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Iron Butt
Posts: 935
Rockford, IL | I've been looking for a website that covers some of the details on properly loading/balancing a trailer, how to measure tongue wieght and such. Getting ready to do a road trip and its the first time pulling a trailer. I'm not worried, I already know it will be "easy" and I will "never even know the trailer is back there" and such. Just want to some dotting & crossing while I have the time to do so. So does anyone know of a site that will answer some of the technicalities of trailer towing? |
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Tourer
Posts: 309
Vineland, NJ United States | Don't know of a good site for you, but I've been towing a one-wheel unigo trailer since 2009 with my vision (while riding double) and you will know it's back there on sharp turns, slow speed turns, parking lots, stopping and climbing steep hills. Leave yourself extra stopping room. Make sure trailer tires properly inflated. make sure you have as little amount of play as possible in your hitch connection. Put the heavy items in the trailer not in your trunk, weight in trunk makes bike top heavy and doesn't handle as well. Make sure Vision's rear tire is at least 41 lbs and keep a lot of air in the rear shock, I run mine between 60 and 65lbs. Drive conservatively and watch the "dirty" air if your behind a big truck, the dirty air will move you around a little more than without the trailer. Good Luck |
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Tourer
Posts: 416
Prairie City, IA United States | Here is a forum specific to trailer towing. Hopefully t gives you answers or at least a place to ask the questions.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/MCTrailertowing |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
Lum, MI United States | I have been towing a trailer for many years now and to get the tongue weight and trailer weight here is what I do. Get three bathroom scales. (Worth the investment if you are going to be towin alot) pull the loaded trailer onto the two scales that you have placed in front of the main wheels, place the third scale under the ball mount area of the tongue and support it with a jack stand to the scale. the tongue should be supported at the same level as the hitch hight on your bike. record the weights from each scale and add them together. This will give you your total trailer weight. Remove trailer from the main wheel scales and place the the tongue back on its scale with the jack stand. The reading from the tongue scale is your tongue weight.
Now for the balence/tongue weight. Tongue weight should be around 10-15% of total trailer weight. it can be a little more if you desire and the trailer handles well for you after a test ride.
You will need to do a couple test packs on the trailer and sift items in the trailer back behind or forward of the axle to change the tongue weight. Once you have a tongue weight your looking for remember how you packed so you can repeat each time. Take the trailer out for a test drive and see how it tracks. If you have any fishtailing as you slowly gain speed then you may need to increase your tongue weight.
My small trailer is around 320 lbs loaded and my larger camper trailer is pushing 500 lbs loaded. The small trailer I run 35-45lbs tongue weight and the larger trailer I like arounf 55-65 lbs tongue weight. and they both track staight and handle good all the way past highway speeds.
After you prepack a few times and get a feel for how much tongue weight you like it will become second nature. I can tell just from the first few miles if I need to adjust the load and get more tongue weight now that I have towed for some time.
Hope this helps you out
Senior |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
Lum, MI United States |
Power blinked her sorry for the extra post
Senior
Edited by senior 2014-06-03 9:49 AM
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 13
Lum, MI United States | Power blinked her sorry for the extra post
Edited by senior 2014-06-03 9:48 AM
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Trailer towing tips & tricks site?