Axle flip on a small 16 feet Sportsmen
I just bought my first TT to replace our 10 feet pop-ups. It's a slightly used 2011 KZ Sportsmen Classic 16BH. I have only one concern till now; it's the trailer height. Just to reach my house from th...
Forum Discussion
vlopddap wrote:69 Avion wrote:
As the height of the trailer goes up, so does the vertical center of gravity. Will it perform as well in a fast, tight turns? No, but if you aren't taking tight turns at high speeds you should be fine. Keep the heavy items that you pack in your trailer, on the floor and forward so that you have plenty of tongue weight and you should be fine.
Improper loading with insufficient tongue weight will create much more of an issue than your increased height.
Okay, I understand what you mean. Basically the "dry" tongue weight of my TT is around 15%, but add propane tank and battery that sit right on the tongue and you are WAY over 10%. So except if I put some VERY HEAVY things inside behind the rear axle, improper tongue weight distribution can't be an issue.
Anyway other fact about the 16BH is the cargo capacity is only 450 pounds according to the manufacturer label... so I guess most of our luggage will go inside the van except for clothes and food maybe. We never carry water by chance, but I think only the potable water reservoir weight over 200 pounds full of water!
It sounds like you load your trailer properly and the tongue weight is correct. The reason I gave the example of the tongue weight is that it can create much more of a towing issue than raising your trailer less than 6". I have built many equipment trailers over the last four decades and a high center of gravity can cause issues if the weight is really high. Since you can't load a lot of weight in your trailer, that probably isn't going to be an issue. The only other issue is aerodynamics which is more of a concern with cross winds than reducing your gas mileage. The higher the load with cross winds the more of a handling issue it can be. I doubt that your trailer will have any issues when you increase it's height. When I built my last trailer for my camper I put extra water and gasoline under the trailer in front of the axle to help keep the weight as low as possible. It tows like a dream even with 15" of ground clearance.
