Rockwood HW296 dry vs loaded tongue weight

[dtptrson]

Most of the posts I've seen online assume that all of the battery and propane bottle weight are carried by the tongue.
The whole dry tongue weight things is a bit of a shell game anyway.
I decided to see what it really was and it's a bit counter intuitive.
I bought a large digital scale and placed int directly below the level tongue and did some weight measurements.
Forest river claims the dry tongue weight is 371lbs. The added weight of 2 - 20lbs propane bottles(38lbsx2=76lbs) and 2 -6 volts batteries(2x67lbs=134lbs) is 210lbs.
Now I have probably 400 lbs of gear evenly spaced around the trailer, including some electrical components.
The actual tongue weight was 430lbs for a net gain of 59lbs. The loaded trailer weight at this point would be 4330lbs, so i'm right in the 10% tongue weight range.
I added a frame mounted rear bike rack hitch and I was curious out what it would do to the tongue weight as well. So I set the bike rack up and hung 2 5gal buckets full of water off the bike rack for a total of 100lbs and remeasured the tongue weight. It now measures 385lbs with a total trailer weight of 4430 pounds and the tongue weight is now somewhat less than 9%.
I was curious so I decided to move the buckets of water inside to the front of trailer and remeasured the tongue weight. The new tongue weight was 465lbs, somewhat less than 11% tongue weight.
I'm glad I decided to run the numbers and if I decide to take the bikes along I'm going to have to load the duffel bags of clothes and cooler towards the front or shift some of the cargo forward to counter balance the bikes.
I'll do some more tests in the future filling the fresh and grey and black water tanks and post them.
Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

[GalsofEscape]

Originally Posted by dtptrson

Most of the posts I've seen online assume that all of the battery and propane bottle weight are carried by the tongue.
The whole dry tongue weight things is a bit of a shell game anyway.
I decided to see what it really was and it's a bit counter intuitive.
I bought a large digital scale and placed int directly below the level tongue and did some weight measurements.
Forest river claims the dry tongue weight is 371lbs. The added weight of 2 - 20lbs propane bottles(38lbsx2=76lbs) and 2 -6 volts batteries(2x67lbs=134lbs) is 210lbs.
Now I have probably 400 lbs of gear evenly spaced around the trailer, including some electrical components.
The actual tongue weight was 430lbs for a net gain of 59lbs. The loaded trailer weight at this point would be 4330lbs, so i'm right in the 10% tongue weight range.
I added a frame mounted rear bike rack hitch and I was curious out what it would do to the tongue weight as well. So I set the bike rack up and hung 2 5gal buckets full of water off the bike rack for a total of 100lbs and remeasured the tongue weight. It now measures 385lbs with a total trailer weight of 4430 pounds and the tongue weight is now somewhat less than 9%.
I was curious so I decided to move the buckets of water inside to the front of trailer and remeasured the tongue weight. The new tongue weight was 465lbs, somewhat less than 11% tongue weight.
I'm glad I decided to run the numbers and if I decide to take the bikes along I'm going to have to load the duffel bags of clothes and cooler towards the front or shift some of the cargo forward to counter balance the bikes.
I'll do some more tests in the future filling the fresh and grey and black water tanks and post them.
Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

The affect on tongue weight is why my dealer would not put a bike rack on the back of my hw277. They stated it would affect the stability when towing.
You don't find many pups with back mounted racks, they are front mounted or in the roof.

[dtptrson]

Originally Posted by GalsofEscape

The affect on tongue weight is why my dealer would not put a bike rack on the back of my hw277. They stated it would affect the stability when towing.
You don't find many pups with back mounted racks, they are front mounted or in the roof.

i had one of those on the old hw27SC and hated it, not worth the aggravation, I'll stick with the rear mount and shift some weight forward.

[FrankMor]

Your calculation on things added is wrong. The propane weight is included in the factory dry weight. You only add the battery weight to the dry weight on your sticker in TT or 5wh. On a MH the propane, battery and a full tank of gas are in the dry weight.


Frank

[Milk_Man]

I'm planning on installing a rear frame mounted hitch this summer.
I have never actually weighed it out, but I don't think weight distribution a problem for me because I have a front storage where most of the weight/gears are.