Advice, not sure I trust the "expert"

[Drennanb]

Picked up the new Airstream this morning. I am new to towing, so a lot of this is forgien to me.

Dealer set up the WDH, but after going to the scales, I think I still need to adjust more. Everything seemed fine, but from looking at numbers I seems to still be heavy o. The rear. Attached is my CAT scale sheet, what do you think?

Truck has 4900 front and rear axel ratings.

[SSquared]

That weight ticket is not enough to answer the question. To really understand how your weight is distributed, you need to get three sets of weights.

1) Just the tow vehicle. You have to park the trailer and disconnect the TV to do this.
2) With the trailer connected, but with the WD not hooked up.
3) Trailer connect with WD connected. This is the one you already have.

By comparing 1 and 3, you can see how much weight is added or removed from each axle when you hook up the trailer. With 1 and 2, you can find out what the tongue weight of the trailer is (subtract the total in 1 from the tow vehicle axle total in 2).

There are different ideas of what is "right" in terms of how much weight the WD hitch should transfer.

For many vehicles, the owners manual will have a section on towing. It should tell you what to aim for when using a WD hitch. It will talk about getting the front axle to the same weight as without a trailer, or maybe to a point where it is halfway between what the front axle weighs in number 1 and number 2. The manual may talk about fender height comparisons instead of weight comparisons.

There is another school of thought that says you want to get WD hitch set to where about 1/3 of the tonque weight on the front axle, 1/3 on the rear axle, and 1/3 on the trailer axles. This is a LOT of WD force, and most people that aim for this find out they can't achieve it.

There's a newer school of thought that says the more WD force you have, the lighter the TV rear axle is, and therefore the more the TV is at risk of "oversteering" in a corner. That's when the rear end skids/slips. When that happens it is very difficult (if not impossible) for the driver to recover. Oversteer is much more dangerous than understeer (where the front slides toward the outside of the corner). From this point of view, you want the front axle weight to be around that "halfway between 1 and 2" weight.

Then of course, there is how it behaves on the road. Using my rig as an example, my owners manual says to set the WD so the front axle weight is about what it is without the trailer connected. When my rig is set that way, it feels a little bit squirrely. But if I go tighter on the WD bars, to where the front axle is 250-300 pounds more, it feels significantly better.

[Rich Jenkins]

Originally Posted by SSquared

That weight ticket is not enough to answer the question. To really understand how your weight is distributed, you need to get three sets of weights.



1) Just the tow vehicle. You have to park the trailer and disconnect the TV to do this.

2) With the trailer connected, but with the WD not hooked up.

3) Trailer connect with WD connected. This is the one you already have.



By comparing 1 and 3, you can see how much weight is added or removed from each axle when you hook up the trailer. With 1 and 2, you can find out what the tongue weight of the trailer is (subtract the total in 1 from the tow vehicle axle total in 2).



There are different ideas of what is "right" in terms of how much weight the WD hitch should transfer.



For many vehicles, the owners manual will have a section on towing. It should tell you what to aim for when using a WD hitch. It will talk about getting the front axle to the same weight as without a trailer, or maybe to a point where it is halfway between what the front axle weighs in number 1 and number 2. The manual may talk about fender height comparisons instead of weight comparisons.



There is another school of thought that says you want to get WD hitch set to where about 1/3 of the tonque weight on the front axle, 1/3 on the rear axle, and 1/3 on the trailer axles. This is a LOT of WD force, and most people that aim for this find out they can't achieve it.



There's a newer school of thought that says the more WD force you have, the lighter the TV rear axle is, and therefore the more the TV is at risk of "oversteering" in a corner. That's when the rear end skids/slips. When that happens it is very difficult (if not impossible) for the driver to recover. Oversteer is much more dangerous than understeer (where the front slides toward the outside of the corner). From this point of view, you want the front axle weight to be around that "halfway between 1 and 2" weight.



Then of course, there is how it behaves on the road. Using my rig as an example, my owners manual says to set the WD so the front axle weight is about what it is without the trailer connected. When my rig is set that way, it feels a little bit squirrely. But if I go tighter on the WD bars, to where the front axle is 250-300 pounds more, it feels significantly better.

This is the clearest, most easy to understand post on this I've ever seen.

Thank you.

[Bigventure]

I would tighten up on the spring bars to get the front and rear number closer to equal.

Was everything full? Fresh water, gas, propane? Ready to camp with stuff in the trailer?

[cliffcharb]

You're truck seems to be balanced fairly well. If you don't have easy access to a scale, measuring is also an accurate way of setting up your vehicle. Take measurements from the ground to the wheel well at the front & rear unloaded. After attaching the trailer, aim to bring the front back down to the unloaded height, or just slightly lower. Also check to make sure the rear hasn't come up more than unloaded (this doesn't happen much but worth verifying)

You could also have your truck weighed at most scales from scrap yard, landfills, transfer stations etc... if you want to know what the truck weighs by itself.

[Drennanb]

Thanks everyone. I'll do some more checks in the next few days to dial it in better.

[hhendrix]

Ssquared has it right. I've done this at a local truck scale and was able to get much better balance on the trailer axles.

[Bill M.]

The good news is that you are under the axle weight ratings. Yes, you can maybe tune it a little for weight distribution but if it pulls well now you are probably not looking at a big change. If getting a full set of weights is inconvenient then a quick check of the front fender height unhitched and than again after hitching will at least tell you if you are close or need more work.

[Mollysdad]

Tell me the procedure for using scales.
Do you have to ask first? Or just drive on?
Do you stop? Where do you pay?

[RandyNH]

Originally Posted by Mollysdad

Tell me the procedure for using scales.
Do you have to ask first? Or just drive on?
Do you stop? Where do you pay?

I stop by the office first, I've been told by others they don't, I've found that the ones in my area are more receptive when you do, this way you can find out if there is anything specific to their location.

Video

[dkottum]

I like to stop at the office first to make sure they know what we want to do. Once we drove onto the scales and then walked over to the office and they had it weighed before we got back into the truck. Then we had to drive off and around again before they could do a second weigh.

They have the mike and speaker (high) on the scale for communicating, but it's often too garbled for my worn out ears and hearing aids to comprehend.

[jayseejay]

We use the Weigh My Truck app by CAT Scale, tied to our PayPal account. Drive onto the scale, put in the number located on the scale post, click "accept" for the $11 charge, and it weighs your rig then emails you the report. Never have to speak with anyone there, if you don't want to. You can reweigh within 24 hours for an additional $2, but that does require speaking to the attendant.