Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Saw this on facebook of all places. It really illustrates why tongue weight is so important when we're hauling our boats...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM

Yep, my brother called me two weeks ago when he was pulling tractor with a bush hog to his hunt camp, and the heavy ass trailer scared him to death, he called me to ask what was wrong, I told him not enough tongue weight, move it up

Fright is looking in your rear view mirror and seeing that trailer going 45 degrees right and 45 degrees left--with a 6,000 pound skidsteer loader chained to it.

Been there. That tells you the outcome when there's not enough tongue weight.

That was a great demo! Thanks for posting it.

That issue is also compounded by the fact that most 1/2 ton trucks and smaller come from the factory with thin sidewall P rated tire which are bad at allowing the "death wobble" to get started. When my F150 needed new rubber I had load range D installed and it made a BIG difference in towing stability. Another thing to watch is MANY midsize SUV's have inflated towing number, some up to 7000#, but only have a small 300-400# tongue weight rating. By the 10%+ tongue weight rule of thumb those SUV's should only be towing 3000-4000# max.

It takes just a moment of time to think about how you distribute the load across axles and pivot points. The road you are on will make you think further about roll (wind on the plains) and how you should have greased the bearings before you left. Yep, those tires on the trailer are fine though they have been on it for 10 years (single axle).

What is the wheel base on my tow rig you say? Don't know. But come on my model of ###### has this size of engine and it will be fine with the 24' foot boat and two thousand pounds of gear, gas, and beer.

How far am I going? 400 miles and we are leaving on a holiday weekend on Friday. Traffic will be a bitch.

I had too much tug and sway, so I moved the winch post forward an inch. That made a huge difference.

Good video.

An interesting discussion was had on one of the wakeboard forums I frequent. Most of these 1/2 ton tow numbers (you know the ones, 9K, 10K, sometimes 11K) are based on "properly equipped" tow rigs. That means load distributing hitches.

Without a load distributing hitch, almost every truck is limited to 5000#. And that's by the manufacturers ratings.