Figuring the REAL weight on the trailer

Weigh your truck without the trailer, then weigh it with and you'll know how much the tongue weight is.

 

The tongue weight will go up if the load is in front of the trailer axles, and down if it is behind them. If the load is behind the axles it will be dangerous. You'll have to play around with it to see how much you can haul. Best bet would be a gooseneck or fifth wheel.

 

^^yes^^ Why are you even messing with a bumper pull trailer with an F-450?

 

As long as none of your axles are overweight, and you're not exceeding any tire, or hitch component weight ratings you're perfectly legal.

The big question though, is it safe? Do you have stabilizer bars? If the tongue is to heavy, or to lite , things can get unstable very quickly. Personally, I wouldn't want to be pulling a bumper pull trailer with a 10,000 lb load on it while only having 700 lbs of tongue weight. I'd want more tongue weight.

That 10,000 lb load can cause your trailer to act as a teeter totter depending on how it's positioned on your trailer. It could potentially cause the drive axle to lift when hitting bumps, or dips in the road. If the drive axle lifts under this teeter totter effect it can cause you to jackknife, or damage the trailer, or hitch components.

If you have 10,000 lbs on your trailer and only 700 lbs of tongue weight you have to much weight behind your trailer axles. I'm curious, what are all your hitch components rated at?

Another thing, what brand and what rating is the coupler? I've seen couplers wear out. If there's to much down force they can wear thin and the top of the coupler can crack out. And if you're bouncing a lot, or running with negative tongue weight the lower lip, and lock can wear away and cause it to pop off the ball. All hitch components can wear out and fail. They're something that should be inspected and lubricated often.

 

Your are correct about moving the load for greater toung weight as that weght is subtracted from the axle weight.

Some trailer manufactures include tongue weight in their GWVR others do not so some trailers with 7l axles are rated at 14k others are rated at 15400 GWVR which includes 10% tongue weight. I mention this because fron a safety perspective you are not overloading the axles but you may be overloading what you are registered for,

 

While this site is geared toward the weekend RV trailer user, it definitely has good information on calculating weights: http://fifthwheelst.com/ Look at the menu bar across the top. Check out the Step 1, Step 2 & 3, Step 4 regarding weight distribution and calculations. http://fifthwheelst.com/conventional_travel_trailer_weight_calculator.html

In our case, one of the trailers we own is a bumper pull trailer with two 7k axles. However, the coupler's maximum weight rating is 10,000 lbs (with or without an equalizer). The hitch is rated at 12,500 (most are a 10,000 max) and the receiver is also 10k (or 12.5k max with equalizer). So in our case, the coupler is the limiting factor. You'll need to inspect each component of your system, and use the lowest weight rating of the "weakest link".

At highway speeds, the bumper pull tends to get a bit squirrel-y, even with proper loading, the equalizers and sway controls hooked up. We use it only for moving lighter local loads; everything else goes on the goose neck trailer.

PS. Don't forget to check your tire's load range. Although the axles may be 7k, the load range of the tires may also be a limiting factor. For example, load range "E" tires in a single configuration may vary between 2560 - 3640 lbs in per tire load limit. If your four trailer tires were only rated for 2560, then 10240 would be your maximum regardless of the axles 14k limit.

As a final note, ST tires have a maximum speed rating of 65, unless otherwise explicitly stated by the manufacturer.

 

If your not for higher don't bother. If it fits it ships

 

Rule of thumb for a bumper pull trailer is 10% tounge weight, a gooseneck trailer is 20% tounge weight.

So a bumper pull trailer that is 15,000 pounds ( load and trailer weight) should have a 1,500 pound tounge weight.