Quote:
Originally Posted by briflight
I'm not advocating half your total gross trailer weight be on the tongue of your tow vehicle, just needs to be slightly more than perfectly balanced for the sway and porpoising. I'm sure there's a ratio, but I don't know it.
The faster you want to travel, the more tongue weight and longer trailer ou need.
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So I shouldn't be able to run my single rail at 85+mph because it is only about 5' from the hitch to the axle and I run about 75lb tongue weight with a 600 lb load (850 including trailer)?
I do and it is rock solid
I think you have some of your cause and effect connections mixed up.
Tongue weight isn't necessarily a ratio, but can be used to over come some other issues. Distance from tow vehicle axle (or CG), to hitch, to trailer axle (or CG) is a factor . As is distance of trailer center of gravity to trailer axle versus trailer axle to hitch point. All of these have to deal with moment arms and how much leverage the moving force of the load can exert on the tow vehicle. You want to minimize these force transfers, and that includes the verticle load on the back of the car which affects the attitude of the car and the force on it's front wheels. Good discussion
