Too much tongue weight..

[Blair]

Hey all I am looking at trailers and been considering biulding one myself this winter when work slows. Anyway the question I have is, can you have too much tongue weight. I am putting airbags on the rear suspension the reciever will handle it cuz I built it stout etc. I am not asking if my truck can handle it but will it hurt the towing stability or anything like that to put the axles farther back. The reason I am asking is because my Grandfather had a trailer that had both axles set almost to the back and it towed nicer than other trailers I have borrowed of a similiar size. But before I design a new trailer I want to make sure it will be safe because the most I ever towed with my Grandpas trailer was probably 5000 pounds and the new trailer would be set up to for a max weight of 12000, which would never likely be reached. I am thinking along the lines of 20-30% tongue weight instead of the usual 10%. So the max I would be loading the truck would be around 2000 pounds of tongue weight. Thanks for any comments or ideas. BTW just so there is no confusion this is a bumper pull trailer.

[Chrisf]

if your truck can handle it then the farther back the axles the better the main thing you want to say away from is too much weight behind the trailer axles... unless you like fishtailing... But I wouldn't worry (depending upon your truck that is)

[Travis Waldher]

There is such thing as too much tongue weight. I dont' know how much I had, in excess of 1,000lbs I believe (don't ask) before I corrected the problem.


But.... Lets just say when your front tires loose solid contact with the ground when you drive over a bump even as slow as 35mph. You got a problem.

[Blair]

Hey twaldher if you put cutting brakes on the tow rig you wouldn't even need a front axle That is a good point though. The truck will have short overhang from the rear axle with the flatbed and bobbed frame the way I have it planned now. And with airbags to keep it level that will be "less" of an issue than it would with a spring suspension that would sag with 2000 pounds on it.

Rocktop I have experience with fishtail. I was towing a skidsteer that slid backwards over a bump when the chain came off. This caused me to hit the center barrier of a bridge on a highway. After that the trailer jackknifed and spun the whole deal 180 degrees. That freaked me out. Drove the truck away though when we got the skidsteer tied down agian. Anyway I am really careful with tiedowns and chain now and I also get nervous about tongue weight which is why I would like to have the trailer biased to the safe side. Thanks for the advice guys!

[Chrisf]

ya i did forget about the front tires loosing contact with the ground but i have never had that problem i have over 1000lbs in engine alone... but it is a good point... if you are towing with a smaller truck...

[YELLER BLAZER]

I've been running with about 1200 pounds of tongue weight with my 1ton Dodge duelly and it is rock solid. I even added a 3300 pound sami on the bed (flat bed truck) with this set up and went to Moab from OKlahoma and it worked awsome.