Dangers of Improper Tongue Weight
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- čas přidán 24. 10. 2021
- Safe towing requires a certain amount of downward pressure on the hitch ball, called tongue weight, to ensure that the trailer will tow straight and remain stable. Do you know what happens when you tow with improper tongue weight? There are two main categories of catastrophes: those caused by not enough tongue weight, and those caused by too much.
What you do not have enough tongue weight the following can happen, as shown in the video:
#1 - Trailer sway: ‘fishtailing’ or side-to-side movement
If you hook up your trailer with less than 10% of your GTW (Gross Trailer Weight) situated on the tongue of your trailer you will have:
-too little tongue weight
-too much of your load situated behind the axle of your trailer
-an unlevel tow set-up that “peaks” at the hitch connection
-conditions in which trailer sway will most likely occur
Why is trailer sway so dangerous? Let us explain…
#2 - Loss of steering control
The swaying side-to-side movement of a trailer can escalate very quickly, especially when you’re traveling fast. Enough momentum caused by the sway-force of your trailer can completely, and swiftly, overturn your truck in a matter of seconds.
Although this video does not demonstrate the effects of too much tongue weight, it does show you what can happen if you have too little tongue weight. This video demonstrates just how vital it is to keep your tongue weight within 10-15% of your GTW (Gross Trailer Weight).
If you want to know more about what happens with too much tongue weight, check out this blog article on our website for more information:
www.weigh-safe.com/towing-saf... - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Everyone who buys a trailer. should be required to watch this video!
The moral of this video is, don't put your beer cooler in the back of the boat. It could land in someone else's vehicle and you don't want to give someone else free beer. ;-)
The moral of the story is there are lots of people towing stuff that don’t have a clue
Ahahahaha
That's where I keep my live grenades, I just love handing out gifts
A serious post about trailer but love the joke 😂
I have known this for a long, long time. When I first got an old trailer, the axle was dead centered. But I knew how to pack it. but one time I knew it wasn't right. When I was driving down I95 it started to sway. People panic when this happens, slow down, brake it. not jam it. You slow it down just fast enough to stop this issue. Experience goes a long way. After I got home from my trip, I made PLANS to change this issue, I moved the axle 6"inches back. Never had the problem since. I have seen a lot of stupid out there when it comes to people with trailers, that don't have a clue..... (Thank you for showing this )
I’m one of those stupid ppl.. I’m not afraid to admit it. That’s why I’m here on CZcams to learn what not to do… learning from ppl mistakes before I make one myself…
Swaying all over the road!! WATCHED the video, readjusted my load and smooth sailings. Thank you
Absolutely brilliant. As a retired NASA aerospace engineer, I can tell you this is perfection. And no math!
NASA is great faking stuff too lol
This in not an actual accurate depiction of towing a trailer. its displaying how you would balance a DOUBLE trailer being towed by a rope, you can actually easly have too much tongue weight its actually much more dangerous especially in winter snow at lower speeds as you loose control of the front end and it increases understeer and lowers front braking power, and recovery the idea is to not let it lift up and to always have some downforce on the ball while maneuvering, the distance from mount to tires and tilt angle, wind also need to be accounted for
@@DeVoN420zz Introduction videos are generally not designed to cover every single detail of a topic. This is clearly an introductory video.
@@snickerdoooodle its a display of the dangers of improper tongue weight but its using incorrect physical tow mount points, I engineer, build and use my trailers i know this is not an accurate representation, most of the information stated is true but not displayed correctly in the demonstration
Great illustration! Now get back to work! I have a back ordered heavy that I can’t wait to install 😁
Great visual demonstration!
Just compelling. Well done! Nice edit.
I have learned quite a bit more seeing the model interact in the physical simulation.
I look foreword to more of your teams work.
Consider placing a box fan in front of the model in motion and "threadding" up the surfaces with attached stringlets. Very visually appealing.. Seeing weight distribution combined with a visual of air, moving over the surface. Laminar and flow separation interactions will be fun to set up and film, and add layers of understanding of how these forces interact.
Everyone can relate to toys, let them be science toys for fun learning.
Never saw it like that. Makes perfect sense.
Super great test, and very, very important! Just purchased your truck hitch with built in scale to safely carry a 5-7000lb tractor on a new 20 ft trailer I just purchased. Thank you for the fantastic lesson and informative information!
Notice how safe the boat tows when you keep your beer cooler in the bow of the boat. ;-) Seriously this video is an example of what will happen when towing an improperly loaded trailer.
That’s what I was fixing to say. Gotta stay hydrated while out on the lake and having proper weight distribution. Them beer coolers weigh a lot 😅
Thank you. Nice video.
😊👍 Good Stuff, Great Tips.......compare a 5th wheel vs Ball Hitch.
Have you done a similar test that varies the distance between the hitch point and the tow vehicle back axle? That would be nice to see in a scale model demonstration. I'm looking for a new tow vehicle and wondering how much impact that variable has on stability.
Can you guys do a video pulling dobles, that can be helpful too, thanks for this video
Can you do one on gooseneck/5th wheel location forward center and rear of the axle I'm getting ready to build one for my flatbed and it would be great to see how it effects handling
Thank you.
It’s easy to do when you know the weight of a boat or 4x4, I want to know how people know the weight when moving boxes and furniture that you might not have weight specs for. Getting ready to do a tow of all my totes and maybe a rocking chair or two along with odds and ends, free up some space in my little apartment. Nervous as hell about getting the weight distributed correctly, I live in the UP of Michigan and no weigh scales anywhere nearby.
where do you get all of the trailers at
So I got a question I want to load a 1200 gallon water tank. Should I put it in the middle or closer to the trailer hitch?
Do a video on weight distribution pulling a rv and a boat
What If you Plan to Tow a car without an engine, would there be more weight on the back? In what position should I set the car in a Transport flatbed from U-Haul
Wow. Thanks
Is tongue weight the only criteria? I have been towing with a WDH for a couple of years now. For our last trip, I added about 200 lbs of bikes to a hitch on the rear of the travel trailer and cranked up the WDH as I thought appropriate. The sway from cross winds was markedly increased. Considering moving the load to a front- mounted receiver.
where do we get these trailer models
I need a simulation for my trailer. Added wood boxing (+500lbs) to a 14x5. Has a Scag sfc30 and a Scag vride 2. I want to load the Scag vride behind the sfc 30. The scf30 is abt 350lbs, and the vride is abt 800lbs. Would that be safe? Im hoping the added weight from the wood offsets the difference enough to be safe.
What does too much tongue weight look like?
In all seriousness Weigh Safe, as someone else in these comments pointed out, you should do a video without the music. Nobody wants to watch videos with music in the background or other noises. If people want to listed to music, they can do that on their own. People are here to try to learn something about towing and not have to listen to some music. Anyway, also, you should put out the video with them explaining things. Although this video is fairly self explanatory with the text in the video, some people just like to hear how it's explained from a human's mouth.
Not exactly “no one”. I didn’t mind the music at all. Did you lose your volume button or just need to complain about something?
Good test but there is one issue not accounted for and that is that the car is on a fixed point,. Try this again but tether the car with rope at at least as long as the car.
I agree with 7.5 to 15% on the ball but 15% and above may not be as good as putting most of the weight over the trailer axles with the 10% on the ball.
So the weight doesn't have to actually be "on" the tongue, as long as most of the weight is shifted toward the front? I'm asking because with a straight tongue trailer, you don't have as many options to mount anything on the tongue whereas with an A frame trailer tongue, you could have a cargo rack or Bike racks etc. which would obviously place the weight on the actual tongue as opposed to having the weight in the bed of the trailer in the front.
isn't the point of the position of the wheel of the trailer is to balance the load? if you put the load at the front, maybe all trailers should be manufactured with the wheels at the rear instead of the middle of the bed.
In europe a ave. car/SUV has a tongue weight between 75-100kg. Small caravans to mid-caravans are already at 1200-1600kg GTW. So we will never ever get the 10-15% 😳😳😳
Exactly. Infact it's not the tongue weight the main problem, but how the load is distributed on the caravan.
Towards the end of the video it looked like a Fed Ex driver pulling doubles!
What would results be for trailering with a bicycle? Parameters:
1) 70lb electric bicycle
2) capable of 28mph (class 3) with a
3) 150-200lb rider,
4) pulling a trailer rated at 100lbs loaded with 50lbs.
Differences in parameters & conditions from the CZcams experiment:
1) tongue weight is fully on the bicycles rear axle, and therefore
2) the tongues vertical pivot point is not creating a lever effect to the towing vehicles' (the bike) rear axle, and
3) with the bike, there is one fewer vertical pivot point to consider ... which makes towing loads on a trailer much less prone to issues demonstrated with the car towing loads ... although similar forces are still in play here but are somewhat dampened.
4) with typical & common speeds, both ave and top speeds are significantly slower than those used in the car use case in this CZcams
So the above use case is real. I installed a beefy mid drive motor on my bike, bought a beefy 30lb additional spare battery to lug around in the trailer, with the trailer loaded with an additional 30lbs worth of gear, bringing total weight to 70lbs. I have gone downhill confidently with this going as fast as 37mph with no sway, no noticable vertical pivoting issues w the tongue, and no control issues when recovering from quick maneuvers around pot holes, debris, rocks, sewer covers, uneven road repair humps.
The battery is secured to one side of the rear trailer with bugee cords ... the battery itself is secured within of a marine battery case. Center of gravity with the additional 30lbs of gear looks like it is in quadrant IV of center of gravity for trailer alone, perhaps 10% to the right of center, and 30% below center.
Could load imbalance be not as severe in this use case as the car be perhaps due to lighter weights, fewer vertical pivot forces, and slower speeds. I would like to see real life demonstration of these forces in action using their test lab environment on a bike & bike trailer!
Ive run over a pothole at 30mph with the lighter side of the trailer and felt a horizontal sideways force on the rear wheel for a long moment ... perhaps 1-2 seconds, triggering my spidey senses into alert mode (aka *panic*) for the next 15 seconds warning me of pending doom ... but am here to tell you nothing came of it. Same for running over a big rock at similar 'high speed' (about 28mph) about the size of an egg under the heavy side of the trailer ... with spidey sense going off for a few moments, followed by about 1-2 seconds of horizontal force on rear wheel, and 15 seconds of feelings of dread ... but again, with no trauma to report. Both of these experiences are certainly more sensitive and therefore dangerous if experienced in wet or icy conditions.
So there you have it. Maybe all these variables are simply not able to produce enough amplitude to provide any similar catastrophic effect as with a car+trailer going at 35 or 55 mph. But I think seeing these forces in play would be worthwhile and super fascinating to see in these guys' workshop. Particularly to see where any inflection points can be observed in range of data inputs (varying center of gravity and at varying speeds)
the hich weight is not actually the real deciding factor it's weight distribution. Here is an example, A Land Rover Defender 90 (we'll go with the commercial with a MAM of 2400kg 92.3" wheelbase) has a tow MAM of 3500kg, it's permissible nose weight is 150kg, that's about 4.3% of gross trailer weight. tows no problem at all. a 130, MAM 3500kg, wheelbase of 127", still has a 150kg noseweight, and they are one of the safest tow vehicles going. Why? Because of the ratio of wheelbase to trailer wheels/length. Also the weighting of the trailer should be over the trailer wheels to very slightly in front of the centre of the axles. This governs the stability of the trailer NOT the weight on the hitch.
What about TOO much tongue weight?
That's what I was wondering
front of vehicle tends to lift, therefore compromising steering capability. just as dangerous
That you will feel as soon as you start to move. The front end will feel like it isn't even on the ground, and will feel like your wheels are on ice.
What about too much tongue weight? You can measure tongue weight with a bathroom scale and some 2x4's if you're careful, according to a few youtubes :)
Demonstrated with vehicles pulling at a 150 meh is kind of DUH !
Cool little test but by having the tow vehicle hooked also to basically a hitch it nullifies reaction to real world.
The tow vehicle reaction and driving is totally out of reality.
Watch that truck instead of the trailer and you’ll see the issue here.
No talking needed!!!!
what is gtw? max loaded trailer weight ?
Great question! GTW stands for "Gross Trailer Weight" which is the total weight of your trailer and its cargo!
How bout too much tongue weight?
Couldn’t you have deleted the drama filled music and used a narrator to explain the process and weight changes instead?
바퀴를 축으로 화물 무게중심의 중요성
ok i get it as tempting as it is dont put the guy with a big mouth in the trailer or you will have a accident!
'
no wonder why this man use a cap on the head
Where is, too much tongue weight. Go all in if youre gonna show it
This in not an actual accurate depiction of towing a trailer... your displaying how you would balance a DOUBLE trailer being towed by a rope.. you can actually easly have too much tongue weight its actually much more dangerous at lower speeds as you loose control of the front end and it increases understeer and lowers front braking power, the idea is not let it lift up and to always have some downforce on the ball while maneuvering, the distance from mount to tires and tilt angle, wind also need to be accounted for
cool video, loud dumb music
Don’t drive 70 mpg when t-o-w-I-n-g !
if you are towing, you should be able to keep up with traffic. proper tongue weight is important , as this video shows!
Stay the f away from boats and campers.
This was the most informative video so far on proper trailer weight distribution, it followed the kiss method.
K eep
I t
S imple
S tupid
@weighsafe do you have an email we could write you at ?
Thanks for reaching out to us! You can email us at support@weigh-safe.com . Please let us know if you have any other questions in the meantime!
Swaying all over the road!! WATCHED the video, readjusted my load and smooth sailings. Thank you