Adding tongue weight

[TxCowboy]

My 30 foot Sunset Trail TT is a little light on the tongue weight -- about 200 pounds or so, I'd guess. My RAM 2500 has the 12K WD hitch with sway controller and the trailer porpoises on me. Not much but enough to notice.

Short of adding bricks to the limited storage area we have in the front of this RV, how do you go about adding weight so that you can increase the tongue weight?

Note: Already have two batteries and both 30 lbs. propane bottles are full.

[hondavalk]

Just a thought but are you sure it's a tongue weight issue. Usually a lack of tongue weight can cause sway but not necessarily porpoising. I would suspect age and quality of your trucks shocks might be the cause.

[TxCowboy]

2016 truck and trailer. Truck has less than 4K miles and trailer has far less than that. Therefore, worn truck shocks are not an issue.

[ajlight]

Have you actually weighed it? That looks like a 30 foot trailer that would weigh in the 6000 pound range. 10 - 15 % of that would mean a 600 - 700 pound tongue weight.

[harley]

We have the same trailer and you have plenty of tongue weight ,mine runs about 1100 lbs. i have 1000 bars and get porpoising also. Newer 2500 and was same with avalanche.

[TxCowboy]

Originally Posted by ajlight

Have you actually weighed it? That looks like a 30 foot trailer that would weigh in the 6000 pound range. 10 - 15 % of that would mean a 600 - 700 pound tongue weight.

Trailer grosses about 10K so should be about 1K or so at the tongue. Closest scales is about an hour away so haven't gotten there yet.

Regardless of that, the original question is/was -- How do you add more weight to the tongue?

[TxCowboy]

Originally Posted by harley

We have the same trailer and you have plenty of tongue weight ,mine runs about 1100 lbs. i have 1000 bars and get porpoising also. Newer 2500 and was same with avalanche.

Yeah, your numbers are about what mine seems to be and what I would expect. The porpoising isn't unmanageable.

Was just chatting with another guy in the park here who has been towing TTs forever and he says he keeps this trailer just a bit nose low on the hitch. He also has a rear bathroom model with an outdoor kitchen (just like mine). He thinks that there's a little too much weight behind the rear axle with the outdoor fridge, large storage area in the bathroom, and a grey water tank back there.

I'll probably stop by the folks that installed my WH hitch this week and see if they think the ball should be dropped one notch.

[harley]

Our trailers weight about 5700# dry plus stuff of about 1500#(yes,1500) so about 7200# ish. I also have 2-3 bikes out back so maybe that adds to porpoising and try to put chairs and other things on bed in front.
If you want to add weight to front , get a bracket to put spare under tongue. some trailers do this.
Google 4'-2x4 and pipe and bathroom scale to weight tongue .You can weight right at home.

[Stan]

I had a 30' TT years ago with the same issue. The dealer welded steel plates (about 36" X 6" X1/4" THICK) to the inside of the front frame. I think he added about 6 plates to get me more tongue weight. That stopped my bouncing issues.

[harley]

Wow , now that is an old trick for a trailer that had a strong frame and suspension. would not be smart now with these "light weight frames"
Another thing I do is keep my can goods in the pantry while camping but put the box of cans next to the bed along with cooler of bevies there too.

[Jeffur]

Move your spare tire to up front

[Poppabear]

Just my 2 cents but I would think the easiest way to add tongue weight without actualy "adding" tongue weight would be to drop the ball down a couple inches and/or depending on your WDH setup dont put quite as much tension on the bars.

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Poppabear

Just my 2 cents but I would think the easiest way to add tongue weight without actualy "adding" tongue weight would be to drop the ball down a couple inches and/or depending on your WDH setup dont put quite as much tension on the bars.

That's my suggestion also, start with less tension on the bars & try it, then lower the ball if necessary.

[TxCowboy]

Originally Posted by travelin texans

That's my suggestion also, start with less tension on the bars & try it, then lower the ball if necessary.

When you guys are saying "less tension on the bars", what do you mean by that?

My link count is six. That's the link that I hook onto the trailer. You're suggesting that I use link #7, right? (I think there are a total of ten links on this setup.)

[travelin texans]

That's what I would try, drop 1 link & try it. Wasn't sure about the brand of hitch you had, some have chains some have other methods. If your trailer is level hooked up I would lower the ball as a last resort.

[dedmiston]

Can you weigh it with and without the WD bars?

Like others have said, adjusting the setup with your WD bars should fix it. It sounds like you're distributing too much of the weight off of the tongue onto the front end of your pickup.

Picture your weight bars acting like the handles on a wheel barrow. The higher you raise those handles, the further forward you shift the weight. If you remove some of that tension, you'll bring some of that weight back to the tongue and hitch.

Sometimes you really have to study the instructions that came with your hitch and your WD system (and sway control?). You need to adjust the bars, the height of your ball, and the angle of your ball to get your trailer level, your truck level, and the weight where it belongs.

[AbbaZabba]

Move weight forward. Lower hitch. Build a stand to carry bikes / gear etc on the front of the camper. But I would definitely never just add dead weight to the camper. To me, that is a sign of a poorly distributed TT.

[Burgy]

You can put water in the tank to add weight. You can also change your bars. My original bars were 600 - 900 lbs. I swapped to 1200lb bars and it stiffened up. Can you find out what yours are?

I still have my softer bars if you are close to TN.

[TxCowboy]

[QUOTE=dedmiston;120919]<snip>Picture your weight bars acting like the handles on a wheel barrow. The higher you raise those handles, the further forward you shift the weight. If you remove some of that tension, you'll bring some of that weight back to the tongue and hitch.

Thanks for this description. Makes visualization much clearer.

Sometimes you really have to study the instructions that came with your hitch and your WD system (and sway control?). You need to adjust the bars, the height of your ball, and the angle of your ball to get your trailer level, your truck level, and the weight where it belongs.

Had the WD gear professionally installed so I'm pretty sure the current setup is correct. It looks level to me at this point.[/QUOTE]

I did like the suggestion of adding a bit more water to the holding tank. IIRC, the fresh water tank is the forward most tank I have in this trailer. That might help a bit with adding more weight up front.

As for mounting the spare tire UNDER the tongue, how did you do that? My concern is that, if I actually have to use that spare tire, you are really going to have to strong-arm that tire to get if off the mount. I can see me lying on the ground trying to get that spare tire off the mount....

[hondavalk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsPze0XeHj8

This would allow you to get the weight off from the back of the trailer towards the front