Show us what you tow.

I don't think so.

 

I'm glad you don't think so. You still have yet to prove how having 100 lbs of load in the bed of the truck is right or good?


You have proven you're an "internet expert". All your little statements of "your learning" are doing is proving you know nothing of which you are talking about. The dangerious part of this whole thing is if a new person was reading your posts and actually took what you had said to be the rule. They would load their trailer with everything at the rear so as to "make it look balanced". This will not apply the proper weight to the tongue and will cause the trailer to fishtail at highway speeds. This can get people hurt or killed. All of this because you wanted to spread bad info on the Internet thinking you were right. That is the problem with the Internet... you can't beat some intelligence into a moron.

 

I never said you need to load 100lbs in the back of the truck. You must have misunderstood. I stated that the fact alone that somebody tows a heavy trailer does not mean in itself that they have a heavy tongue weight. They *could* have 100lbs on the tongue while the trailer weights 5K lbs. That would be bad, of course, that's why I put "" around the word "right" in my post.
And the tongue weight needs to be within 10-15% of total trailer weight for a travel trailer. If it's more, then weight needs to be distributed to the back of the trailer.
And I said that air bags do not distribute weight. They make a weak suspension stiffer.

Could you please stop the name calling?

 

This is what I tow

 

Usually has my Motorcycle in it and a pile of other stuff.

 

First towing experience was this weekend. Towed my Miata to a car show. Went from Louisiana to Panama City and back again.

Kept it under 70 mph the whole way and the Taco pulled it like a champ. I won't go so far as to say that the truck didn't know it was back there, but it was no real issue.

Got 16 mpg overall on the trip too! Over 17 mpg on the first and the last tank in flatlander country in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Couldn't be happier with how the truck rode with the Firestone airbags keeping the truck off the bumpstops with my family of four in the cab and a bed full of luggage and car show crap.

 

Dude.. I hate to jump in here but obviously you have no real clue about towing and no real ability to properly do math nor have you truly towed anything to be any sort of voice here.

There is NO way a tongue weight of a larger trailer (especially a goose) would be 100#. The dead weight of the trailer alone with no cargo would be at least 500# (25% of a 2000# dead weight on average for a small goose trailer) and that's IF the trailer was properly balanced and we all know that most trailers aren't properly balanced. If the axles are properly located then the trailer then 60% of the trailers weight would be ahead of the axles. This obviously doesn't make the tongue 60% due to leverage and such. When loading a trailer your load needs to be balanced the same way with 60% of the weight over the front of the axles. If you were to load a goose with that much weight behind the axles as to lighten the load by 400# your load and your trailer would be so unstable that you would be lucky to make it down the road a few miles before something broke or the trailer lifted your rear wheels off the ground enough to cause severe instability cornering and trying to gain traction.

Now if have any questions you should post them instead of getting into an arguement on a topic you know very little to nothing about. Oh and by the way.. that 10%-15% of a travel trailer weight is a recomended minimum. There's nothing in the towing spec that says if it weighs more than you need to balance it backward. If you have the payload ability on your truck as well as the axle rating and you're not sagging then there really isn't a problem with going heavier (within reason).

 

The 100lbs was an extreme example to show that high trailer weight does not necessarily mean a heavy tongue. It is of course unlikely to happen (to that extreme). Boat trailers have lower tongue weights in general for example than TT's. With a TT, it is more likely to be on the heavy side with the tongue weight because of the way they are built (same with a goose neck).
Yes, I could reduce the tongue weigh of my TT from ~ 500 lbs down to 100 lbs if I REALLY wanted to. All it would take would be to fill the black water tank (behind the axles) and place another 400-500lbs on the bumper (like a bike rack and a generator - I've seen it). That would of course not be a good idea.

Again, the whole point was that if your truck is over it's tongue weight and sags excessively while the tongue weight is > 15% then a good measure would be to bring the tongue weight back into the 10-15% to ease that overloaded tongue. Besides that, most TT's have a max tongue weight themselves. Mine states to never tow the trailer with a tongue weight > 850lbs which is 17% of GVW of the trailer. I told the guy asking about air bags to check his tongue weight, and if he is over 15% to balance the weight better to get weight off the tongue instead of adding air bags only. It is not recommended to have a tongue weight of a TT significantly over 15% even if the payload and axle ratings support it, because of unnecessary negative side effects like unloading the front axle.
Most non super duty truck's towing capacity is limited by payload and tongue weight rather than towing capacity, especially when it comes to TT's. Case in point: our Tacomas.

That's not true, 10-15% is a recommended range, not a minimum. Excessive tongue weight has negative effects as well.
http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/problems/equipment/towing/towing.pdf

j4x4, no offense, but you need to read a little more careful before commenting.

 

FYI -- Excessive all depends on the tow vehicle itself. Tongue weight can still be well over 15% and still be ok depending on the tow vehicle itself. Instead of quoting NHSTA you might want to talk to people who really tow and have years of towing experience. The 10%-15% is in fact a recomended minimum to prevent trailer sway and has nothing necessairly to do with the tow vehicle.

 

Wow... this thread got interesting in a hurry

 

Did you not just say yourself that excessive "all depends on the tow vehicle"? I agree.
The 10-15% is what it is: a recommended range for the tongue weight. With a one ton truck and a small trailer (say under 2K lbs as an example) you can go over and under that recommended range without much ill effect. Neither 5% nor 20% will do much. Most of the time, that's not the case though, and people will be close to or over payload and tongue rating before even coming close to the max trailer weight.
j4x4, what about the rest of the arguments? You repeated several times that I had no clue, and I tried to clarify my points. Did what I said make any sense at all?

LOL, yeah, but there still is a lot of good information. As long as it does not turn into name calling. Oh wait, it did for a minute back there!

 

This thread is "Show us what you tow" not "Show us what you know"

Start a new thread and take it there. I wanna see what other people are towing

 

My buddy has a 22' Chaparral. I think I saw on the web that it weighs 3500 lbs dry with no gear. This pic was before he had his Ram, and he had the nerve to ask me "if I thought my truck could handle it." I laughed. He came away impressed. I never got over 1500 rpm pulling it out.



On a side note, he was also very impressed with my ability to line up the trailer hitch with the tongue of the trailer without him having to get out to guide. He didn't know I had a backup camera

 

LOL, good point. Got a bit side tracked here.

 

We have a Sunset Trail ST31KS (5900 Dry)and absolutely love it. My TV is a 2008 tacoma and I have no issues pulling it. That being said, I don't do to much more than 500 miles a year, biggest trip would be a 200 mile run. So I just take my time and slow down to 50mph. Our trailer is parked 80% of the time at our local RV park for our weekend getaway with our two young kids. If/When we are ready to tow it for longer trip I'll either buy a new TV or prob better solution would be to rent a bigger truck. But I have to say that my Tacoma has no issues pulling this trailer, and yes I am over the limit. BTW, my truck is set up with a 4.0L with a dual-cam distribution weight with the sway bar controller. I do have a P3 controller and also installed firestone air bags set at 45psi. Tires on the truck are 10 ply so no issues there. Guys, stop babying your work horse(trucks

 

4 wheeler in the bed and a john boat, taking this to the cabin. The tricky part is getting the trailer attached to the ball with the tailgate down and not scratching the tailgate.

 

About to make this thread more interesting

I tow my 2000 SAS taco with my 2008 DC TRD OR, trailer/truck is about 5,000#. GCVW is around 10,800. Pulls really good, with a few virbrations and shudders here and there. I just gotta find the sweet spot to put the truck on the trailer to eliminate this.

Trailer is a 16' Tandem Axle Jerry James.

 

damng

 

^^ Nice

 

Pulled in a little Kubota tractor. Not anywhere close to the biggest loads I've towed with this truck, but whatever.