Bill,
The “per Honda specifications” is the published “curb weight” without people, cargo, weight of hitch and other accessories, or tongue load. We know some of the nearly 1,000 lbs of weight gain on Ridgeline is the non-factory accessories, passengers, and cargo, but doesn’t the WDH transfer weight from the TV to TM? Beyond seeing that the WDH pull weight up off the rear axle of the Ridgeline and transfers it to the front axle of Ridgeline and TM axle, I am having trouble understanding the weight transfer dynamics. It seems the distance of the axles from the ball would dictate the percentage of the weight that would go to each axle, but I would need to use one of my “lifelines” on that question.
I should have, but I did not weigh the Ridgeline and trailer separately. As a result, I don’t know the tongue weight. There may be a mathematical solution to solve for the tongue weight by knowing the axle weights if I measured all he lever lengths. It gets too complicated for me with multiple fulcrums. I have been away from doing math for over 30 years and I don’t even want to think about it.
Jim
After I originally posted this I thought about it some more. We probably can't calculate the tongue weight because we don't know how the weight in the trailer and truck cargo is distributed.