Trailer tips-driving, loading, and unloading

Lots of good information in this thread. I'll throw my hat in the ring by recommending the tongue scale that the op mentioned. I use a Sherline scale and shoot for 12% on the tongue for my landscape trailer and RV. I marked my standard loads (tractor, zero turn, zero turn with walk behind) on the deck boards.

NEPA Guy said:

Should I use cinderblocks under the back of the trailer loading/unloading, being that its a dovetail? Do they make something specific, or better, I could bolt on down the line?

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It looks like your ramps have the stands built in that will prevent loading and unloading from lifting the rear of the truck. No need to further support the rear of the trailer. You will have to pay attention to existing grades where you load and unload though. When you pull up on the trailer the added weight will squat the trailer a little and if the ground is unlevel you may find the stands on your ramps stay in contact with the ground preventing you from being able to lift them. Just pull the truck/trailer forward and they will flip up and take the weight off.

NEPA Guy said:

I was debating getting a mini tongue weight scale? Necessary? or when I spoke with dealer he said just move it till the back wheels dip down a bit (vague)
Not sure how to figure 10% Tongue Weight by eye..

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The problem with them is they are a cute gadget that gets used once or twice and then sit on a shelf collecting dust. You can accomplish the same thing with a short section of 4x4 and a bathroom scale. In order to most accurately figure 10% would require you to load your tractor and then go weigh the tractor and trailer. Using published weights is good enough but some of us have severe OCD. I bought one of those weigh safe inserts and now its simply a glorified utility insert.

I'm sure Ive missed what your tow rig is... But IN GENERAL, for a 3/4 ton truck about 1" squat when loaded is sufficient. I prefer to have my trailer carry the load rather than the truck so I do ride that line pretty well. If you watch the trailer coupler and the ball on your truck, as you load the tractor you can see exactly when the weight starts to go onto the truck. Find that exact spot on the trailer when this happens and remember, from that point forward on the trailer weight is going onto the truck.

Dont overthink it... Its not rocket science. Eventually, as you do it more often it will become second nature.

Now Im going to go on a rant that will somewhat tie into sufficient tongue weight. Ive built 6 trailers specifically to position the axles because I don't like that manufactures place them in a position that puts far to much weight on the hitch. If I have to posit a guess, Id day your new trailer has 4-500 pounds on the ball, empty. A general rule of thumb for axle placement on a trailer is 1" back from center for every foot of length. Manufactures are using a higher ratio to prevent consumers from under loading the tongue. SO keep that in mind when you are loading your trailer in context of your trucks ratings. You already have a fair bit of weight on the ball.

NEPA Guy. After your trailer is hooked to the truck. Find a good spot you can measure from the back of the truck to the ground. Take a measurement. Then load the tractor on and measure again. You should look for around an inch or two of drop on the back end of your truck. That should get you in the ball park for the correct tongue weight. Course the only way to tell for sure is a test drive to see how it handles.

Once you find the sweet spot, either mark the deck or reference where the tires are to the side rails, or fenders in the case of your trailer.

On my 16ft dove tail, the sweet spot for loading my tractor is to back it on. And park the front tires right on the edge of the slant where the tail starts to drop. Course I don't have a fel, or I would have to change how I load it. Especially with implements.

You'll have some trial and error till you figure out what's best for your set up and attachments. And trust me, we can all give you advise, but every one of us has a different truck, trailer, set up, and implements. And how we load, and position on the trailer changes based on attachments attached to the tractor, or whether we have to haul multiple attachments

NEPA Guy said:

I'm pulling with a tundra.

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Then about 2" of squat compared to unhitched/unloaded.

NEPA Guy said:

Oh yeah. Would you look at that, it looks like I have some sort of built in stand on the spring ladder. As you see in the second photo with the ramp down. there is a bit of space. Should I put some wood under that too, or will it be better to have some wiggle room? (ill probably put a sheet of ply wood anyway just to protect my driveway)

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I wouldn't add anything. You want some wiggle room and even if those supports touch the ground when loading, its very unlikely it will pick the back end of your truck up.

NEPA Guy said:

But seriously, I just looked online for regular scales that go up to 900 lbs and they're all expensive, I think I would want to measure up to at least 800 lbs total tongue weight. I think I may go with the shermin. I'd rather be safe than sorry and I do get OCD with my stuff.

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Im not going to argue with you. Lord knows my OCD has been the cause of severe expenditures!

NEPA Guy said:

Interesting how you think I'm 4-500 lbs empty TW being that the trailer is 3K lbs and toyota recommends 10% TW load. I'm going to measure that when I get the scale and report back.

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I say that because of how far back the axles are placed. My 14' dump trailer puts 500# on the ball, empty.

NEPA Guy said:

I'll keep in mind the "1" back from center for every foot of length" rule and follow up as time allows.

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Thats only for building a trailer and placing the axles. It has no bearing on loading a trailer.

Oh... you wont want to let this one slide...

In your picture showing the distance between the support and the ground... You've got the ramp bar resting on the ground. Flip that over and rest it on the trailer. You don't want to load the trailer with it resting on the ground. It wont end well. They are easy the straighten out since you have a rub rail...

Nice trailer, too.

When I first got my fifth wheel, I called up a local landscape materials/gravel/dirt seller who had state certified scales and asked when their slow time was. I explained that I wanted to weigh the truck & the trailer in various ways- truck alone, trailer alone, truck & trailer, pin weight, loaded & unloaded, etc.. They were very accommodating, as long as I made an effort to get out of the way when a "real" customer needed the scales. I must have spent an hour there on two separate days, and they only charged me $10 each day. The stack of printouts I got was quite informative. And they confirmed I was well within specs under all circumstances.

Lil Foot said:

When I first got my fifth wheel, I called up a local landscape materials/gravel/dirt seller who had state certified scales and asked when their slow time was. I explained that I wanted to weigh the truck & the trailer in various ways- truck alone, trailer alone, truck & trailer, pin weight, loaded & unloaded, etc.. They were very accommodating, as long as I made an effort to get out of the way when a "real" customer needed the scales. I must have spent an hour there on two separate days, and they only charged me $10 each day. The stack of printouts I got was quite informative. And they confirmed I was well within specs under all circumstances.

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Now this is an excellent idea if a person has something handy.

No one so far has mentioned the risk of having the load too far back, with its center of gravity behind the axle(S). I had the misfortune to be hauling a load of lumber on a utility trailer. The load was too long for it by a long shot and its center of gravity was behind the axle . No trouble going 25 mph. However, about 30 and up the trailer started to sway back and forth. However, like a fool, I figured putting more pull on it might straighten it out. Got real bad so I jammed on the brakes. Got it stopped with the trailer swinging around 90 degrees from the car. Bent a real strong tongue, but otherwise not an accident. Moral, center of gravity of load must be forward of the axle. You can tell this when driving a tractor on it, as to when the hitch starts to drop down in elevation. Drive back and forth a little and you can see the balance point. Then do some forward moving to the stop place. I have never had a trailer problem having the center of gravity at least at the balance point, but safer is forward of that point for sure. When a lot of other stuff has to be on the trailer also, it may be difficult to load properly, but looking at the hitch elevation is a clue as to having a proper placement of loads. If you do get a sway, that's bad news.

NEPA Guy, besides gravel pits, you can find scales at the local dump, or transfer station, as well as scrap yards.

When ever we get a new truck at work, we have to get a weigh slip to keep with the registration. We used to go to the local land fill to get them, till they opened up a new scrap yard that was easy to get in and out of Both places charged $5 to use the scales.

Hat tip to the OP for asking others for advice, that is what makes a man, not a fool who thinks they know it all.

A couple of things to add, you can "half" the bathroom scale by using a fulcrum setup. Put a 4x4 say, 4 or 5 ft long. One end rests on another 4x4 (that's your fulcrum and the other end on the scale. The trailer tongue sits right in the middle. This way for every pound you read on the scale, the tongue is pushing down double. Example, 125 lbs on the scale means 250 at the tongue.

Second thing, drive defensively. As a former engineer driving fire trucks, we're conditioned to constantly identifying and preparing what's the worst that can happen. An example is to check for red light busters whenever I cross intersections even if I have the green. EVOC (Emergency Vehicle Operations Course) training has been invaluable!




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Daren Todd said:

NEPA Guy. After your trailer is hooked to the truck. Find a good spot you can measure from the back of the truck to the ground. Take a measurement. Then load the tractor on and measure again. You should look for around an inch or two of drop on the back end of your truck. That should get you in the ball park for the correct tongue weight. Course the only way to tell for sure is a test drive to see how it handles.

Once you find the sweet spot, either mark the deck or reference where the tires are to the side rails, or fenders in the case of your trailer.

On my 16ft dove tail, the sweet spot for loading my tractor is to back it on. And park the front tires right on the edge of the slant where the tail starts to drop. Course I don't have a fel, or I would have to change how I load it. Especially with implements.

You'll have some trial and error till you figure out what's best for your set up and attachments. And trust me, we can all give you advise, but every one of us has a different truck, trailer, set up, and implements. And how we load, and position on the trailer changes based on attachments attached to the tractor, or whether we have to haul multiple attachments

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I find this to be fantastic advice and worth repeating.

Many years ago, pre cell phone, I was following a friend towing a 20 foot travel trailer on I89 in New Hampshire. Every time he got to 65 miles per hour his trailer would start to fishtail. I was able to pass him and get him to pull over. He was white knuckled but determined to make our Maine destination. He told me his trailer does this on some roads and at certain speeds, he said he spoke with the dealer and they told him there was nothing wrong with his hitch. We pulled into the next service station and started checking bolts, springs, hangers etc. what we found was his tire pressures on one side were 10-15 lbs. less than the other. He said he never checks them since he never saw what appeared to be a soft tire, figured they were all A-Okay. We balanced all the tire pressures and gave it another try, the fishtailing went away. Lesson, always check your tire pressures and make sure that all tires on the same axle are at the same pressure and car tires are not rated for trailer applications.

I have stopped a couple people whose trailers were fishtailing right to the ragged edge of control. Turns out both were loaded very tail heavy. Helped them shift the load forward of the axle, and no more problems. Neither was aware that there was any "rules" for loading a trailer- they always just throw their crap on & go.
They thought all trailers fishtailed.

Bill, that is amazing. We live in a time when any information is available at our fingertips. Even without phones, we have information in books at the library and magazines to subscribe to, and people are too lazy to try to learn (or even use the search in a computer).

We see people in third word countries starting a tractor by turning the PTO shaft, or other things we think as funny, or dangerous, or ridiculous. The things they do are often out of necessity, and they do not have the network of information we have.

But here we have no excuse, the problem is in the mirror!

I know load placement has been mentioned several times but keep in mind that depending on which implement you have you position will change.

The weight of a box scrape and a 5' rotary cutter may be close to the same but since the cutter is longer you have to pull up on the trailer more to get your tongue weight.

I always watch my hitch as I'm loading. When you first come up on the deck it will be raised up. As you ease forward it will drop and begin to put weight on the truck. After a few times of loading and hauling you'll get the feel of how much weight to put.