A visit to a CAT scale.

[jeeplj8]

Originally Posted by myredracer

Here are the numbers from the scale tickets. I made two passes with the truck and TT hooked up. The second one was after I increased the weight transfer to the front TV axle.

Truck only: steer axle - 4300 lbs, drive axle - 3480 lbs. Total = 7780 lbs.

First pass with TV + TT: steer axle - 4220 lbs, drive axle - 4260 lbs, trailer axle - 5840 lbs. Total = 14,320 lbs.

Second pass with TV + TT & after increasing WDH: steer axle - 4460 lbs, drive axle - 3880 lbs, trailer axle - 5980 lbs. Total = 14,320 lbs.

The difference between the first and seconds passes is one extra serration on the Reese serrated washers on the shank and one less chain link. While I may not have gotten the true tongue weight, the numbers show that tightening up the WDH transfers weight both to the front TV axles and to the TT axles. TV front went up by 240 lbs while TT went up by 140 lbs. Not sure if this is useful info? I can say though that getting the chains hooked up on the second pass was really tough so that should indicate right there that I am transferring far too much weight.

The truck GVWR is 9600 lbs, front GAWR is 5600 lbs & rear is 6100 lbs, GCWR is 23,000 lbs. TT GVWR is 6800 lbs, CCC is 1320 lbs, NCC is 1563 lbs, UVW is 5237 lbs and listed hitch wt. is 518 lbs. Truck hitch is good for 1250 lbs tongue wt. and 12,500 lbs towing. WDH has 800 lb bars and is rated 1200/12,000 lbs.

Is a tongue weight scale a useful tool to have? I have a feeling it'd be a bit of a waste of money since once you have been to the scales and have it all figured out, you are okay unless you make mods with significant weight changes.

You do not need to get a separate scale to do tongue weight, like said before, easiest to just go across with the bars unhooked and then you know the true tongue weight.

Just for extrapolation purposes, using your scale tickets you can see that the trailer itself is 6540 pounds. 10% would be 654, 12.5% = 818 and 15%=981 pounds.

In your weight with weight distributing bars hooked up at lower setting, your combined truck axles showed an additional 690 pounds. Now this is far from exact, and should not be what you use to determine tongue weight, but I would think your tongue weight is actually slightly than this as some weight usually is transferred back to the trailer. Even if this were your tongue weight, you would at least be at 10%. I prefer to load tongue heavy when possible, but that is preference.

On your second weight, you have something else going on. The trailer and the rear of the truck are fighting each other and you have them working to put more weight on the steer and trailer axles, and less on the drive axle. This is actually not a good situation to be in, your truck may drive funny and you should truly have a little more weight on the drive axle. Regardless, you had put 1250 pound son the truck. Again, that is not the true tongue weight because of the situation with the WD bars. But it suggests your tongue weight lies somewhere between the 690 and 1250 mark. again, this is NOT an accurate calculation of your tongue weight.

Based upon those numbers, I feel like your trailer is not too badly loaded. But your WDH is not dialed in well. Ideally you would like to see your steer axle at 4300 pounds, it's unloaded weight. I think if you did this again, but let out that one link of chain (keep the head angle where it was) you would be close.

Remember this is as much art as it is science. The combo needs to feel safe on the road, not just look safe on paper.

And kudos to you for taking the time to work through this. I know my first scale ticket(s) held some surprises for me.

[recon33alpha]

I could see where all of this would be a major pain for us toy hauler owners, I mean think of all the different scale passes you could have: empty, 1 toy, 2 toys and so on!!! With/without fuel etc.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by recon33alpha

I could see where all of this would be a major pain for us toy hauler owners, I mean think of all the different scale passes you could have: empty, 1 toy, 2 toys and so on!!! With/without fuel etc.

You might want to get a set of weights with no toys and a set with both toys aboard; then you will know "about" where you stand with something in the middle.

[MtnGuy]

I agree with most of what jeeplj8's # 21 post. By my calculations, it looks like you are putting an additional 560 lbs. on your truck in the 2nd pass with the trailer, not 1250 lbs.

Both of the setups appear to be OK for a 3/4 ton truck, but I would be inclined to agree with jeeplj8 that the 1st setup is probably best. A 3/4 ton truck is made to take the weight on the rear axle. I am not sure that I like more weight on the front axle than the rear as indicated with the 2nd pass with the trailer . Numbers in the middle of those 2 passes would be great, but there is only so much that you can do with the adjustments.

How does the truck look with the 2 passes that you did ??

You might be maxing out your 800 lb. spring bars. I believe that you will find that you actually have a tongue weight in the 800 to 850 lb. area. That is great for that puts your tongue weight in the 12 to 13% range. But it looks like you are getting great weight distributing with the 800 lb. bars, so there is probably no problem there.

Once you figure out the setup that you are going with, be sure that the crooks in the spring bars are exactly centered on the cams while the truck and camper are on level ground and completely straight. Mark the spring bars, so that they go back on the same side every time, just in case there is a slight difference in the lengths.

Great job of going the extra mile with getting your weights !!