checked trailer weight

[Ken / Claudia]

I finally went over a scale with this trailer. Keystone says it is 5576 lbs shipped with 1624lbs carrying weight and 530lbs hitch wt. I had full fresh water tank and propane, some food, clothes and camping equipment for 2 people for 3 days.
Trailer was 5700 lbs, hitch wt. 1200 lbs.
Truck is 8000 lbs
I used the truck rear axle empty wt. at 3250lbs with trailer hooked up it was 4450lbs. That is how I came up with that hitch wt. Not sure how others check it. I did not have time to unhook the trailer on the scale to put just the front hitch jack on it.
I guessed that it was going to be much heavier.

[fla-gypsy]

Your results are very typical. So many folks do not understand how much weight you can add to a TT's tongue weight. Fortunately you have a capable tow vehicle and with that much tongue weight it should tow very well. Clearly now you can see how the "1/2 ton towable" marketing is total bunk short of the most capable newer 1/2 tons available. But you still have 300 more lbs you can add! LOL

[f6bits]

Was your weight distribution hooked up?

It sounds like the trailer axles were 5700 and the hitch was 1200, for a grand total of 7900 or so. If so, then the hitch weight is a little on the high side.

[Ken / Claudia]

I had the WD hitch on and the front axle was 300 lighter than w/o the trailer. Been driving it that way 4 trips so far, I reread the WD hitch papers and will go another link up and wt. it again when I have time. I never felt a light front axle while traveling but, I would think it must drive and stop better with the wt. back on it. I did check the rear tire gap to the fender and found the trailer wt. with the WD hitch dropped the rear 1 inch from empty.

[MISailor]

I had the WD hitch on and the front axle was 300 lighter than w/o the trailer. .

Not all of the "extra" 1200 pounds on your rear axle is tongue weight from the trailer. Some of it is the 300 pounds that is no longer on the front axle. The calulation for determining the actual tongue weight is simply the weight of the truck hitched minus the weight of the truck unhitched (see http://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-to-determine-trailer-tongue-weight.aspx ) . Since you have axle weights of the truck hitched and unhitched all you need to do is calculate the sum of the front and rear axle weights hitched minus the some of the axle weights unhitched. In your case it looks like you may be around 900 pounds.

[Ken / Claudia]

Thanks MISAILOR, that makes sense I was thinking maybe my wife put lead bars in the front storeage area. I feel silly I had not figured out that one.