Using A Tongue Weight Scale To Haul Safely

Question:

My max tongue weight for my gmc sierra 1500 woth tow package is 940 lbs. I have a 1,000 lb equalizer system hooked up and the tongue weight of the trailer is 1040 lbs. As long as I do not exceed my maximum payload which is 1700 lbs. And my payload not including tongue weight is around 600 lbs. Shouldnt I be ok?

asked by: Doug E

Expert Reply:

You always need to be hauling under the tongue weight limit of your components. As long as the downward force on the hitch doesn't exceed 940lbs you will be okay to haul but you need to check your tongue weight of your trailer. Since you already checked your tongue weight and it's over the 940lb limit you will need to either shift the load around, remove some items off the trailer or use another trailer. Keep in mind you should have about 60% of your load evenly centered over the front half of your trailer. If you're hauling 1,000lbs on your trailer, 600lbs of the load should be placed on the front half of your trailer.

I encourage you to measure your tongue weight each time a new load is put on your trailer and or if you shift the load around. You'd be surprised how much of a difference moving your trailer load around will do for your tongue weight and ride quality. Also, having an idea of how much the trailer and cargo weigh is good. For example, the proper tongue weight of a 2000lb trailer with 1000lbs of cargo should be between 300 and 450lbs, which is 10-15% of the overall weight of your trailer and it's contents. That's the sweet spot were looking for and of course we need the trailer to be level when hauling.

Here at the shop we use our Tongue Weight Scale # e99044 to set up our rigs. I like using this scale because you can measure the tongue weight at the coupler when the trailer isn't hooked up but also can measure the tongue weight when the trailer is hooked up just by taking the scale and hook it up to your trailer jack tube. Pretty convenient in my experience.

I've included my review video of me using our scale if you wanted to get a closer look!

expert reply by: Adam E