yeah there are 2 different ways to weigh your truck. DOT cares about AXLE weights and thats how they weigh you. They do care about total vehicle weight, but axle weight will give you this as well. But truck stops and weigh stations will give you your axle weights.

Places like dumps and scrap yards usually just care about your net weight. Weigh the whole truck coming in and the whole truck coming out and subtract. There is no way I can think of that you could ever get your loaded rear axle weight on that type of setup, although you could get close by weighing the rear axle and the trailer, then pulling forward until the rear axle was off and just the trailer was on, and subtracting.

 

So, a CAT Scale reduces the steps to 2? Because they can weigh each axle at once on their scale. Then the 2nd weigh in is with WD Hitch.

But I would still need to weigh the Excursion withou the trailer so I can back into the tongue weight.

That makes it easier.

 

Last question....I promise....Pertains to WD Hitch and Tongue Weight

I read that the tongue weight should be 10 to 15% of Gross Trailer Weight.

So does the tongue weight change with a WD Hitch?

Is the 10 - 15% tongue weight supposed to be after putting on the WD Hitch?

Thanks,

Lou

 

The tongue weight has less meaning with WD becuase it makes the hitch a leverage point and loads the front axle.

Weigh the Excursion with the trailer on a CAT. You will get the weight of all three axles. Obviously, this is the total combined weight of the Excursion and the trailer.

Unhook and weigh the Excursion. Both axles should have less weight on them now. You see how much weight the WD transferred to the front axle. If you have the WD adjusted correctly the front and rear of the Excurision should drop roughly the same amount when the spring bars are connected.

Obviously what you are trying to accomplish is a safe tow vehicle\trailer combo. That means enough weight on the front axle that you have good steering control and stability and the rear tires aren't overloaded. It's actually a lot of fun to do. Once you see the scale and get your slips it won't be so confusing.

I was setting up my toy hauler. I found that by loading the dirt bikes in the rear of the trailer instead of the middle that my rear axle weight dropped by 300 lbs and the front axle still had 3700lbs on it. Made for a pretty much level tv and a saftey margin on the rear tires. I just weighed, pulled off the scale into a truck parking spot, got my slip, reloaded the trailer and repeated. I'm in the west with high winds (the kind where the highway signs say "high profile vehicles not recommended) a lot of the time and I have never had any sway issues.

rv.net had some detailed posts on setting up WD correctly. This one uses three weighings but calculates everything RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Towing: Heading to the CAT scales tomorrow
Michael

 

What he said ^^^. Good post Micheal.

Don't let this get too complicated for you. Unless you've done some funky loading, the trailer should be designed with the proper tongue weight. Ultimately, you are looking for the tow vehicle to sit level - not squatting in the rear - and to prevent unloading the front axle while still having that 10-15% tongue weight. Too little tongue weight will cause the trailer to sway and too much will unload the front axle and squat the rear of the tow rig.

You haven't mentioned any mods to the X's suspension either. If its all stock, chances are you will not be able to attain a level stance even with the bars cranked all the way up. This isn't a deal-breaker, but the handling will not be ideal for that kind of load. No matter what, expect this to be a 60mph road trip - the faster ya go, the quicker things get out of control!!

 

This was exactly what I needed to know how many times to weigh. And the math was straight forward.

Definitely bookmarking that link and printing it out for safe keeping.