Trailer tongue weight

[gshldon]

Hello everyone,

I have a question on trailer weight, i need help to determine how to get more tongue weight, i have a single axle trailer pulling a 1979 Larson with a v8 mercruiser, the tongue weight on the trailer appears really light as i can lift it with out much effort and the vehicle i am pulling the boat with is a ford explorer and it hardly drops at all when i hook the boat up to it. The main problem i have is that once i get up to about 55mph the trailer starts swaying really bad, so i dont go the fast towing it that fast. There isnt much room to move the boat up farther on the trailer maybe an inch or so. Can i just have the tongue shortened some and would that allow more of the weight to be on the tongue and help with the sway problem.

Thanks for any input you may have

 

[ddrieck]

Re: Trailer tongue weight

You might want to check to see if your trailer axle has shifted, u-bolts loose, that sort of thing. I tow an old 78 Starcraft Super Sport and it started doing the same thing you are describing. Mine started swaying all of a sudden, was fine the weekend before. I checked my leaf spring u-bolts and sure enough the right side had come loose and shifted back 1/2''. Got new u-bolts for both sides and it stopped swaying. Can run up to 75 mph with now problem but I tow at 55-60 just to keep on the safe side.


Darren

 

[Ram58]

Re: Trailer tongue weight

If you can move the tower forward (toward the hitch) and pull the boat forward it might help. Shortening the tongue will not help. Too much weight behind the axle will cause sway. You want 15%-20% of the weight on the hitch.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Trailer tongue weight

Get the bathroom scales out and see how much tongue weight you actually have.

 

[joe09]

Re: Trailer tongue weight

move the trailer axle back a little will add more tongue weight.

 

[Liberated]

Re: Trailer tongue weight

You could cut your winch tower off and move it forward about 2-3 inches. Any local welding shop should be able to do that for you for less than 100 bucks. That is, if you can't move the axle back any. Its not that big of a deal to do.

 

[burp]

Re: Trailer tongue weight

Before you go adjusting the tongue weight, you need to make sure the trailer is level when it is connected to the tow vehicle. On a single axle trailer, having the front of the trailer higher than the rear will reduce your tongue weight (on non torsion axle trailers).