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Tractor Talk Discussion Forum

How to properly balance a trailor load??

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Louie

01-25-2005 10:34:12




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I have just added "flip up ramps" to my 16ft trailor. They needed to weld about an 24inch extension off of the back to hinge the ramps so my bushog would fit onto the trailor, when the ramps were in the transit position. Now the trailer tends to 'fishtail' when pulled without a load. Any fix?

Also when I load the tractor and bushhog what is the proper way to balance the load. I heard the best way is to hook up the trailor to my truck without a load, then take a yardstick to the back bumper of the truck and draw a mark. Then load the tractor and bushhog slowly to the front of the trailor. When the trailor starts to tip forward and the back bumper goes about 3 inches below the mark with the empty trailor, that this is the best indicator for a properly balanced load. Any ideas??

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DON LC

01-26-2005 19:07:40




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
ADD TOTAL WT.INCLUDING TRAILER -- put 15% on the hitch.... If trailer sways bacK and fourth --too
light on hitch-- move some weight forward...



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Loren-MN

01-26-2005 07:33:17




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
Move your axles back. Sounds like a big deal, but for a good machine shop, it's easy.



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Nolan

01-26-2005 03:43:13




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
Pay attention to the first reply you got, the one from Mike down at the bottom. It's not lack of tongue weight, it's that you've got weight out far beyond the trailer axle.



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Mike (WA)

01-25-2005 17:52:35




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
It takes too much weight to depress the springs by 3" if you're using a heavy enough pickup to do the job. On my one ton, I move the load forward until the hitch drops 1- 1 1/2 inches, and it seems to trail very well. The "correct" tongue weight is when you can't really feel the trailer behind you at combat speed.



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JDPete

01-25-2005 17:47:46




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
If you added a two foot extension then ramps on the end of that, you may have too much weight behing the axles. Is the "extension" floor space? For a 16 foot trailer, the center of the axles should be about 11 feet back not including the tonge. Hope this helps!



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JT

01-25-2005 12:35:49




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
Easy way to do this is to keep moving tractor forward unitl it pulls good. then put a block on your trailer floor as a stop. One other thing I ran into was not having a vehicle with enough springs for the load being carried. For what you are pulling you should have a minimum of a 3/4 ton truck, a 1/2 ton would be a little light.



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JT

01-25-2005 12:35:44




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
Easy way to do this is to keep moving tractor forward unitl it pulls good. then put a block on your trailer floor as a stop. One other thing I ran into was not having a vehicle with enough springs for the load being carried. For what you are pulling you should have a minimum of a 3/4 ton truck, a 1/2 ton would be a little light.



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Mike M

01-25-2005 11:15:06




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
I seem to remember a figure of around 10% for tongue weight.



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JDIHC

01-25-2005 10:52:40




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Louie, 01-25-2005 10:34:12  
Trailers fishtail when they don't have enough tounge weight. Move your axles toward the back or add ballast weight to the front. 3" tounge loading sounds excessive depending on what your tow vehicle is. You only want a few hundred pounds tounge weight. Put a jack on a scale and jack the tounge so weight is unloaded from hitch. Adjust your load for a few hudred pounds. If the rig feels like it's seesawing when your going down the road, increase the tounge weight.

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Pete from cal

01-25-2005 11:17:27




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to JDIHC, 01-25-2005 10:52:40  
Rule of thumb is 10 to 15% of trailer weight on the tongue. Example: trailer and load weighs 7000#, tongue weight 700-1000#



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mike brown

01-25-2005 16:17:00




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 Re: How to properly balance a trailor load?? in reply to Pete from cal, 01-25-2005 11:17:27  
Those heavy ramps you added to the back of the trailor will cause instability because of the distance they are from the center of lateral resistance, the trailor tires. The greater the distance the more the tail wags the dog. Simply adding weight to the tounge won't solve the problem completely because that extra mass of the ramps has too long a lever. See if you can reengineer them so you can slide/fold them over the axles when you transport and your sway problems will be solved.
Always load the heaviest stuff over the axles (maintaining some tounge weight) and load light stuff on the ends.

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