I bumper tow a 21ft Ragen Toy hauler, heavy in itself, which is basically loaded to the rafters. At the end of my desert season last year I stopped by the CAT scales ($10) and took one reading that included a full load, with the trailer attached. Only thing not included was my wife and son, (300lbs there). The readings are as follows:
Steer Axle: 4220 lbs
Drive Axle: 9200 lbs
Trailer Axle: 4780 Lbs
Total Axles weight is 18200 Lbs

I do not have a tongue scale and first off want your advice on whether or not I am dangerously overloaded or should I somehow tweak the leveling bars to adjust the weight more equally on my truck. I've read the stuff about weight % I know my truck weights 6200lbs empty. I set the towing up so the trailer is basically level (keeps the fridge cold) and follow the truck wheel well measurement technique when adjusting the tongue weight so that rear is basically sitting about 1" lower than usual.

While I have never been impressed with the towing ability of my truck and don't have gobs of cash to buy enhancements I do strive to better understand it. I have a stock 2003 F250 V10 longbed 4X4, stock E rated tires and tow using a Draw Tite equalizing bars.

It seems to drive, steer and brake competently. Any help or assurance would be appreciated.

 

to get tongue weight you can always weigh truck without trailer...


that said... my 5.4 pulls a 9200# GVWR travel trailer just fine. I haven't crossed the scales with it, so there is a good chance the thing is pushing 10,500 with 1,200# tongue.

 

Well that's a thought. The nearest true truck scale for public use is about 20 miles away, otherwise I can only get an overall vehicle weight going to the junk yard and they will not allow me to play around on their scale. I guess it's worth a couple gallons of gas to travel there.

 

Sounds as though you might have made a similar mistake as I did my first weigh and did not have each axle on a different scale, adding some of the trailer weight to the drive axle.

 

teah. look at your steer and drive axle #'s. they add up to 13400lbs. your truck alone empty is prob close to 7000lbs. i dont think you have another 6400lbs. of stuff loaded in your trailer. like alan said go re-weigh your rig and make sure your axles are where they need to be on the scale.

 

Wallboyz,
My F-250 cc, with the tow pkg and 3.73 rear end is rated at 23,000# gcwr. Check your Ford manual as it will give you your max gcwr but probably not much difference than mine. You state your truck weights 6,200#'s dry. Your 21' Ragen is probably rated between 8,500 to 10,000#'s. Based on these #'s, you can max out your trailer, let's say 10k, add your truck weight of 6,200#'s and you still have plus or minus 7k before max'd out. I don't see any worries here.

 

Check the rating on that drive axle. You're probably over on the tires and possibly the axle itself unless you have DRW.

 

In my case, the dually set up, only adds 500# of additional gcwr. Not much to affect the total pkg.

 

I don't think it was on the scales correctly. Pay attention to the markings on the scales and get the axles in the proper boxes.

 

It was a nasty day out when I weighed in so I could have erred my positioning- rookie error. To follow up a on a few items mentioned in replys I just checked the axle sticker on the door jamb and the front gawr is 4800lbs, rear is 6084lbs, I did not see a GCWR rating there. My tires are BFG all terrains and the max load figure on is says 3415lbs's for a single wheel so does that = 6830lbs of weight between the two? I suppose a trip to the scales in now inevitable.

 

You are correct in figuring what the tires can take. However the lower number in this case is the rear axle of 6048. So that is what you need to go by.

 

Yep, from the numbers you give, you're way over. I bet your weight listed on the drive axle is wrong and even the steer axle is questionable. If those weights are right you need to move some weight to the rear of that hauler. I am assuming it is dual axle??? What is the axle, are the axles ratings on the trailer?? And what is the tire rating of the trailer. Many trailers I've seen have under size axles.

 

Thanks everybody for your input; I love this site!!!

I have no doubt the trailer is one heavy SOB. This Ragen is no mamby pamby Forest River POS. There are 2-5000lb rated axles on a solid I-beam chassis equipped with full size Maxxis LT 235-85r-16" tires which have a weight rating of 3042 lbs each. The trailer GVWR is rated at 12820lbs, which accounts for a UVW of 6183; 110 gals of water @ 1250 lbs, (usually time out 80 gals), 2-8 gallon propane tanks-68 lbs; equaling a subtracted total of a CCC of 5319 lbs. (my wife had to have this luxury trailer if she was "roughing" it).

Now, I stuff 2 quads and 2 motorcycles and all the micro brewery beer I can get in the rear. I have tried many way to place the toys in there and have to put the quads in sideways over the rear axle, one somewhat forward of it, with the bikes in back. Stinking whale tail entry and some poorly thought tie down placements dictates that.

I am going to the desert the day after Gobbler Day so I will make the big effort to move the quads back behind the axle over the tail and put the bikes forward. A six pack job if I ever knew one! I'll actually try loading it tomorrow and see how it fits & feels. Somewhat worried it will be too much sway with all that weight so far back. I do travel from sea level to 7000ft and back to sea level in my journey.

All said, I sure hope that initial tongue weight reading was not correct. Do you have any other ideas on how I can reduce tongue weight? If so, I will put them to the test when I hit the CAT scales again.

I mentioned I did not have a tongue scale ($110+) so I wonder if anyone had success at using the bathroom scale system that offsets the scale to one side? Just curious if it's worth a try later on.

 

I've not done it but by using a BR scale and a fulcrum set up you should be able to get tongue weigh. But realistically, that price for the scale is not much considering the $$ you have tied up in those toys. Hope you get it sorted out and not overloaded.

 

Best way to reduce tongue weight is to move the load in the trailer aft.....behind the axle.