Trailer weight distro

[dremu]

I know that when loading you want more weight up front than not ... but this when the trailer is *empty*. I'm building a trailer out of a pickup frame, and so far, with no bed on it yet, it's almost exactly balanced on the axle.

Which is not good, I don't think. Least it was tippy as heck just moving it around by hand, can't imagine that's great for handling, think you'd want SOME tongue weight to keep it down.

The bed/box design I have in mind should be more or less even front-to-rear. I'm gonna put a truck box on the tongue, ~100#, and I could put the spare (40#ish?) on the back. That should give it SOME front bias.

Anyone care to judge whether neutrality is good or bad in this instance?

-- A

 

[88sub4x4]

You will need at least 10% of the total trailer weight as tongue weight. This means if your trailer weighs 2000lbs, you need at least 200lbs. of weight on the tongue. If you don't have enough weight on the tongue, or even negative tongue weight, the trailer won't track properly behind your tow vehicle, and may even make the rear of the tow vehicle unstable. More then 10% is OK as long as you don't have more then your hitch, truck,coupler, etc. is rated for.

 

[dremu]

You will need at least 10% of the total trailer weight as tongue weight. This means if your trailer weighs 2000lbs, you need at least 200lbs. of weight on the tongue. If you don't have enough weight on the tongue, or even negative tongue weight, the trailer won't track properly behind your tow vehicle, and may even make the rear of the tow vehicle unstable. More then 10% is OK as long as you don't have more then your hitch, truck,coupler, etc. is rated for.

Cool; thanks! (Karnak The Invincible sees some redesign in my future )

Edit: "negative tongue weight" took me a while ... which is funny, as I experienced it yesterday when I took weight off the front and the tongue came up in the air in front of my eyes ... whilst my life flashed before me

-- A