tongue weight

[mudrat025]

Ok,there is so much info out there about how to get tongue weight with all these calculations and charts.my question is if I take trailer to ODOT scale and just put the tongue on the scale wouldn't that be the actual tongue weight?

[petenewell]

There will be a slight leverage error depending on how far the jack is from the actual ball coupling.

[Airstreamer67]

The beauty of a Sherline scale is you can weight quickly and easily.

This advantage comes in handy as you change loads on the trailer. Where the cargo is placed relative to the trailer's axles can make a lot of difference in tongue weight. This becomes especially important if the tongue weight nears the maximum capacity of the hitch and/or the rear axle and tires of the tow vehicle.

[mudrat025]

thanks, i am going to just drop tongue on scale if someone comes they can just wait! 🙂

[KD4UPL]

Your idea is correct and by far the best. Just find a truck scale, unhitch the trailer on it, and weigh the tongue.
If you don't want to or can't unhitch on the scale then weigh the truck only with trailer hitched, unhitch the trailer and leave it in the parking lot, then re-weight the truck only. That will tell you how much weight the tongue was exerting.

[Gdetrailer]

mudrat025 wrote:
Is that why everybody does all those calculations because the time it takes to unhitch?the scales oout by me are always closed and you have all the tike in the world.

I don't think folks are actually "doing calculations" instead many are simply GUESSING at tongue weights.

I personally have used the "bathroom" scale method, basically a bathroom scale, a 4x4 4ft long and a couple of pieces of rebar and some blocking. Do a search of the forum and you should find the exact directions.

If that is too much work many folk have bought a purpose built tongue scale from SHERLINE and you will have results in seconds.

For my weights on the axles I have measured the tire contact patch area (width x length) of the contact area (I use two sheets of paper placed against the tires and measure the distance between the sheets).

Multiply the contact area by the air pressure in your tires, result is weight on the contact patch area.

I have double checked this by doing the same on my tow vehicle the results were within a few lbs of the stated unladen weight of the vehicle.

[mudrat025]

Is that why everybody does all those calculations because the time it takes to unhitch?the scales oout by me are always closed and you have all the tike in the world.

[downtheroad]

That's certainly one way to do it...if they let you and you have the time to un-hook and if you are trip ready loaded.