Too Much Tongue Weight?

[sppingel]

Here's a picture of my dad's exploder which weighs about the same as the car I'm about to haul.

 

Does it look like she's sagging too much?

 

I've got the car on the trailer now and its sagging about the same.

[sppingel]

Heres a bad picture of the car. Can't see the rear of my truck but its about the same as the picture of the exploder.

 

It was a huge PITA to get the car on -- i had to use a bump in the yard so the back of the Pontiac wouldn't smack the ground while pulling it on.

 

That trailer is biting me in the ass with its axles being so far back.

[dlstewart01]

You want the tongue weight to be around 13% of the trailer weight. Not enough tongue weight will give you sway. You will not like it

[alaska511]

You should be fine, I am sure you have a little more than I did with the axles being a bit far back.

 

[jblakeney]

My general rule of thumb for tongue weight when pulling a trailer. Is kinda think like a level. Providing you have not leveled your bed with a drop prior to hooking up the trailer....

 

Move the weight that is on the trailer until the top of the bed sits level..... Look at the top edge of the bed and try and get the bed level. i.e. down 2-3 inches........ Now this usually works best with somebody watching as your driving on the trailer....

 

If you can not get the weight on the trailer and keep the bed flat, you need a bigger/longer trailer or possibly truck or trailer type(bumper, goose neck, or 5th wheel).

 

Don't forget to chain it down..... I like to tie down the frame and kinda compress the suspension a bit when hauling a car.... This tends to help with sway started from the car on the trailer being towed.... Some people say get the tires....... I only did that once..... it swayed really bad then I started pulling the frame down, and I did have the truck bed leveled as described above that time....

 

Jbo

[sppingel]

I just measured the distance from tire to fender: Front=8" rear=5.5". Front has a little over an inch leveling kit (which is hurting me in this case, but bought the truck with a leveling kit and 285/70/17 tires, so it would cost a lot to remove (tires wouldn't fit if I removed kit)).

 

Anyways, I think I will try to move the car back a few inches in the morning. Total weight = 6400-6500lbs. 13% of that is 830 lbs so maybe its not so bad considering...

 

 

I guess I'm just nervous about the drive.. Thanks guys.

[jblakeney]

If your truck is leveled. Which it sounds like. They probably used torsion keys to get the front higher from the way your measurements were. So I would say you need to let the back of the truck sag a 2 inches from no tongue weight....... So off level slightly.....

 

Jbo

[alaska511]

No keys on a GMT 900 1500

[96chevy7.4L]

I would move the explorer forward a few inches judging by the picture. You want a lil extra tongue weight then not enough. Not having enough tongue weight is a bad thing and causes sway. The rear of your truck should squat a little. Basically I would move it forward a lil and see how it pulls.

[sppingel]

If your truck is leveled. Which it sounds like. They probably used torsion keys to get the front higher from the way your measurements were. So I would say you need to let the back of the truck sag a 2 inches from no tongue weight....... So off level slightly.....

 

Jbo

 

Well it had a 2" revtek coil spacer, but I swapped that with the bilstein 5100s to go down to 1.18"... Just enough that the tires wouldn't rub. I should have put a block in the back while I was at it...