Towing Part 2

DIRTCUTTER · Nov 23, 2008

Thanks for the help with the tires. I have another question some what related. My trailer is 16ft tandem axle rated for 7000lbs. here is my question, I have been towing my Ck30 BH/Bucket with the BH at the rear of the trailer, several folks around here tell me I should be backing it on the trailer. I have yet to have any problem towing, I am being told that most of the weigh because of the BH should be up front near tongue.

Bird · Nov 23, 2008

If you find out what the entire rig weighs, then you would like to have 10-15% of that as tongue weight, and load accordingly.

Gittyup · Nov 23, 2008

That would depend on how far forward you are such that the weight is mostly over the axles with some overhand in front of the axles. Do you notice your truck lowering when you put the tractor on? If so, and the trailer isn't fish tailing on you or porpoising, then I wouldn't worry about it. Of course, you could load it backward and see if you like it better that way.

Highbeam · Nov 23, 2008

I agree with Bird. The TLB is going to weigh the same every time so you may as well find an unused scale at a highway weigh station and do some experiments. At the end of your experiments you will find the exact location on the trailer, forwards or backwards, that results in the 10% tongue weight. This is a big deal since too much tongue weight is hard on your truck and makes a bumpy drive and too little will lead to fishtailing and a flipped trailer.

Once I weighed my setup and shifted the tractor back a bit I found that the whole rig handles better. Instead of porpoising down the road, the trailer suspension actually absorbed the bumps. I have a mark on the trailer deck for the front edge of the loader bucket.

fcamillieri · Nov 24, 2008

When I raced cars my tandem axle trailer would fishtail really bad at anything over 30mph. An old trailer builder told me to put larger tires on the rear axle and it solved the problem. After that I towed it at 70mph with a 55 Dodge panel truck and no trailer brakes. Funny the stuff we got away with when we were young and foolish.

Frank