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Old 04-09-2019, 11:15 AM   #15
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Great post VernDiesel. I just did a 3 pass weigh on my trailer to make sure everything was set up right. Eyeballs or charts or stats fall far short of ground truth from a scale. My 3 pass weigh taught me that my tongue weight is 13% and my steer axle is within 20lbs of when the truck is unloaded so my WDH is set up just right. Without the WDH bars hooked up the balance on my axles is waaay off. It's remarkable how much of a difference the WDH balances things out.
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Old 04-09-2019, 04:47 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoobyDoo View Post
Hello? I must be hard of understanding. Most pickup beds, the rear axle is near center of the bed. The hitch ball is mounted about the same distance behind the tailgate, no matter how long the bed. So the longer the bed, the more distance axle/hitch. The wheelbase should always be longer than axle/ball, so if you add the same distance to both, the axle/ball will be a smaller percentage of wheelbase. (Given same cab size, same front axle to back of cab) All TW goes on the truck at the ball, so the rule of teeter-totter means that the amount of weight pulled of front axle will be less with the short overhang (axle/ball).
From what I see the WDH would need to be tighter to transfer weight back to steer of the long bed truck.
On my own 3500HD for example, rear axles is roughly 2/3 of the way towards the back of the truck bed. Many 1500 series trucks are more or less station wagons with a bed, they cannot support much of a load.

If you look at wheel lift type towtrucks (most are 5500 series), the rear axle is close to the rear bumper. Much less leverage for the load that way but you seem like a smart fella, you probably know how this all comes into play.

The only infallible measuring would be scales. I haven't tried them but portable scales would be awesome and fast to measure axle weights and trailer weight independantly without a bunch of hooking/unhooking and manoeuvring.
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Old 04-10-2019, 06:37 AM   #17
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I have a similar truck 2019 ram 4x4 ccsb 5.7 with 3.92 and 33 gal. tank. the truck with me and 1/2 tank of gas weighs 5960# per cat scale so if you deduct that from the 7100# capacity of the truck per the mfr. I only have 1140# left for wife and cargo including trailer tongue wt. my freedom express 246RKS weighs around 6000# when ready for the road and this truck pulls it fine on flat or moderately hilly roads. I set the cruise for 70 and I get 10-11mpg unless there is a headwind or more than moderate terrain along the route. I know folks say they pull more with no problem but I personally would not want to go very much bigger on trailer before upsizing tow vehicle.
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Old 04-10-2019, 08:35 AM   #18
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Thanks BobChill yep the triple scales see what the eyeball & measurement cannot.

So if safety & stability is your top concern scale it and adjust accordingly. With a 7k wet you could probably get away with just setting your WDH via measurements but for less than $20 and an hour one time to get it set up for maximum stability you might consider scaling it. Beats erroneously thinking your family's safety & tow rig stability is somehow found in stacking up weight estimates towards a payload sticker number only because someone parroted that to you. Back to TW or GVW/payload as you should have gathered from the post TW isn't fixed. Theoretically a WDH can distribute TW 1/3 to the steer axle 1/3 to the drive axle and 1/3 back to the TT. Within reason you adjust your WDH and loading to set the TW to what you want. At 12% TW of 7k you would see in your scale slips a TW of 840 pounds. This should leave some room for passengers etc before exceeding GVWR and again if you crossed it by a few percent you wouldn't feel it. Keep the main thing the main thing. The exception being if you need to fill the cab with people and put firewood and a golf card or 4 wheeler in the bed at which point you should find the HD better suited for that job.

runamuck didn't state his steer or TW but makes a good point that his personal comfort level is only to 12k CVW but at 70 mph. You should stay within your personal comfort level. My personal comfort & confidence is easily 14k CVW but I also only generally tow that to 65 mph.
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Old 04-10-2019, 12:37 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by VernDiesel View Post
Thanks BobChill yep the triple scales see what the eyeball & measurement cannot.
Yes, exactly. You need to know these #s at least once imho. Not only for payload but for me the most important thing was balance/tongue weight. Now that I have a baseline there is no guessing where to load food/clothes etc when going on a trip. With my tongue weight known at 13% I can load right over and slightly in front of the axles and feel confident that the trailer is loaded properly. You don't want to learn that your tongue weight is too light because your trailer is trying to change lanes when you aren't. lol
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