Weight Dist/Scales Questions

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Eagle7222

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Aug 19, 2011
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Hi All,

I just returned from the closest CAT scales and was hoping some here could point me in the direction to look at with my set up.

Currently using a Equalizer hitch, dealer set it up when I traded in my 23 foot coyote. It looked OK at the time but I think I need to start at step 1 in the hitch set up and just redo the entire thing.

My TV is a 2010  Ford Expedition. 4x4 with tow package. Book says Trailer weight at 9000 and total gross at 15,000.

Sticker in the dor shows the following...
GVWR- 7500
front- 3550
Rear- 4250

I am pulling a 2012 Keystone Bullet 294BHS. Sticker on the door says weight at 5700 and cargo capacity of 1820.

So here is what I got from the scales.

With Trailer
- Steer Axle- 3200
-Drive Axle- 4320
Trailer- 5420
Gross- 12940

Tow vehicle
- Steer 3200
-Drive -3320

I am new to trying to get this all set up, from what I can gather my tounge weight is at 1000 which seems too much. What  should I be looking for with this? Why is my real axle showing so high and the trailer is less than what the stciker shows and it was loaded, ready to go minus maybe a small amount.

Any advice, I am looking all over the place trying to insue that I am loaded correctly and safely, just not sure where I wasnt the #'s to be and how to achieve that.

Any advice is appriciated.

thanks!

Paul
 
With an equalizer hitch all of the tongue weight isn't being placed on the rear axle of your Expedition. It is also pushing your front tires down. So the number you get for "tongue" weight isn't 100% accurate. How much is being put on your front axle? Well that's another trip to the scales and some unhooked from the trailer empty, and the trailer buy its self weights. Your numbers look like you got a pretty good set up for a start. See how it tows and you will be able to make small changes here and there to fine tune it. I'm on my second Equal-i-zer hitch on my second tongue pull trailer which I've had for 4 years and I still make a few changes a year depending on trailer loading and destinations.
 

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<<Why is my real axle showing so high and the trailer is less than what the stciker shows and it was loaded, ready to go minus maybe a small amount.>>

From the scale tickets, you can see that your TV gained 1000 pounds on the rear axle when you had the trailer attached. The amount of trailer on the rear pad of the scale was 5420, so your total trailer weight was 6420. So about 740 pounds more than the delivered trailer weight. 150 pounds of that is in the WDH, battery, and propane.

Your front weight stayed the same, and you are a bit heavy on the rear axle. Two things you can do to work on this. First, load the TT more towards the rear. It would be good to take maybe 200# off the tongue weight. Second, if you are carrying anything in the back of the TV (suitcases, coolers, food) that could be moved to the trailer, that would give you some margin on your tow vehicle gross weight.

This is fairly common for towing with half ton vehicles. The tow vehicle runs out of capacity due to the weight of the occupants, fuel, gear, and tongue weight. Empty out the tow vehicle, watch the tongue weight, and you will be in better shape.
 
As eindog says, your rear axle is heavy and none of the trailer tongei weight is being carried on the Expeditions front axle. That's not right.

The main thing you need to do is increase the torque on the spring bars on the Equalizer hitch. That will transfer some of the excess weight from the rear axle to the front and balance out the load on the tow vehicle better. Your Equalizer manual should have detailed instructions how to do this.  If you don't have the manual, download it form the Equalizer web site.

However, it does appear your trailer tongue weight is a bit higher than is typical, especially with the trailer only lightly loaded. Generally I would expect it to be 10-12% of the gross trailer weight, or 642-770 lbs in your case. Your 1000 lb tongue weight is just over 15%, which is at the outer edge of normal. You need some more weight behind the trailer axle, or less weight in front of them.  You may achieve this simply by adding some water, if the water tanks are in fact behind the trailer axles. In any case, try to get the tongue weight down to 750 lbs.
 
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