I have all the weights but ...

[awellis3]

I went to my buddy's house and we took his TV and weighed it (tare weight). We then hooked up his trailer and towed it back to the scales. We weighed the truck first (truck on scales, TT on ground) with WD hitch tensioned. Then we released the hitch bars and weighed the truck. We drove the TT onto the scales and weighed the whole set up.
Results: Trailer = 5,300lbs. (A thousand more than the sticker, but we all know the factory scales are crooked)
Truck w/WD hitch tensioned weighed 690lbs. more than truck alone.
BUT truck carrying total tongue weight (WD hitch tension released) weighed 1,280lbs. more! That's 24% tongue weight for the trailer.
So questions: Is the 1,280lbs. figure the tongue weight or is the 690lbs. figure?

I'm confuzzed,
Teach

[tomhole]

Teach,

The numbers do not make sense. No way a WDH transfers 690 lbs to the trailer. It sounds like you did everything correctly, though.

Only thing I can think of is a mis-accounting. Was the truck on one pad or two? (did you get one weight or two weights: one for the front axle and one for the front axle)

My trailer had a measured hitch weight of 680 lbs on a hitch scale. If I ran my truck across the scales without a WDH, the rear axle weight would go up by more than 1,000 lbs. But, my front axle weight would be reduced by 320 lbs, so it all added up correctly.

Just throwing out some guesses.

Tom

[nomadic]

i have no idea... but i'll through in my 2 cents... was the truck and trailer level to each other. if the truck has to go up a ramp to get on the scale could that mess it up?

[awellis3]

Teach,

My trailer had a measured hitch weight of 680 lbs on a hitch scale. If I ran my truck across the scales without a WDH, the rear axle weight would go up by more than 1,000 lbs. But, my front axle weight would be reduced by 320 lbs, so it all added up correctly.

Just throwing out some guesses.

Tom

Bingo! Of, course, how stupid of me. The front end UN-loaded when the rear squatted. Doh!

Thanks you, thank you, thank you! Come to Richmond and I'll by you a beer at O'Toole's.

Teach

[Frankenstein]

According to my understanding, the tongue weight is the weight BEFORE you tension up the weight distribution.

That being the case, I'd try to move about 100 lbs from in front of the axles to behind the axles of the trailer, to get the un-tensioned tongue weight to 1,000 lbs.