tongue weight

[RodBow]

No, I'm not talking about wevans and his dirty pitures.

How would one figure out the actual tongue weight on your trailer?

Thanks.

[Dubble Trubble]

Are you asking what it actually is on your boat, or what it should be for a certain weight boat?

[RodBow]

how do I figure the tongue weight when the boat hitched up? note: the trailer is a mix match of DIY ingenuity from the previous owner.

I got a class III/IV Reese hitch from the pick-n-pull and put it on my van and found that the trailer clearance is not good from the road. I need to put a 6" rise on the ball mount to pick it up enough to go down the road.

I got a Class III 6" from Harbor Freight this afternoon that should work but I've always wondered the actual tw.

[GAJOEY]

I used a 350 lb bathroom scale ..Just put it on solid ground and sat the tounge of the trailer on it ...that was how that said to do it in the Iboats forums...Or take it to a public scale like a weight station where the Weigh tractor trailers set the tounge on it it will cost ya about 3 bucks to use a set of CAT scales at a truck stop.If you go to a truck stop you can get the tounge weight and the Gross weight they let you weight out twice..hope this helps

[mjsigns]

If you can lift the toung off the ball with your own strength, I'd venture to say 350-400# (be carefull you can seriously screw your back up)

[Steve Stinson]

As mentioned above, a bathroom scale will work for just measuring tongue weight, and I have used the truck stop scale at either the SR-59 or US 19 exit on I-10 to weigh an entire rig. (I can't remember which exit it is at).

If you can adjust your boat forward or backward on the trailer to change the tongue weight, you should shoot for about 15% of the total weight on the tongue. With a good sized boat, it doesn't take much movement forward or backward to drastically change the tongue weight. Too much will sag your bumper down and lift the front of your tow vehicle, too little and the boat will want to fishtail when you coast or brake.

I went through all of this with a 21' Sea Pro I had and got it adjusted where I could nail the brakes at 60 mph and keep it in a straight line.

Hope this helps.
- Steve Stinson

[tin can]

The Leon County land fill will also weigh it for you.