Trailer tongue weight

[Texas Tuggernaut]

We trailered our 2013 R27 classic to a lake 2 hours away. It’s our longest road trip so far. At 60mph the trailer began to sway and fishtail. Slowing down restored control. I’m pretty sure this is a sign our tongue weight being too light. I drained fresh water before the trip figuring there was no reason to haul an extra 300lbs around. Now I’m thinking that would be an easy way to get some weight forward of the axels and low.
We have a 2-axel trailer and Ram 2500 4wd.
Any ideas or suggestions?


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[scross]

A whole bunch of ideas for you.
If you have a dinghy on the swim platform take it off for towing. It adds a lot of leveraged weight to the rear of the trailer and acts like a drag chute back there.
Make sure your tires are all fully inflated. Many E load range tires need 80 PSI. Check your tires sidewall for max PSI to be sure.
Also, make sure your black water tank is empty before towing since that tank is aft as well.
Do NOT assume your boat weight is anything close to the “dry weight” number listed in the manual. The reality is it’s MUCH heavier than that even if your diesel tank is empty.
I’m assuming you have a triple axle trailer but you don’t state that. If it is a triple you want the tongue weight between 7-10 percent of the combined trailer and boat weight. For a R-27 Classic with an aluminum triple axle trailer this should be in the range of 875 to 1,200 pounds. That’s a rough number assuming combined weight of your rig is about 12,000 pounds.
The only way to know for sure what your weights are is to weigh everything. Weigh each truck axle with the trailer off. Then weigh the truck axles again with the boat on the trailer and the trailer attached to the truck as you would normally tow the boat. Weigh the boat axles at this time too.
Most state highway truck scales will let you roll through their scales if they are not busy or closed. If not, go to a commercial scale.
The difference in total truck weight (both axles) not towing and towing is your tongue weight. Add the tongue weight to the weight of all trailer axles and you have your combined towing weight.
Finally, you should be towing with the trailer frame parallel to the ground. Adjust your ball height to achieve that level. Otherwise you may be overloading your front or rear axles.
I’ve towed our old R-25 Classic over 16,000 miles at 7 percent tongue weight and never had it sway even in very strong crosswinds.
Good luck!

 

[Mastercraft]

You can buy a hitch that measures tongue weight - I don’t know where to get them. They are about $400. Check the alignment of tires with strings and straight bars. Tires should be parallel. I have seen tires up to a half inch angle difference over 4ft and trailer still drives relatively smooth. Check tire wear. Check distance between front and back tires. Check trailer height at back to compare left and right. Trailer mean beams should be level. On an R29 trailer, level requires about 24” to top of ball. On a 19ft boat, level might be 18” high ball. You can check a lot of basic alignment without fancy equipment. If possible, do this on level concrete.

 

[scross]

MasterCraft,
I have one of the WeighSafe trailer hitches. You can buy them here:
https://www.weigh-safe.com/
Mine is somewhat accurate. It gives you a ballpark tongue weight. No where near as accurate as a state highway or commercial scale though.
And, if you don’t know your combined towing weight with some accuracy, you can’t determine your tongue weight percentage from the Weigh Safe hitch scale.

PS: If you do decide that the Weigh Safe is for you I highly recommend their “Factory Seconds”. With the common discount code they regularly offer you can get a Mint Condition “Factory Second” unit for about 1/2 list price of the new units.

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

I have a WeighSafe hitch that shows me the tongue weight. I check it every time, because the tongue weight can change based one fuel and water load, cockpit locker contents, etc... For example, my tongue weight went from 400 to 600 by moving the takacat from the cockpit to the truck bed and the epropulsion motor and battery to the berth for a 4.5 hour trip to the coast. Well worth the cost, in my opinion.

https://www.weigh-safe.com/product/weig ... rop-hitch/

 

[S. Todd]

You are correct that trailer fishtailing is typically a sign that tongue weight is too low. We towed a R25SC many miles on a tandem axle trailer without any such issues. I have a tongue weight scale that I purchased years ago for less than $100 (if I remember correctly). The tongue weight on that boat was about 650 lbs. I towed with a 1997 F250 (supercab long bed). We now tow a R29S with a F350 dually (crew cab with long bed) on a triaxle trailer and the tongue weight is also about 650 lbs. In fairness, the speed limit towing the oversize load in all the states I have towed the R29 is 55 mph so I have seldom had her down the highway at anything above 60 to 65 miles per our and consistently tow within 3 or 4 mph of the limit. You can use a bathroom scale with a 4 x 4 between the scale and another block the same height as the bathroom scale. If you put the tongue in the middle of that 4 x 4 the weight of the scale times two will be fairly close to the actual tongue weight. That should give you a good idea of your tongue weight without spending any $$.
My experience, and understanding from what I have read, is that the lighter the trailer the more tongue weight should approach 15% of total trailer weight. On our R25SC 7% worked fine. I find with the 15,000 lbs and triple axle under our R29 5% is plenty.
I concur with the other comments made earlier to your post.

 

[knotflying]

On my R-27 the total weight with trailer was 11,240, hence about 1,124 on the tongue. Never had a bit of sway and towed over 30,000 miles. Fifty three gallons of fuel and 13 gallons of water, all food supplies, clothing, tools and wife's makeup and shoes. :lol: Dingy deflated folded and under the solar panel. Light Torqeedo motor.

 

[Texas Tuggernaut]

Seems I’ve answered my own question with an alarming discovery on my trailer. I found the entire bow roller/winch assembly slid back about one foot. The U-bolts were loose and apparently the last time we loaded the boat the whole boat wound up sitting 1’ farther back on the trailer than it should. Hence the light tongue weight and fishtailing on our way home from the lake. I’m grateful nothing worse happened and it’s a stark reminder that I need to inspect my trailer better.


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