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Member
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Location: Selah, WA | Help. I have a 2001 featherlite 9407 2 horse straightload with dressing room and am towing with a 2007 chevrolet silverado 2500 HD. I recently purchased a new 7" drop slug to fit in the 2.5" receiver.
The trailer and truck look level down the line. There is a fulton heavy duty coupler on the trailer with a side latch, that appears to lock down and hold tight when pushing up and down on the tongue. I loaded two horses up tonight for a test drive and on any bump in the road it feels like the trailer is bouncing up and down on the ball. I checked the ball to reconfirm that I had a 2 5/16th ball, and that it was latched correctly. The trailer feels like it is slamming up and
down on the ball and I just can't figure out what is going on. My husband can pick up the tongue
with a lot of effort, so I am wondering if there could be too little tongue weight. I don't have much in the tack room, just two western saddles and some misc. tack. Anyone have any ideas on what could be going on? Could the coupler be going bad. I have only towed this trailer empty before with our old truck and didn't notice this occurrence.
Thanks!
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Expert
Posts: 1416
 
Location: sc | Take the ballmount off the truck, latch it in the coupler and see if there is any play. Any play while in the receiver on the truck? Exactly how big a guy is your husband? |
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Veteran
Posts: 296
Location: Tennessee | Maybe there's too much drop on the hitch and the trailer is pivoting on the front axle. |
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Location: Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain... | Sounds like it is a little light on the tongue. With the normal tolerances on a receiver, the larger the drop, the more movement you will have at the ball. If your coupler is raising up due to losing tongue weight, when it regains tongue weight and comes back down it will seem like it is slamming down. And if the trailer is a little low in the front it will make it seem even worse.  I don't think I am explaining that very well, but I have a flat bed trailer that I have to haul on a 9" drop and it always feels funny compared to everything else. |
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Expert
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Location: western PA | Unless your husband is capable of picking up more than four or five hundred pounds, I would think that the amount of tongue weight is too little. You should have aprox 15% of the trailer's weight on the ball of a BP trailer. I don't think you have that much. I would also check to see if the top of the ball is too low to the ground. Most trailers tow the best when the tongue is level or slightly above level. (higher in the front) Gard |
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Member
Posts: 40
Location: Selah, WA | Thanks for all your responses. I unhooked the slug with the ball and reattached to the coupler, and there is very little play. The tongue of the trailer when attached to the truck is level, but may be just a touch on the low side if I was being critical. I was thinking about adding a water tank, because I need one anyway and placing it up in the front of the tackroom. I think that would add about 25O lbs with a 35 gallon water tank
I wonder if this would be enough to increase the tongue weight? I am getting really frustrated, as we first purchased an expensive adjustable hitch. That hitch had so much play it literally snaked going down the road from side to side and the ball bounced up and down. I then went and measured per the local trailer supply to see what size drop I needed, and decided to go with the 2.5" as the sleeve to adjust to a 2" receiver just didn't seem like a snug enough fit. Now, I am wondering if I am going to have to buy yet another drop hitch..sigh. I thought about increasing the height of the adjustable hitch, just to see if it helped, but I don't know if that would be a fair test.
Anyone know a simple way to measure the current tongue weight of the trailer? I was thinking that maybe when the trailer was made, they assumed that I would have a fully loaded
down tack room? Thanks. |
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Veteran
Posts: 296
Location: Tennessee | Originally written by slidingirl on 2008-03-18 11:03 PM
Anyone know a simple way to measure the current tongue weight of the trailer? I was thinking that maybe when the trailer was made, they assumed that I would have a fully loaded
down tack room? Thanks.
Get a car jack stand and take your trailer to a CAT scales. Park the trailer so the trailer axles are on one pad and the hitch is over another pad. Unhook the trailer and set the tongue on the jack stand at about the same height as your hitch, then weigh.You'll get a printout that shows the weight on each pad. (If there are enough pads, park your truck on one and weigh it while your at it.)
If you don't want to unhitch at the scales, you can weigh your truck on one pad and the trailer axles on another, then go back later with just the truck and weigh again. Subtract the unhitched weight from the hitched weight and that will be approximately what your tongue weight is. |
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Expert
Posts: 1416
Location: sc | Originally written by slidingirl on 2008-03-18 11:03 PM
Anyone know a simple way to measure the current tongue weight of the trailer? I was thinking that maybe when the trailer was made, they assumed that I would have a fully loaded
down tack room? Thanks.
Bathroom scale method, http://www.etrailer.com/faq_trailertowtips.aspx
I use a Sherline scale, http://www.sherline.com/lm.htm
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Veteran
Posts: 296
Location: Tennessee |
Fun...a new toy I didn't know about. LOL. |
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Expert
Posts: 1416
Location: sc | Originally written by Towfoo on 2008-03-19 7:43 AM
Fun...a new toy I didn't know about. LOL.
I believe it cost about $100. CAT scale tickets are $8 each, plus fuel to and from, and your time........the Sherline will eventually pay for itself. Not to mention a CAT scale is intended for 80,000 lbs big rigs, trying to get accurate tongue weights can be a "challenge".
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Member
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Location: Selah, WA | I am going to go try to get a tongue weight today. I am attaching a picture of the trailer hooked up. Does it look too low? When I load the horses the tongue actually comes up a bit.
Edited by slidingirl 2008-03-20 3:01 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 296
Location: Tennessee | Picture is too small for me to see anything, but if the tongue is raising up when you load it I'm guessing it's too low. If you can, weigh the tongue twice: once at the exact same height it's at when connected to your hitch and once a few inches higher. |
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Expert
Posts: 5870
Location: western PA | If the tongue is raising under load, too much weight is going behind the trailer axles, similar to the Lakota BP issue previously posted. I think the hitch is too low and more weight has to be added to the front of the trailer when loaded. Gard |
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towing coupler question
