Tongue Weight

thats about 8% of the trailer weight. I suppose your axles are evened out well if 200lbs is the actual tongue weight

All depends on the design of the trailer and axle position. Tongue weights on utility trailers will vary based on designed purpose and are not always the same as a campers' 10-15% average.

Load it up. If it tows fine and stable the low tongue weight shouldn't be a problem.

That is a 'dry' tongue weight.

Load it up and tongue weight goes up

Travel trailer axles are proportionally closer to the middle of the trailer body than a utility/cargo trailer like yours. With the axles further to the rear, less tongue weight is necessary for a stable tow, especially with the trailer empty.

Empty is as evenly loaded and as low of a center of gravity as the trailer will ever have. RV trailers are often heavily biased to one side or the other due to the kitchen being along one wall, and their center of gravity is much higher.

You are not disproving any laws of physics here. Rules of thumb are hardly absolute, and the 10-15% rule is just a rule of thumb.

What you will find is that as you load the trailer, the tongue weight will probably end up well over 15%. This is not a big deal either. There's only so much space in the trailer and most of it is between the axles and the truck.

Maximum load in the trailer will be under 2000 lbs.
A Goldwing TRIKE and some equipment.
Thank you for the quick replies.

After designing and building a few trailers in my time I will tell you that this trailer will not tow well at all unloaded and you will have to put as much weight you can forward to get it towing well when loaded.

If you don't load as much weight forward you you will have a trailer that does this going down the road.

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
After designing and building a few trailers in my time I will tell you that this trailer will not tow well at all unloaded and you will have to put as much weight you can forward to get it towing well when loaded.

If you don't load as much weight forward you you will have a trailer that does this going down the road.

Guess you missed the last sentence in OPs 1st post


The way it pulls, you would not even know you are pulling anything.

What you need to do is load the trailer so it ends up with 12.5% for a loaded tongue weight! so with 4500lbs loaded you will want a tongue weight of approx. 560 lbs. you`ll have to move your stuff around until you end up with that amount. and maybe mark the floor so you know where the trike goes every time it goes in.

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
After designing and building a few trailers in my time I will tell you that this trailer will not tow well at all unloaded and you will have to put as much weight you can forward to get it towing well when loaded.

If you don't load as much weight forward you you will have a trailer that does this going down the road.

Guess you missed the last sentence in OPs 1st post


The way it pulls, you would not even know you are pulling anything.

No, I took that as: "I have enough HP to not even know it's there." Did I take it correctly? I have no idea?

I know this, I've towed a lot of tongue light trailers in my time and every single one of them tow like the video I posted, and worse. I've seen too many people put the heavy part of the load in back of the CG and that didn't work out too well for them.

That being so, I would load the trike backwards to get as much weight as forward as possible.

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
After designing and building a few trailers in my time I will tell you that this trailer will not tow well at all unloaded and you will have to put as much weight you can forward to get it towing well when loaded.

If you don't load as much weight forward you you will have a trailer that does this going down the road.

Guess you missed the last sentence in OPs 1st post


The way it pulls, you would not even know you are pulling anything.

No, I took that as: "I have enough HP to not even know it's there." Did I take it correctly? I have no idea?

I know this, I've towed a lot of tongue light trailers in my time and every single one of them tow like the video I posted, and worse. I've seen too many people put the heavy part of the load in back of the CG and that didn't work out too well for them.

That being so, I would load the trike backwards to get as much weight as forward as possible.

When I got the trailer, I brought it home behind an ACADIA DENALI.
Other than lousy gas mileage, the trailer pulled straight(NO SWAY).
The TRIKE will have the front wheel in a CHOCK, so loading backwards is not practical.

I will put more weight on the TONGUE and the chock is adjustable forward and back about 6 to 8 inches.