View Single Post
Old 11-29-2007, 12:33 PM   #25
Bill
Site Team
 
Bill's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
Posts: 10,088
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by larsdennert View Post
That's interesting info. I'd like to find a scale with enough capacity to measure my tongue weight. I've always wondered whether TM's specs of 300 included batteries and propane. Probably not. Looking at how far back the axle sits, it would be amazing.
Lars -

I don't know if batteries and propane are included in the stated tongue weight or not. But as you point out, nearly everything you load into a TM will sit forward of the axle, and will add a bit to the tongue weight. By the way, you can determine the tongue weight pretty easily with a bathroom scale. (Numbers below are examples.) Just get a strong board, maybe 4 feet long. Draw two lines across the board, perhaps 3 feet apart. Draw a third line exactly halfway between those marks. Put the scale on the ground, and put a couple bricks beside it, about 3 feet away. Now put a dowel, a piece of pipe, or something equally narrow in the middle of the scale, and a similar narrow object on the bricks. Set your board to bridge the gap, and make sure the dowels (etc) are exactly under the lines on the board. Now put your TM tongue on the center line, and crank it up a bit. At this point, half of the tongue weight is being supported by the scale, and half by the bricks - so read the scale and double the reading. That's the tongue weight.

If it exceeds the capacity of your scale, you can set the lengths to 2/3 and 1/3, and triple the scale reading.
Quote:
I guess I'm a bad example to compare to as I have an otherwise modified vehicle. I can report that I have no noticeable unloading of the front end, [since] the vehicle sits level while carrying.
Heh, heh! Yes, we guys who advocate for WDHs just hate you guys who use air bags. Air bags make things level - but they don't restore the missing weight to the front end. Only a WDH can do that. So even though the vehicle is level, you are still driving around with extra weight on the rear suspension and tires, and too little weight on the front tires. How much weight is removed from the front end? You'd have to find a real scale and measure. Does that amount of unweighting matter on your particular vehicle? Well, I don't know - but I'm unwilling to take the chance on mine. YMMV, of course.
Quote:
Bumpy freeways at 35mph can be bouncy though.
That's one of the joys of air bags.

In the WDH vs airbags debate, there will always be doubters out there, and air bags eliminate that one additional step in the hookup procedure - snapping up the chains. So we agree to disagree, and wish you well.

Bill
__________________
2020 2720QS (aka 2720SL)
2014 Ford F-150 4WD 5.0L
Bill's Tech Stuff album
Bill is offline   Reply With Quote