Posted 2006-07-17 10:02 PM (#44878) Subject: One more tongue weight question
Regular
Posts: 57 Location: FL
I want to thank everyone for being so helpful with our previous posts regarding trailer weights, and so forth. Hopefully we'll be towing soon.
However we've got one final question so would appreciate any comments/advice.
We weighed our 2 horse 4 Star BP trailer, with front dressing room today with the horse loaded. With the horse in the front stall the tongue weight was 715 pounds. With the horse in the rear stall the weight was 410 pounds. The max our expedition can tow w/o a weight dist system is 600#.
So the here are the choices - which alternative would you recommend?
1- intall wdh system - travel with horse in front stall
2 no wdh system - travel with horse in rear stall (perhaps load tack and stuff in dressing room).
3 or purchase a trailer with a lighter tongue weight
Posted 2006-07-17 11:04 PM (#44884 - in reply to #44878) Subject: RE: One more tongue weight question
Expert
Posts: 2953 Location: North Carolina
Get a WDH. You won't always only have one horse in the trailer. Like computer hard drives, closets, garages, spare bedrooms, table tops, file cabinets, and horse trailers ... available space is always filled.
The WDH allows you to make adjustments to the balance of the two vehicle system for stability. With one horse or two...
Posted 2006-07-18 8:30 AM (#44899 - in reply to #44878) Subject: RE: One more tongue weight question
Elite Veteran
Posts: 720
Option 3 probably isn't viable. Except for a Brend...up (scared to spell it all out here!), you likely won't find that other trailers are much different.
Buy the WDH. A pain to hook up, a joy to drive with.
Posted 2006-10-08 10:20 AM (#49761 - in reply to #44878) Subject: RE: One more tongue weight question
Member
Posts: 5
Location: Springfield, OR
Go with the weight distributing system. I towed a 2 horse Morgan Built with a Chevy 1/2 ton extended cab short bed. The WDS took my towing capacity up to 7500 from 5000. Don't know about the tongue weight, but I towed it a couple of times with one horse without the WDS (too lazy to put it on), and dragged the bottom of the hitch going into a parking lot. I've heard you can actually pop the coupler off the ball if you drag it hard enough. After that I wasn't too lazy to install use it all the time, even with one horse.
Now, I moved up to a 3/4 ton truck, but I kept the WDS when I sold the small truck, in case I ever need it again. I think it cost about $400 total.
Posted 2006-10-09 10:12 AM (#49783 - in reply to #44878) Subject: RE: how to get there with a trailer????
Member
Posts: 22
Location: Webster, NH
If you put the horse in the rear of the trailer, your trailer will be too heavy in the rear, which will probably cause it to sway. Ideally, which is difficult to do with horses, you want the weight in your trailer to balance. It sounds like, without knowing the weight of your horse, that your trailer doesn't balance too well with one horse. In the rear, it is tail heavy and with your horse in the front, it is nose heavy. Neither combination is good for towing, although nose heavy is better.
One thing that you might want to do is load two horses into the trailer, and see how your axle and tongue weights are then. You might find that you get a lower tongue weight, and better weight distribution on your axles. If that is the case, one possibility that might help here is loading the horse in the front, and adding some weight on the tail of the trailer. Getting a trailer to ride right, without it being nose or tail heavy, can be a matter of experimentation. Ideally, you don't want the tow vehicle squating in the rear, and everything should be pretty close to level.
One more tongue weight question
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