Trailer Tongue Weight

[JeepSlowride]

So I am new to having a TT and this RV forum. I just bought my first camper and wanted to be all set for when the summer arrives to go camping. One of the first things that I discovered was about the importance of the tongue weight on your trailer.
When I started to research I came across a lot of information. It didn't take long to realize I didn't know a thing about loading a trailer for weight safety. I came across a Youtuber called Keep Your Daydream who seemed knowledgeable. After watching is video and downloading his excel spreadsheet. I began to understand it better. As I was looking at his spreadsheet and using it, I began to tweak it, and tweak it, and tweak it some more. By the time I was done, I had a full two page spreadsheet with a lot of information on it.
I think it could be helpful to other travelers, but I don't want to put something out there that is wrong or misleading to others on the road who would use it. I would like to have somebody or bodies look at it with more knowledge and give some feedback on it. That way I could make some changes if need be. I'm not sure if I just post it here and have everyone look at or send it to someone. I also used openoffice.org to edit it. Works the same as Microsoft excel.
Thanks in advance and this is a great site that I found.
Sorry about the long post.

[Unplanned Tourist]

Usually 15 % of your trailer gross weight should be your tongue weight. No need for a lot of calculating.

You can buy a tongue weight scale fairly cheaply. Good to have.

[TXiceman]

Originally Posted by Unplanned Tourist

Usually 15 % of your trailer gross weight should be your tongue weight. No need for a lot of calculating.

You can buy a tongue weight scale fairly cheaply. Good to have.

The tongue weight is not much use without the total trailer weight. So you need to make a trip to the scales and get weight of the tow vehicle and then vehicle and trailer.

I have found most travel trailers will run 10 to 12% of the loaded trailer weight. A few may run as high as 15%.

Ken

[Ldubs]

Does the spreadsheet help with loading in front of and behind the axle in order to achieve the target tongue weight? if no, what does the spreadsheet do for you?

Your post made me think we have a lot of "stuff" in the travel trailer that is probably never going to be used. I need to dump the unneeded weight.

[JeepSlowride]

The spreadsheet will tell you if your vehicle is over weight, if your trailer is over weight, if the combined vehicle and trailer is over weight, if your trailer tongue weight is over weight, what the percentage your trailer tongue is with the weights you have entered, what weight your tongue weight should be for your the weight of your trailer, and a small chart showing you how changing the weight of the trailer effects the percentage of your tongue weight. I figured having a chart that you can print out ahead of time with a portable scale, you could know the exact weight needed when loading the trailer.
I didn’t include this info in the first post because it was getting long as it was.

[Tha_Rooster]

Originally Posted by JeepSlowride

So I am new to having a TT and this RV forum. I just bought my first camper and wanted to be all set for when the summer arrives to go camping. One of the first things that I discovered was about the importance of the tongue weight on your trailer.
When I started to research I came across a lot of information. It didn't take long to realize I didn't know a thing about loading a trailer for weight safety. I came across a Youtuber called Keep Your Daydream who seemed knowledgeable. After watching is video and downloading his excel spreadsheet. I began to understand it better. As I was looking at his spreadsheet and using it, I began to tweak it, and tweak it, and tweak it some more. By the time I was done, I had a full two page spreadsheet with a lot of information on it.
I think it could be helpful to other travelers, but I don't want to put something out there that is wrong or misleading to others on the road who would use it. I would like to have somebody or bodies look at it with more knowledge and give some feedback on it. That way I could make some changes if need be. I'm not sure if I just post it here and have everyone look at or send it to someone. I also used openoffice.org to edit it. Works the same as Microsoft excel.
Thanks in advance and this is a great site that I found.
Sorry about the long post.

You could post what are you using for a tow vehicle and what TT you have. So many dealers sell TT& 5th wheels and tell owners, sure no problem you can pull that fine.

[JeepSlowride]

I have a Jeep Gladiator towing a Freesolo Din. I have used my spreadsheet and believe that i know what the max of both vehicles are. I will post the spreadsheet so you can see what I mean. Before I went down the rabbit hole I wasn't aware of how much cargo I was limited to when using my truck with the camper. So here is the spreadsheet. Please let me know is I am in the ballpark with how I have it set up.

[JeepSlowride]

I guess I can't upload the spreadsheet. I just checked the file extensions and it won't except the extension.

[JeepSlowride]

So I filled in the spreadsheet with the information from my tow vehicle and trailer. As far as the actual weights they are wrong. I just got my trailer and haven't been to the scales yet to weight it fully loaded. The scale numbers are for demonstration purposes. The factory numbers were from the tow vehicle and trailer it self. I saved it as a PDF to show how it looks. I purposely over loaded the weight for the tow vehicle to show how it flags the over weight.

[jleonard]

Just remember that the hitch weight is part of your payload along with the torsion bars if you have that king of hitch.
Also the advertised tongue weight might be lighter than actual. Both of mine were. (by about 60 lbs.)
And loaded the tongue weight was about 50% higher, even lightly loaded.

[Marine359]

Since your FreeSolo is a single axle TT, it will be more sensitive to loading than a dual axle trailer. Don’t know if you got a WDH or sway control. If you underload the tongue you may find the tow difficult to control. Also don’t know what manufacturer recommends for wet tongue weight, but IMO it should be at least 12% of TT GVWR. You also didn’t mention whether you’ll be traveling with passengers, and type of gear in the bed. At 1,080lbs, the Jeep has very limited payload. Most people run into trouble staying under payload, and especially staying under rear GAWR. A properly adjusted WDH will move some tongue weight to the front axle. It would be a good idea if you could actually weigh the tongue wet. Then you’ll know exactly whether you’ll be within limits, or whether you need to redistribute to lessen tongue weight.

[TXiceman]

The spread sheet is only as good as the programmer and the data entered. Your best analysis is to get the Jeep weighed ready for travel and then the whole right weight and see exactly where you stand on weight.

Sorry, I will not download unknow files...aka your spreadsheet.

Ken

[JeepSlowride]

Originally Posted by jleonard

Just remember that the hitch weight is part of your payload along with the torsion bars if you have that king of hitch.
Also the advertised tongue weight might be lighter than actual. Both of mine were. (by about 60 lbs.)
And loaded the tongue weight was about 50% higher, even lightly loaded.

You can't really notice at a quick glance, but I have added the total passengers and cargo weight to the hitch weight that was inputted earlier in the spread sheet. I then subtracted that total amount from the cargo capacity of the tow vehicle giving me the amount of payload that was still available. Your right about needing the actual tongue weight. I have the Sherline scale on order to do the actual weight of the tongue. This spring I will load up the tow vehicle as leaving for camping and then do the trailer. What the first page of the spread sheet if I am thinking correctly will give somebody the maximum amount of weight that there tow vehicle can handle. The second page would give you more of what the tongue weight would need to be. Thank you for the feedback. As stated in the spreadsheet, I don't have the rating for when using a WDH. That is something I could add if you think it would help. I would need to figure out the formula and calculations for it.

[JeepSlowride]

Originally Posted by Marine359

Since your FreeSolo is a single axle TT, it will be more sensitive to loading than a dual axle trailer. Don’t know if you got a WDH or sway control. If you underload the tongue you may find the tow difficult to control. Also don’t know what manufacturer recommends for wet tongue weight, but IMO it should be at least 12% of TT GVWR. You also didn’t mention whether you’ll be traveling with passengers, and type of gear in the bed. At 1,080lbs, the Jeep has very limited payload. Most people run into trouble staying under payload, and especially staying under rear GAWR. A properly adjusted WDH will move some tongue weight to the front axle. It would be a good idea if you could actually weigh the tongue wet. Then you’ll know exactly whether you’ll be within limits, or whether you need to redistribute to lessen tongue weight.

Yes, that is what got me going down the rabbit hole on the weight of the trailer tongue. I thought that this spreadsheet could help me and others to see how little payload that your tow vehicle could carry when connected to a trailer. I don't have a WDH or an AntiSway bar. I'm hoping that if I can get the right calculations on the trailer and tongue weight that it will help with the swaying. By not having the extra hardware of the hitch I can load more cargo in the truck. As you can see by the numbers and the weight of my passengers with cargo (guestimating) for now. There will not be a lot more cargo I could add. I will not know the actual numbers until I can get to the scale in the spring time. As the rear GAWR for the Gladiator it is 3750lbs. I am hoping that I should be good. I could add that into the calculations so it tracks that also. Also, thank you for the feedback. This is very helpful.