How I measure tongue weight

[deceiver]

I measure my tongue weight by the quick and dirty method. I use my own body weight to balance the tongue then take some measurements and do a little calculation. I think it gives me a pretty good idea without having to devise a way to squash the bathroom scale. It also helps if you have a stick to hold your balance with and a friend to mark the points and/or measure for you

[starleen2]

The link seems to be broken.
I still use the old bathroom scales - but they lie to you anyways, right?

[regis101]

As long as the tongue is level it should work. I do the same for weighing most items that way. Since the link is broke I assume that you weigh yourself and then weigh yourself holding the object and subtract.

[deceiver]

I fixed the link.. sorry about that.

[Dale M.]

Lot less brain work to just put bathroom scales under tongue....

But If you have a bit of mad scientist in you its ok to use all the formulas and such, but it makes my brain hurt....

The other clue is if you release hitch and trailer tongue comes up and smacks you in chin, trailer to to heavy in rear.....

Dale

[deceiver]

It may be easier to use a bathroom scale but My tahoe allows 600 lbs on the tongue and this little guy sport has a big cargo area. Most bathroom scales don't do a lot of weight.

And as far as the brain pain... It's first number divided by second number times your weight. And a good calculator is like an aspirin for brain pain.

[Dale M.]

A simple board ... one end on a brick , other end on scales,... Put trailer tongue exactly at middle of board.... You now have divide by 2 device.... In other words a 300 lb bathroom scale now can handle 600 pounds.... Just multiply scales reading by 2.. It all goes way back to Newton and beams and levers....We do this all the time to set up the race cars with $17 bathroom scales....

Dale

[Karl]

I recently stopped at a Flying J Truck Stop, which had truck scales. The guy there said that if they put my tongue on one scale pad and the wheels of my Little Guy 6-wide on the adjacent scale pad that I will get a very accurate tongue weight plus overall weight.

That seems to make sense on the surface but having never dealt with this before, I wasn't sure so I thought I'd ask you experts if this is an accurate method to get my trailer's tongue and overall weight. Am I missing something or is this the most accurate way to weigh the tongue?

I know there are other ways to do it with a bathroom scale, etc., but if what I was told gives me a good, accurate certified reading that I can rely on then I'd rather pay them their $9.50 next time I have the trailer with me than take a chance of doing it wrong at home.

Thanks.

[angib]

That's an excellent plan and should be highly accurate. The only limitation is whether the teardrop is below the weight that the scale reads accurately - and I bet the tongue weight on its own is - but then a truck scale outside its calibrated range is still likely to be more accurate than a bathroom scale. So I reckon you've got the most accurate way there is.

The one thing to watch out for is that the tongue jack is probably some way back from the coupler, so the weight on the jack won't be exactly the weight on the coupler. But if your 6-wide is like the ones on Little Guy's web site, the difference will be very small - less than 10 pounds.

Remember to wind the jack so that the trailer is riding like it is when hitched up (level or whatever) to get the right tongue weight reading.

[gregp136]

Yup, as soon as my teardrop was finished I towed it down to the local truck stop. After about 3 minutes on the scales, the voice comes over the loadspeaker.."what the heck do you have out there?" The scales is just showing crazy numbers. We detremined that the weight of the tear was below the calabration of the truck scale.

Greg(and Laurie)

[Karl]

That's an excellent plan and should be highly accurate. The only limitation is whether the teardrop is below the weight that the scale reads accurately - and I bet the tongue weight on its own is - but then a truck scale outside its calibrated range is still likely to be more accurate than a bathroom scale. So I reckon you've got the most accurate way there is.

The one thing to watch out for is that the tongue jack is probably some way back from the coupler, so the weight on the jack won't be exactly the weight on the coupler. But if your 6-wide is like the ones on Little Guy's web site, the difference will be very small - less than 10 pounds.

Remember to wind the jack so that the trailer is riding like it is when hitched up (level or whatever) to get the right tongue weight reading.

Thank you for your response.

It did not occur to me regarding the distance difference with the tongue jack position versus the coupler. Hopefully, 9 inches or so won't affect it too much.
As to the height, I imagine I would probably get it just high enough to pull my Wrangler away. Putting it back down a couple inches would clearly make sense since I'm trying to be as accurate as possible.

One question I didn't ask at Flying J is whether truck scales are usually accurate down to +/-1 pound, +/-10 pounds, +/-50 pounds, or something else. For the overall trailer weight, a few dozen pounds off wouldn't be a huge deal but for the tongue weight, being at one end or the other of a 100 pound range could possibly be a big problem if I were approaching the upper limit of my Wrangler's tongue weight capacity.

Finally, if I were approaching or possibly surpassing the 350 pound maximum tongue weight of my Wrangler's Class II hitch, what should I do? Are there mods to my Jeep I can do or should I consider one of those trailer weight-distribution systems. One website said that the tongue weight still has to fall within the tow vehicle's tongue weight ratings or a weight-distribution systems won't work very well.

FYI: I found an interesting website with a long discussion about trailer weight, tongue weight, how to load weight, etc\. Go to http://www.sherline.com/lmbook.htm.

Thanks again.

[Karl]

Yup, as soon as my teardrop was finished I towed it down to the local truck stop. After about 3 minutes on the scales, the voice comes over the loadspeaker.."what the heck do you have out there?" The scales is just showing crazy numbers. We detremined that the weight of the tear was below the calabration of the truck scale.

Greg(and Laurie)

Interesting. Thank you since that really gives me something to think about.

[emiller]

I just took my standie down to the truck stop and was able to unhook and weigh it. 1400# and they stamped it certified on the document. Cost $7.00

[Wild Bill]

Since I have a long tongue, I stick it out and rest it on a postal scale to weigh it.

[angib]

Putting it back down a couple inches would clearly make sense since I'm trying to be as accurate as possible.

I don't think a couple of inches will matter - I just wanted to make clear that, for example, lowering the coupler until it rests on the load cell will give a wrong reading.