Balancing trailer load

[mattdd]

To fit my boat in my old garage I had to move the winch forward on the trailer some to make the distance b/t prop and trailer tounge as short as possible. My new garage is even shorter and I have go with a hinge on the trailer tounge, which means I need to move the winch back to get at more tongue to put the hinge on. How do I balance the load over my axles? Do I need to even worry about it since I will only be moving it about a foot back and closer to its original position (no telling if it was right to begin with)?

 

[Esox]

Re: Balancing trailer load

To do it right you need to know the total weight of the boat/trailer/gear. Then you can use a bathroom scale to get the tongue weight. Most manufacturers recommend around 10% of total weight for tongue weight - some may be less and some may be more. It's important to get it close. Too little tongue weight can cause the trailer to wag and you could lose control of the tow vehicle. Too much and the trailer can "push" the tow vehicle around again resulting in a loss of control. When I bought my current boat it had never been trailered off the marinas lot. It was extremely tongue light and was very scary to drive home.

 

[JB]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Once you have the boat where you want it relative to bunks and winch the correct way to set the balance is to move the axle cradle fore or aft on the trailer frame, Matt.

As Esoz says, the correct balance is when 10% of the total trailer weight is on the hitch.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Sidenote: I still want to find these bathroom scales that read over 300#.
If you have a combo weight of 3500#, then 10% would be 350# and I have yet to find a set that would weigh that much.
Just curious.

 

[Esox]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Sidenote: I still want to find these bathroom scales that read over 300#.
If you have a combo weight of 3500#, then 10% would be 350# and I have yet to find a set that would weigh that much.
Just curious.

Good point SBN

google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=high+capacity+bathroom+scale&spell=1

 

[wire2]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Sidenote: I still want to find these bathroom scales that read over 300#.
If you have a combo weight of 3500#, then 10% would be 350# and I have yet to find a set that would weigh that much.
Just curious.

That's easy.
Place the bath scale 12" to the left of the tongue, a small piece of 2x4 12" to the right. Place a 24" piece of 2x4 between the two, and place the tongue in the middle. For a 350 lb weight, the scale will now read 175 Lbs.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Nice job Wire2 -- I love it when it is apparent someone was actually awake in physics class! Have you noticed carpeting is now priced by the square foot as well as square yards? When I asked the sales person why, the response was, "most people don't know how to figure square yards". And these people are having kids!!!!!!!!! Arrrrrghhh.

 

[wire2]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Nice job Wire2 -- I love it when it is apparent someone was actually awake in physics class! Have you noticed carpeting is now priced by the square foot as well as square yards? When I asked the sales person why, the response was, "most people don't know how to figure square yards". And these people are having kids!!!!!!!!! Arrrrrghhh.

Thanks, silver. Yes, I enjoyed and excelled in physics.

I hear ya. Even though virtually all cell phones and computers will calculate, I guess it's just too difficult to remember to divide by 9.

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Good point SBN

google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=high+capacity+bathroom+scale&spell=1

Hey Mike, me thinks I have one of them talking ones now.
When I get on them, something says, "One person at a time please"

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Balancing trailer load

Thanks wire2.
I just take mine to the RV place and have them weigh it.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Balancing trailer load

That's easy.
Place the bath scale 12" to the left of the tongue, a small piece of 2x4 12" to the right. Place a 24" piece of 2x4 between the two, and place the tongue in the middle. For a 350 lb weight, the scale will now read 175 Lbs.

Great method. Did something similar with a crane scale once when the tooling was too heavy for the scale that was available.
I think another reason that carpet is sold by the square foot is that it sounds a lot cheaper to begin with. Then when you multiply by 9 (for those that can) the truth sometimes hurts (reality price)