton 4x4.

So today I went to get the trailer out of storage and setup the weight distribution (WD) for the new truck. As a bonus, since there is a landfill facility about a half mile from storage I figured I'd get some weights and see what input you all can offer. When I asked about the weights the operator asked if I needed certified weights to which I answered no. When I was done weighing and looking at the numbers I can see some discrepancies which makes me wonder if the lady wrote the numbers down wrong, or if their scale is really that off. In the end though I don't think the differences in weights are enough to worry about. At least not at this point in setting up the hitch.

Here are the numbers. The truck and trailer look level and pulled fine although there was definitely more porpoising than with the older Suburban. I'm thinking I need more front axle weight although I'm surprised how close the initial numbers seem to be. Any suggestions if it was yours or would you leave it alone?

Weights labeled "Whole truck is front and rear wheels on the scale"

Rear axle calculated is because there was no way to get rear alone with a trailer hooked up so I subtracted the front axle from the whole truck number.



Had to edit this post as I realized that it wasn't clear that the trailer weight was with the trailer still hooked to the hitch.
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2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton **** 2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH **** 1986 Coleman Columbia Popup
18 REPLIES 18

opnspaces
Navigator II
Navigator II
Agreed, and camping I went, but I also stopped at the same scales on the way out of town just to see where I was.

The trailer pulled fine, no real wiggle or sway. In fact it pulled smoother than my old Suburban. I always suspected I was a bit tongue heavy, and now I guess I have proof. The Suburban was basically empty with just me in it. The trailer had 40 gallons of water a few days food, some firewood and my generator.

Here are the numbers. The first column of weights is where I am currently after adding one washer. The second column is where I was last Monday. At this point I think I'm done making adjustments. I will try to move some weight off the tongue at some point since 1,000 lbs is a bit excessive. I wasn't able to restore all the weight to the front axle. But I'm thinking that is more a weakness of the stock hitch and more washers won't help.



Had to edit this post as I realized that it wasn't clear that the trailer weight was with the trailer still hooked to the hitch.
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2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton **** 2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH **** 1986 Coleman Columbia Popup

Grit_dog
Navigator
Navigator
Id say don't worry about it and go camping.
As I was towing my 32' enclosed trailer this weekend (basically the size of a big TT) that has a deckover chassis about 75mph down the pass on I-90 in the pouring rain and wind, steering with my knee, eating a burrito with one hand and changing the radio with the other, I pondered the effect of these add ons to a trailer that is not oversized for the tow rig and wondered how much more pleasurable a wdh and sway control would make my drive. I came to the conclusion that unless that stuff could allow me to drive from the backseat with a cocktail in my hand, I don't see what good it would be....lol

And I didn't use the big Dodge. Used a 2001 Tahoe on 20s. Figured 19 years later it should at least tow 1 trailer, haha. (Seriously, the inside of the hitch receiver wasn't even scratched up until 2 days ago.)
Point is, 40 lbs here or there, or a couple hundred lbs on or off the front or rear axle is largely insignificant it seems.
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5โ€ turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold

mkirsch
Nomad II
Nomad II
Early on in the thread you expressed some concern over the scale numbers being 20-40lbs off and not adding up. Just FYI that's well within the margin of error for a vehicle scale and nothing to be concerned over.

Putting 10-ply tires on half ton trucks since aught-four.

BenK
Explorer
Explorer
FYI on that GMT800 4x4 front suspensionโ€™s bump stop being a second set of springs...just had to scratch my itch to find some of the old threads on the GMT800/GMT900 front bumpstop vs WDโ€™ing weight to the front axle



Air bags for rear coils-recommendations, 4pages

https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/25441154/true.cfm...iPad seems to not be able to link properly, so this is the link above and below



Noticed I didnโ€™t get back to this OP...hope they got it resolved
Bounce Bounce Bounce

https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/23839812/true.cfm
-Ben Picture of my rig
1996 GMC SLT Suburban 3/4 ton K3500/7.4L/4:1/+150Kmiles orig owner...
1980 Chevy Silverado C10/long bed/"BUILT" 5.7L/3:73/1 ton helper springs/+329Kmiles, bought it from dad...
1998 Mazda B2500 (1/2 ton) pickup, 2nd owner...
Praise Dyno Brake equiped and all have "nose bleed" braking!
Previous trucks/offroaders: 40's Jeep restored in mid 60's / 69 DuneBuggy (approx +1K lb: VW pan/200hpCorvair: eng, cam, dual carb'w velocity stacks'n 18" runners, 4spd transaxle) made myself from ground up / 1970 Toyota FJ40 / 1973 K5 Blazer (2dr Tahoe, 1 ton axles front/rear, +255K miles when sold it)...
Sold the boat (looking for another): Trophy with twin 150's...
51 cylinders in household, what's yours?...

BenK
Explorer
Explorer
IIRC, GMT800's also changed the front suspension on 4x4's by having the bump stop in constant contact...so as to become another spring

So, when you measure with more head tilt, that 2nd spring comes into play

It also depends on that bump stop's spring rate. Since rubber/plastic...it might have a much more aggressive curve

Also, that POS reciever bends ever more as you load it up...so it will become another spring (reciever cross tubes are torsion bar springs on all receivers)

Meaning...it will unload and re-compress during whop-d-does, which will be somilar to proposing

Tire PSI is part of the suspension. More so with higher profile and less with lower profile tires. Meaning playing with tire PSIA will play
-Ben Picture of my rig
1996 GMC SLT Suburban 3/4 ton K3500/7.4L/4:1/+150Kmiles orig owner...
1980 Chevy Silverado C10/long bed/"BUILT" 5.7L/3:73/1 ton helper springs/+329Kmiles, bought it from dad...
1998 Mazda B2500 (1/2 ton) pickup, 2nd owner...
Praise Dyno Brake equiped and all have "nose bleed" braking!
Previous trucks/offroaders: 40's Jeep restored in mid 60's / 69 DuneBuggy (approx +1K lb: VW pan/200hpCorvair: eng, cam, dual carb'w velocity stacks'n 18" runners, 4spd transaxle) made myself from ground up / 1970 Toyota FJ40 / 1973 K5 Blazer (2dr Tahoe, 1 ton axles front/rear, +255K miles when sold it)...
Sold the boat (looking for another): Trophy with twin 150's...
51 cylinders in household, what's yours?...

opnspaces
Navigator II
Navigator II
Thanks for the input. I hope to load up and hit the scales tomorrow. But as requested I took some time to take some measurements. I will admit I deviated from the owners manual a bit but I think the readings still tell enough.
The manual says to drive 2 miles with the weight distribution (WD) unhooked. Then do the WD adjustments. Well I did not drive the 2 miles, I just left the key off so the autolevel would not function.

Measuring from a fender to the ground can be fraught with errors as the tape can land in different places on the truck as well as the ground. So I took some masking tape and tried to ensure consistency.
To keep it straight the tape measure goes between the lines.

And here's the street.


I added one spacer washer that seemed the same thickness as the others and it put too much back on the front. So I went back to the garage and found a thinner washer. It looks like I still added a bit too much to the front by 1/8", but I'm not sure if I can get it better than that. I guess I could try replacing an Equal-i-zer washer with another thinner washer. But that will only change the thickness by .39 mm. The washer thicknesses are at the bottom of the spreadsheet below. I now have 5 equal-i-zer washers, the one thinner washer, and one washer that I did not measure.

And the bars are parallel.




Edit: After looking at the numbers again I think replacing an Equal-i-zer washer with a second thin washer will put me right back at original height. Now let's see what the scale shows.

Moderator edit to re-size pictures to forum recommended limit of 640px maximum width.

.
2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton **** 2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH **** 1986 Coleman Columbia Popup

Grit_dog
Navigator
Navigator
Boomerweps wrote:
Grit dog wrote:
SOmething seems off, to have 1000-1300lbs tongue weight on a 5klb trailer. Or maybe I read it wrong.


840# based on difference of whole TV weights and not just rear. Tongue weight almost 17% of the listed 5K# TT. Still a bit high.


Yes correct, I was confusing the weight the rear axle sees due to the tongue weight.
That's a little more reasonable.
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5โ€ turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold

APT
Explorer
Explorer
Tongue weight is:
7560 - 6720 = 840 pounds

Total trailer weight is TW + trailer axles:
840 + 5100 = 5940

TW % is 14.1%.

Your front axle lost 520 pounds when you dropped tongue on ball. Your WD restored 240 pounds of that, just under half. I agree with Bedlam in restoring more to front axle with a goal of 100% or back to the ~3360 pounds unhitched.

You are under all your ratings by a fair margin, so it may drive well even with no WD.

If you have the OEM round tube receiver, then I recommend saving up for the Curt XD which can be found for under $200 shipped.
A & A parents of DD 2005, DS1 2007, DS2 2009
2011 Suburban 2500 6.0L 3.73 pulling 2011 Heartland North Trail 28BRS
2017 Subaru Outback 3.6R
2x 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV (Gray and Black Twins)

philh
Explorer II
Explorer II
I should have weighed before this last trip... but literally was running out of time.

opnspaces
Navigator II
Navigator II
Boomerweps wrote:
Grit dog wrote:
SOmething seems off, to have 1000-1300lbs tongue weight on a 5klb trailer. Or maybe I read it wrong.


840# based on difference of whole TV weights and not just rear. Tongue weight almost 17% of the listed 5K# TT. Still a bit high.
I would look to add a bit more weight back to the front axle. What are the changes in wheel well heights, with and without the TT hooked up and then with and without the WDH load bars? Those changes are as important as knowing the weight changes.


17%? No wonder I don't have sway. And this is the trailer as it sits in storage. Missing is the Honda eu2000i and two milk crates full of firewood in the front pass through. I think even my fresh water is in front of the axle. But on the positive side, I also get no sway coming home from the desert when both waste tanks are full behind the axle and the fresh tank is empty. This is basically how I ran it for the past 14 years without a problem. But now I'm curious so I hope to get some loaded weights this weekend.

As far as the changes in the wheel wells, I haven't measured. The measuring method is what I used on my first setup and it has been fine for all these years. But with this new tow vehicle I want to try the weight technique as it seems more accurate. I figure if I can return most if not all of the front axle weight without going too much over I've got it right.

Actually maybe I will measure it and post as well. I've got the time this week so why not.
.
2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton **** 2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH **** 1986 Coleman Columbia Popup

Bedlam
Moderator
Moderator
To me, wheel well heights are measured when you don't have access to a scale. If you can restore all or most the weight to the front axle, you have a good WDH setup and then are only concerned about having a leveled tow vehicle and trailer. I know Ford advises to restore half the height gained on the front wheel wells using weight distribution, but that just seems like crutch for not weighing things out.

Host Mammoth 11.5 on Ram 5500 HD

Boomerweps
Explorer
Explorer
Grit dog wrote:
SOmething seems off, to have 1000-1300lbs tongue weight on a 5klb trailer. Or maybe I read it wrong.


840# based on difference of whole TV weights and not just rear. Tongue weight almost 17% of the listed 5K# TT. Still a bit high.
I would look to add a bit more weight back to the front axle. What are the changes in wheel well heights, with and without the TT hooked up and then with and without the WDH load bars? Those changes are as important as knowing the weight changes.
2019 Wolf Pup 16 BHS Limited, axle flipped
2019 F150 4x4 SCrew SB STX 5.0 3.55 factory tow package, 7000#GVWR, 1990 CC Tow mirrors, ITBC, SumoSprings,

Grit_dog
Navigator
Navigator
SOmething seems off, to have 1000-1300lbs tongue weight on a 5klb trailer. Or maybe I read it wrong.
2016 Ram 2500, MotorOps.ca EFIlive tuned, 5โ€ turbo back, 6" lift on 37s
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold

opnspaces
Navigator II
Navigator II
Thanks BenK for the input.
Yes it has the dreaded U spacer on the hitch. I will eventually replace it but it will have to do for now.

Good to know on the washers. I know my engineering is backyard mechanic engineering and that's how I came up with the theory. But I have read enough of your posts including the weight distribution sticky from Ron to believe that you know a lot more about engineering than I do.

As far as the tongue weight. Don't know the spring rate so yeah I'll have to just go with not knowing it for now. I guess I could try the bathroom scale technique. But that scale is glass topped for me so I think I'll leave well enough alone.:)
.
2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton **** 2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH **** 1986 Coleman Columbia Popup