Towing help

[Taxman2436]

I have a 2019 Ford F-250 and recently purchased a 2021 Salem Hemisphere travel trailer. I’m struggling with the tongue weight. I had a 25’ Cruiser Shadow and no problem there as it had pass thru front storage. All storage on the new trailer is behind the axles. I have an equalizer hitch (10 “ shank using its lowest setting) and have adjusted the weight distribution but the best I can get is 25% with my current setup. I have the L bars installed at their lowest point and I have 4 washers on the hitch (I know I shouldn’t use more than 3). The trailer is about 1/2” lower in the front. I have taken the unit to a scale and my tongue weight is -300. In my storage I don’t believe anything out of the ordinary but my next move is to remove everything and reweigh. I am thinking I need a lower shank but hoping someone here can help guide me.

Lenny

[mkirsch]

Since we have now established that you have plenty of tongue weight, what, specifically, are you experiencing that leads you to believe that there is a problem?

[Grit_dog]

Back to your original question and "issue", you have plenty of tongue weight. And you're not taking too much off with the wdh, you have a F250, use it like one and keep some good weight on the receiver. That is what helps you most to track straight.
Beyond that, peoples opinions of what tows "well" and what is "scary" is so totally subjective, it's almost hard to speculate the issue or solution.

[Taxman2436]

Thank you both!

[Boomerweps]

Taxman2436 wrote:
I took a ride to scale the scale and now have the true weight of the truck only. Opinions?


Truck only
Front axle 4,880
Rear axle 3,840
8,720

No Weight Distribution
Front axle 4,380
Rear axle 5,380
9,760
Trailer axles 8,180

With Weight Distribution
Front axle 4,640
Rear axle 4,920
9,560
Trailer axles 8,480

940# tongue weight. WDH “moves” part of the tongue weight, 300# back to the trailers axles, returns 260# to the FA. Yes, the numbers are off by scale tolerances looking at listed specs.

[Taxman2436]

Weights again after weighing truck by itself:

Truck only/unhooked
Front axle 4,880
Rear axle 3,840
8,720

No weight distribution
Front axle 4,380
Rear axle 5,380
9,760

Trailer axle 8,180
Combined weight 17,940

With weight distribution
Front axle 4,640
Rear axle 4,920
9,560

Trailer axle 8,480
Combined weight 18,040

[Taxman2436]

I took a ride to scale the scale and now have the true weight of the truck only. Opinions?


Truck only
Front axle 4,880
Rear axle 3,840
8,720

No Weight Distribution
Front axle 4,380
Rear axle 5,380
9,760
Trailer axles 8,180

With Weight Distribution
Front axle 4,640
Rear axle 4,920
9,560
Trailer axles 8,480

[Grit_dog]

Ha, no worries! Had me confused though!
Personally I wouldn't waste my time going back to the scales. Your truck, based on your sig and picture is about 3300lbs empty rear axle weight. Call it 3500lbs because they never get lighter.
Regardless, you have plenty of tongue weight on the trailer. And based solely on your FA weights, you put back about half of what you lost, which is great.
(Not necessary, though, IMO save for helping out your rear springs if they need it. Loosing 400lbs off the front of a diesel is like replacing the engine with a gasser and those drive fine, right?)

Crank it up a little or crank it down a little on weight transfer and see if it helps your preference, but sounds like what you experienced isn't due to not enough tongue weight.
Your truck won't care either way, it's plenty big enough to drop the trailer on the ball and head out!

[Taxman2436]

Well now I’m felling pretty foolish. When I weighed the truck by itself I dropped the trailer on the scale. So of course the trailer weight from the tongue jack is included in the truck weights. Need to take a ride back with the truck alone.
Stay tuned. Thanks for helping me work through this….

[Grit_dog]

Your numbers make no sense.
Empty weight (no trailer), is wrong, unless you have about 1500lbs in the bed of the truck, over the rear axle, but not forward enough to load the front axle at all. You may have a bunch of "stuff" in the truck bed, but that's alot of weight, like filled level full of firewood or a half yard of landscape rock, heavy.

Second weight, there's no way that adding the trailer takes over 400lbs off the front if it only adds 300lbs to the rear axle.

And you're purporting that the trailer only has about 300lbs tongue weight. That is virtually impossible unless it's the worst designed TT in history. Which it isn't, as every Salem Hemi TT near the size of yours lists >1000lb tongue weight, so unless you literally added at least 1000lbs to the back bumper of the trailer, you wouldn't get a 300lb tongue weight.
And if it does only have 300lbs tongue weight or something lighter than 1000lbs, why are you even using a wdh? That is making it worse.

Or, on the contrary, "if" that low tongue weight is correct, take the 900lbs of extras stuff the wife loaded in the back of the trailer out, or if not the case, take it back and tell the dealer they sold you an un-towable trailer.

Now, gut check time. Do you know the difference between dropping 300lbs and 1000+ lbs on the back hitch of the truck? 300lbs and the truck might squat 1/4" or something, and your tongue jack will run like theres no weight on it. 1000lbs, you will see and feel. Truck will sag a couple inches maybe more.

[valhalla360]

Not sure what the "25% weight distribution" is. It's not a commonly used term.

Something is still off with your numbers. If you connect the trailer without the WDH hooked up how is the truck weight not increasing at all?
- Truck only 9,760
- Truck with no WD, 9,760

I'm guessing the trailer is somewhere around 9000lb, so it should be adding somewhere around 1000lb to the total weight of the truck due to hitch weight being added.

Also, how are you measuring trailer axles when weighing the truck only? This does make sense and even if you did unhook on the scales (not something the truck stop is likely to want you doing), the trailer axles should be identical (or pretty darn close) to the trailer hooked up without the WD. You would also need to define which pad the trailer jack is sitting on (if it's on the same one as the truck, it's going to get added to your truck rear axle measurement).

As far as sway, define what you mean:
- A passing semi's bow wave will give the rear a push but as soon as they are past, it should settle right back in line. This is perfectly normal. If you are going 55 and the truck goes by doing 85, it can be a pretty good push but as soon as he's past, it should settle down.
- Sway is when something gets the rear swinging back and forth and the semi is long past and you are still swinging back and forth. This is a problem because if you make a mistake dealing with it, you can lose control.

[mkirsch]

Your trailer only/unhooked and no weight distribution numbers do not make sense.

You're saying that the tongue adds ZERO weight to the truck? Only transfers 440lbs to the rear axle? That's not possible.

[Taxman2436]

When I purchased the trailer the dealer set up my hitch from my prior trailer (Equalizer). I have some sway at times that I attribute to passing trucks or the wind but on 2 separate occasions I had sway events that made me very uncomfortable. Because of that I took the unit to the scales. So between these numbers and the 25% weight distribution I felt like some change needs to be made.

These are the weights:

Truck only/unhooked
Front axle 4,820
Rear axle 4,940
9,760
Trailer axles 8,380

No Weight Distribution
Front axle 4,380
Rear axle 5,380
9,760
Trailer axles 8,180

With Weight Distribution
Front axle 4,640
Rear axle 4,920
9,560
Trailer axles 8,480

[valhalla360]

LanceRKeys wrote:
What are your weights? You say 25%, but you also say -300 ( negative 300??)

Yep, lots of confusing information being thrown out and seemingly inconsistent.

Give us the actual axle weights (while loaded for travel):
- Truck only
- Hooked up but WDH disconnected
- Hooked up with WDH connected

[LanceRKeys]

What are your weights? You say 25%, but you also say -300 ( negative 300??)

The real question is how does it tow? I think too many people get bogged down with weights and don’t look at the big picture.