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Old 01-07-2015, 11:54 AM   #1
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Axle location and tongue weight

2010 32 foot Eagle. Newbie. Just noticed how far back the axles are. Thought whole purpose double axles is to carry the weight, so your tongue weight is less. Axles are in the back 1/3, leaving the front 2/3 open. Why not under the middle? Looking at the inside, I don't see anymore weight in the back 1/3 then the front 2/3. This concerns me, as even though I have a 2015 Chevy 3500 single rear with the Diesel, and WDH, I am carrying a lot more than the standard RVer I am sure.

Don't know if there's even a way to measure the tongue weight. Is there? Getting concerned...
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Old 01-07-2015, 12:11 PM   #2
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Good question, and yes there is a way. It's pretty well detailed in this post:
http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3871

I say this pretty often: the CAT Scale is your friend.
The 3 passes over the scales to get all the weights you need will cost you in the neighborhood of $15 I think.
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Old 01-07-2015, 01:39 PM   #3
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snip..... the CAT Scale is your friend......snip
X2

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Old 01-07-2015, 02:06 PM   #4
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2010 32 foot Eagle. Newbie. Just noticed how far back the axles are. Thought whole purpose double axles is to carry the weight, so your tongue weight is less. Axles are in the back 1/3, leaving the front 2/3 open. Why not under the middle? Looking at the inside, I don't see anymore weight in the back 1/3 then the front 2/3. This concerns me, as even though I have a 2015 Chevy 3500 single rear with the Diesel, and WDH, I am carrying a lot more than the standard RVer I am sure.

Don't know if there's even a way to measure the tongue weight. Is there? Getting concerned...
2010 32 foot Eagle. It may help to provide Jayco's model. With that, you can look up Jayco's brochure to find their published, dry weights.

Travel Trailer axles don't carry ALL the trailer weight. You need 10%-15% on the tongue for proper towing.

You can use a bathroom scale and a lever to get an idea of your tongue weight. You can find out the process online - maybe in the JOF.

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...snip... the CAT Scale is your friend.... snip...
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Old 01-07-2015, 04:36 PM   #5
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I expect the bath scale works great for measuring the tongue weight. From that you can tell if your rear axle is overloaded (if you know what the rear axle weighs w/o the TT). It doesn't help you decide if your TT is properly balanced. If you have 700# on the tongue but your little TT only weighs 2500# loaded you'd not know but maybe wonder why it's so unstable while towing. JMHO
The CAT Scale is your friend.
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Old 01-07-2015, 09:53 PM   #6
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A bathroom scale? I don't know of any bathroom scale goes up to 1000 pounds???

It's a 318RLS
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Old 01-07-2015, 11:24 PM   #7
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A bathroom scale? I don't know of any bathroom scale goes up to 1000 pounds??? It's a 318RLS
The Jayco brochure says 805lbs on the tongue and 7,950lbls total dry weight. That's 10% on the tongue, which most here believe is the minimum; 12% to 15% seems to be what many suggest for best towing. Of course, you then need to add in the 1,760lbs for all the liquids and gear in the trailer.

To measure the tongue weight with a bathroom scale, you need to create a lever so the bathroom scale carries a percentage of the tongue weight - not all of it. There are many places to find out how on the web and maybe in JOF as well.

Or you could visit the scales.
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Old 01-07-2015, 11:52 PM   #8
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1st off you don't want the axles near the center BTDT. towed horribly. The further back the straighter the TT will tow. Less sway. Here's a link for weighing the tongue with a bathroom scale.
http://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-to-d...ue-weight.aspx
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Old 01-08-2015, 09:55 AM   #9
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Tongue wgt should be checked with the trailer loaded as you would be when leaving to go camping.(Food,water,gear,everything you load in the trailer or on it!) Tongue wgt should be 10-15% of Gross Wgt!
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Old 01-08-2015, 10:25 AM   #10
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Wow. Cat scales sounds WAY TOO COMPLICATED, especially as my loads will vary. Someone should have told me to just buy a tongue scale Just got one from Etrailer. PRICEY. $129, but we'll worth it i think in the long haul.... Didn't know they made one

Seems to me that beats a cat scale all day long and twice on Sunday.
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Old 01-08-2015, 11:20 AM   #11
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Wow. Cat sales sounds WAY TOO COMPLICATED, especially as my loads will vary. Someone should have told me to just buy a tongue scale Just got one from Amazon. PRICEY. but we'll worth it i think in the long haul.... Didn't know they made one
I found my first visit a bit intimidating but worked my way through it, I was pulling our X23B (4420#) with the '03 Expedition and I felt out of place being surrounded by the 18 wheelers.

I discovered 2 things:
1) My tongue weight was 13.6%, so I knew I was well balanced.
2) My Rear GAWR was 4128# (from TV the yellow sticker) and loaded up the rear axle weighed 3800# (from the scale). I was 328# from maxing out the rear axle which was the surprise.
Add a second couple in the back seat with their luggage in the TT or TV and we were probably overloaded, not by much but overloaded none the less.

What I learned was that I would max out the rear axle before hitting the published TV max tow weight which was 8950#.

If I'd bought a trailer based on the Max trailer weight ( let's say 8000#), my tongue weight would be in the neighborhood of 1200# and there'd be sparks coming from my rear bumper as I drug it down the highway.

Being you are towing with a 1 ton I'd be fairly confident that you are OK in the tongue weight department. But my point is: you may know that your weights are ok but until you drive over the scale you won't KNOW.

We upgraded our TV to the F350 and then traded the HTT on the 5th. I stopped at a truck stop on I-10 on our first outing and hit the scale. I discovered the 5th weighed in at 12720# and I had 3020# on the pin.

I find myself saying this frequently, but:
The CAT Scale is your friend.
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Old 01-08-2015, 09:10 PM   #12
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Well, I am only too too concerned about it. I just want the thing to pull with no sway or bouncy bounce. We live in a world of "rated" capacities and then "actual"

I'll bet you anything that with a stated tongue capacity of 1,000 pds, it's easily twice to three times that. That's just the reality of ratings and capacities.

However, I just checked and my 2500's hitch says 1500 pound tongue weight??? That shocks me, as my WDH only says 1200 pounds. Hmmmmm. Got me wondering now WHY I am bothering with a WDH. The 3500 was deliver today but didn't check the hitch on it. But has to be at least what my 2500 is. Something is amiss as the trailering guide for chevy said 750 pound max tongue weight?

Man I a confused now
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Old 01-08-2015, 10:07 PM   #13
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Just looked at the owners manual for my new 3500 single rear wheel. 1500 pounds total tongue weight? I was understanding the concept of the weight distribution hitch, based upon the assumption that my tongue was only rated at 1000 pounds, so a 1200 pound weight distribution hitch made sense to me. But now that I know my tongue weight can handle up to 1500 pounds, somebody please explain to me why on earth I would need a WDH? Fact, even the owners manual says under weight distribution hitch, optional.
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Old 01-08-2015, 10:25 PM   #14
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Without a WDH you will un-weight the front axle. With the tongue weight pushing down on the hitch and the pivot point/fulcrum being the rear axle it will lift the front of the truck. Without proper weight on the front axle, the rear of the trailer can sway and pivot the truck on the rear axle. It's pretty unnerving when the truck move all over the place when an 18 wheeler passes you. It can feel like you are chaning lanes when you don't want too. In severe cases it will jacknife your truck.

You will be much more stable with a WDH even with your bigger truck. The dealer set up my equilizer wrong on our maiden voyage this spring and it was a white knuckle drive. I had to fight to keep the rig in my lane every time a truck passed me.

Usually your reciever will have 2 ratings...1 without a WDH and 1 with. I am still wrangling with this as the weight is still on the reciever either way, but maybe has everything to do with too much tongue weight un-weighting the front axel. Maybe someone has better reasoning for this.

Hope this helped.
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Old 01-08-2015, 11:52 PM   #15
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Wow. Cat scales sounds WAY TOO COMPLICATED, especially as my loads will vary. Someone should have told me to just buy a tongue scale Just got one from Etrailer. PRICEY. $129, but we'll worth it i think in the long haul.... Didn't know they made one

Seems to me that beats a cat scale all day long and twice on Sunday.
I got one as well for Christmas. But, I still ran across the scales to get the actual weights of the truck, and the truck with trailer. Nice to have the actual figures, and I will use the tongue scale to keep the tongue weight in check as I load the toyhauler with stuff.
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Old 01-09-2015, 01:13 PM   #16
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You need to find out if the 1500lb rating on the receiver is with WD or w/o WD. Most receivers are rated for non WD and with WD. Also regardless of whether or not it is you need to have a WD hitch. When you drop the TT tongue on the rear of the truck the front will rise up. A WD is needed to restore the front of the truck to close to it's original height. If you don't restore thr front back to it's original hgt then the front end will be loose when driving.
Before you hitch up measure the front of the trucks fender well from the ground. Set the TT tongue on the receiver and don't hook up the spring bars. Now measure the front fender hgt. You need to bring it back to the original hgt by hooking up the spring bars on the WD. Read your owners manual. There's instructions in there as well. If nothing else go here http://www.etrailer.com/tv-review-bl...n-bxw1000.aspx and watch the video to understand how to install a WD hitch.
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Old 01-09-2015, 01:45 PM   #17
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This is the bumper sticker on my F-250. There's actually 4 different weights, two with a 2" adapter, and two with the 2.5in w/o adapter. You can see the difference with using a WDH vs without.Click image for larger version

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Old 01-09-2015, 03:19 PM   #18
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Most trailers on a 3/4 ton frame don't NEED a WDH, and I doubt ANY trailer NEEDS a WDH on a 1 ton frame.

However, the biggest difference I find using a WDH with my setup is the WDH absorbs the bounce of the tongue on the back of the truck, making for a more comfortable ride, especially when traveling across roads with frost heaves.
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Old 01-09-2015, 04:30 PM   #19
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Most trailers on a 3/4 ton frame don't NEED a WDH, and I doubt ANY trailer NEEDS a WDH on a 1 ton frame.

However, the biggest difference I find using a WDH with my setup is the WDH absorbs the bounce of the tongue on the back of the truck, making for a more comfortable ride, especially when traveling across roads with frost heaves.
Not true at all. Did you not see the sticker from the F250 receiver? Depending on the size of the TT you can easily have tongue weights that exceed the receivers weight rating. Not all 3/4 tons have V5 receivers. Whether you have a 1/2 ton, 3/4 or 1 ton it all boils down to the receivers rating. The truck frame has nothing to do with anything.
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Old 01-10-2015, 04:54 PM   #20
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Most trailers on a 3/4 ton frame don't NEED a WDH, and I doubt ANY trailer NEEDS a WDH on a 1 ton frame.
Sorry guys, I didn't mean to say "bumper sticker". Meant receiver sticker. My trailer @ 9200lbs with 1400 of them on the tongue better have a WDH, or my "behind" would be dragging down the road along with the total inability to steer.
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