A question about tongue weight....

[retnavycpo]

My teardrop's tongue weight is quite heavy. Enough that I cannot lift it by myself.

My Chevy HHR tows it easily. The trailer does not lower my Chevy at all.

But is there a way to shift the weight some, or should I even worry about it?

Pete

[Micro469]

My teardrop's tongue weight is quite heavy. Enough that I cannot lift it by myself.
My Chevy HHR tows it easily. The trailer does not lower my Chevy at all.

But is there a way to shift the weight some, or should I even worry about it?

Pete

I think the toungue weight depends on your age.... and your strength. I know that ten years ago I would have had no problem lifting my toungue....

[retnavycpo]

Well, even the guy I bought the teardrop from told me in advance that "two people" can lift the tongue easily. I too, cannot lift what I could ten years ago. But this baby is heavy to try and lift! If it was an emergency, I could probably budge it, but hate to think what it would do to my back!

Pete

[S. Heisley]

Does it have a wheely jack on the tongue? With those things, you can crank them up a bit to raise the tongue possibly high enough to hitch 'er up.

Would that help?

[Creamcracker]

My teardrop's tongue weight is quite heavy. Enough that I cannot lift it by myself.

My Chevy HHR tows it easily. The trailer does not lower my Chevy at all.

But is there a way to shift the weight some, or should I even worry about it?

Pete

Can you tell us what the tongue weight is? Put it on abathroom scale for a pretty accurate figure.
Philip

[JenniferandPups]

Ours has a tongue weight of 155, and I just barely lifted it up by myself (not willingly... it needed done and husband is away). I'm a pretty small woman. I DID use the tongue jack to get it as high as I could before lifting it the last inch or two... I don't think I could lift it more than that. COuld you do the same?

I'd get it weighed... you'll want to balance it out with more weight in the galley area if it's more than 15 or 20% of the total weight for better towing overall. You can weigh it with a bathroom scale pretty easily!

[kennyrayandersen]

From what I read the tongue weight should be between 10 and 15 percent.

Trailer Tongue
500 lb 50-75 lb
600 lb 60-90 lb
700 lb 70-105 lb
800 lb 80-120 lb
900 lb 90-135 lb
1000 lb 100-150 lb
1100 lb 110-165 lb
1200 lb 120-180 lb

[retnavycpo]

The weight of the trailer is 860 pounds. It does have a wheel jack, so no problem getting it off and on the hitch. I just wondered if the weight distribution is too much on the front.

Will see about weighing the front.

Pete

[bobhenry]

15% of 860 is 129# That would be pretty difficult for most to dead lift off the ground. Just slip the bathroom scales under the jack and crank away it will tell you.

[Kevin & Sandy]

To change tongue weight you could relocate the axle, (ouch) or experiment with packing gear.

I put 7 gallons of water way in the back, and while it made my trailer heavier, it made my tongue weight go down 20 pounds.
So all my heavy stuff is toward the rear, water, battery, cast iron cookware. The tongue weight is around 150 lbs.

Experiment with packing while you have the bathroom scale under the tongue, you might be surprised!!

[chorizon]

Mine isn't even close to being finished, and the tongue-weight is already 170#!

More on that later.

[kennyrayandersen]

Mine isn't even close to being finished, and the tongue-weight is already 170#!

More on that later.

If you put all of your heavy stuff in the galley aft of the axle, it should lighten up a bit, but I'd keep an eye on it.


This is why I'm not big on a large storage area up front. It has the potential of throwing off the weigh balance quite a bit. You know, maybe Andrew can chime in if he thinks this is wrong, but it seems like you should shoot for the lighter range, if not less initially, as so many people add tongue boxes of some kind to the build, and you are just a battery away from adjusting the weight a lot forward if you need to, whereas, if you are front-heavy, it more difficult to adjust the balance without moving the axle as the galley is close to the axle and it takes more weight there to remove weight at the front (a ratio of the distances between the galley and axle and the tongue and axle).

[Creamcracker]

Napsack weighs in at 720lbs with a tongue weight of 60lbs.....seems to handle just fine on the few dry runs I've taken....I do plan on adding a small box up front that will also include the spare wheel. When I do that the tongue weight goes up by about 18lbs. It must be difficult to move with a tongue weight in the region of 150lbs+ I can easily move Napsack.
Philip

[wlooper89]

My six-wide Little Guy platform model has a tongue weight of 270 with a total trailer weight of 1125 lbs. This is with my added tongue box and battery. It seems to tow okay that way. I am thinking the generally accepted 10 to 15 percent of total trailer weight on the tongue is good but somewhat higher is okay too. I do have a hefty tow vehicle with a curb weight of 4365 lbs.

Bill

[retnavycpo]

Well, I finally took the scales and weighed the tongue. A whopping 240 pounds. Had I known that beforehand, I don't think I could have lifted the tongue onto the scales! So now what?

Like I said, it does not sag my car in anyway, and it tows beautifully.

How would I even go about relocating the axle???

Pete