How to properly load a bumper pull deck over trailer?

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I have been looking at deck over trailers pretty heavily last few weeks (window shopping).

The trailer I would be interested in would be a bumper pull. All the deck overs have the axles so far back that it seems loading them without having a crazy amount of tongue weight, most loads would have to go on backwards?

I have had a 20ft deck over in the past, it’s axles weren’t as far back and I still backed quite a bit of the loads on backwards. Doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue with equipment trailers since axles are placed further forward.

Here’s an example, my Mahindra 5555 (80in wide, 15ft long with loader) is 7999lbs right now. The bush hog is 1025lbs but it’s 10ft long and 7ft wide. On a 25ft trailer I would have to back the tractor and bush hog on the trailer to get most of the load on the axles and not on the tongue? Not picturing a good way to balance the load with bumper pull. How much tongue weight do these trailers put on the truck?




I have read a few threads on here about this issue but non have answered my questions.

 

[fatjay]

The general rule is 10% of the total weight. If you have an empty trailer that weighs 1000lbs, your tongue weight should be 100lbs. If you have a loaded trailer that's 8000lbs, your tongue weight should be 800lbs. My max tongue weight is 1200lbs on my truck, which gives me a 12,000lb towing capacity.

Edit: That pickup is loaded wrong. Engine should be facing forward, it's where all the weight is. The bed weighs nothing, so it would be rear bias.

This happened in my town last fall.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

The general rule is 10% of the total weight. If you have an empty trailer that weighs 1000lbs, your tongue weight should be 100lbs. If you have a loaded trailer that's 8000lbs, your tongue weight should be 800lbs. My max tongue weight is 1200lbs on my truck, which gives me a 12,000lb towing capacity.

Edit: That pickup is loaded wrong. Engine should be facing forward, it's where all the weight is. The bed weighs nothing, so it would be rear bias.

This happened in my town last fall.

I get the ratio of what should be on the tongue but with axles so far back I feel engine forward with tractor and bush hog or truck would put all the weight on the tongue of the trailer and exceed the limit.

 

[fatjay]

Center the load over the axels with forward bias. 10% is a minimum, you can load as much as your truck can take in the front though. Could be a 1500lb load and 1000lb tongue load, and it'll pull strait, but that's unnecessary load on your truck. Well balanced is 10% but you can certainly go over and won't run into any issues. Balance best you can, but 10% would be your minimum.

 

[lman]

Get a gooseneck. You won't regret it.

 

[Rock Crawler]

First of all, putting the truck on forwards (correctly) doesn't put "all of the weight on the tongue". It's a weights and balance thing that any of you aircraft guys understand.

So let's look at that truck. On correctly, slightly forward of center, you have the rear axle behind the trailer axles and the front axle more so in front. If you want to get technical you can start measuring distances and calculate things, but realize that the trucks rear axle is a kid on a seesaw, the trailer axles are the pivot on the seesaw, and the truck front axle is the other kid on the seesaw.

We always want the fat kid on the front or tow vehicle side of the seesaw!

Now, just like that fat kid, if he weighs 150 lbs and the skinny kid weighs 120 lbs, the fat kid is only pushing down on his end with 30 additional pounds. Same with your truck or your tractor. And it's also a fine idea to measure front and rear wheel arches at the center point to the ground prior to loading. A good general rule would be to never load so heavy as to lift the front wheel arches over 3/4" - 1", this tells you that your getting heavy on the rear, taking weight off of the front axle and unless your using weight distribution (and you should) you have to careful about unloading that main steering and breaking axle.

But if you stood a 10,000 lb statue centered between the front trailer axle and the front of the trailer deck, your trailer will take on the strong majority of that load and transfer 30% at best to the truck. Of course I'm estimating since every trailer is built a bit different, but the axles are typically/generally around a 60/40 location, or centered 60% back from the front. Some are more, some less. But the coupler is feet yet ahead of that, so that further reduces that deck load seen by the truck.

Believe it or not, trailers are built with some thought to them. Your safe to load them properly as long as your not loading some really odd configuration that is extremely weight biased to one end. Your tractor and truck are not.

For the tractor, I've seen it repeated that you can consider the steering wheel to be the approximate center of weight, so make sure that the steering wheel is forward of the trailer axles a bit and you'll be fine.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

First of all, putting the truck on forwards (correctly) doesn't put "all of the weight on the tongue". It's a weights and balance thing that any of you aircraft guys understand.

So let's look at that truck. On correctly, slightly forward of center, you have the rear axle behind the trailer axles and the front axle more so in front. If you want to get technical you can start measuring distances and calculate things, but realize that the trucks rear axle is a kid on a seesaw, the trailer axles are the pivot on the seesaw, and the truck front axle is the other kid on the seesaw.

We always want the fat kid on the front or tow vehicle side of the seesaw!

Now, just like that fat kid, if he weighs 150 lbs and the skinny kid weighs 120 lbs, the fat kid is only pushing down on his end with 30 additional pounds. Same with your truck or your tractor. And it's also a fine idea to measure front and rear wheel arches at the center point to the ground prior to loading. A good general rule would be to never load so heavy as to lift the front wheel arches over 3/4" - 1", this tells you that your getting heavy on the rear, taking weight off of the front axle and unless your using weight distribution (and you should) you have to careful about unloading that main steering and breaking axle.

But if you stood a 10,000 lb statue centered between the front trailer axle and the front of the trailer deck, your trailer will take on the strong majority of that load and transfer 30% at best to the truck. Of course I'm estimating since every trailer is built a bit different, but the axles are typically/generally around a 60/40 location, or centered 60% back from the front. Some are more, some less. But the coupler is feet yet ahead of that, so that further reduces that deck load seen by the truck.

Believe it or not, trailers are built with some thought to them. Your safe to load them properly as long as your not loading some really odd configuration that is extremely weight biased to one end. Your tractor and truck are not.

For the tractor, I've seen it repeated that you can consider the steering wheel to be the approximate center of weight, so make sure that the steering wheel is forward of the trailer axles a bit and you'll be fine.

So having the 8000lb tractor all the way forward on the trailer, front wheels prob 4ft behind the front bar and 10ft bush hog behind it is ok and won’t be too much weight on the truck? That would put the rear wheels of the tractor around the top of the front trailer axle.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Might not be cool on a half ton, but I wouldn't flinch over that with a 2500/3500. You've got the tractor rears over the axle, the tractor front in front of it, and yet still feet back from the edge of the deck, and you've the mower that's likely 1000+ lbs behind the axles. Send it!

 

[fried1765]

The general rule is 10% of the total weight. If you have an empty trailer that weighs 1000lbs, your tongue weight should be 100lbs. If you have a loaded trailer that's 8000lbs, your tongue weight should be 800lbs. My max tongue weight is 1200lbs on my truck, which gives me a 12,000lb towing capacity.

Edit: That pickup is loaded wrong. Engine should be facing forward, it's where all the weight is. The bed weighs nothing, so it would be rear bias.

This happened in my town last fall.

I disagree!
The red GMC has the rear wheels at the very forward edge of the trailer.
The white Ford has the rear wheels at least 4' aft of the forward trailer edge.
Big difference.
The GMC ... LOOKS..... OK,...... but who really knows?
Only way to get the correct approximate 10% tongue weight, is to weigh the tongue.
Either truck on forward, would likely be excessive tongue weight.

 

[Peter 315]

I would of backed the white ford forward more and I bet speed was a factor in that rollover........