Lessons on strapping down a tractor

[WranglerX]

Guessing tongue weight is not the best idea.
If you go to the etrailer website, you will see a method for measuring tongue weight using a bathroom scale.
The maximum weight capability of the bathroom scale does not matter.
I use this method with my 14K equipment trailer, to get at least 1400 lbs tongue weight.

It's not necessary to do the procedure every time, if you are carrying a similar load.

Actually did a little ruler work and tractor weigh can easily be forward of center between axles center and I only have to be careful of "not to much" tongue weight.....

Don't think electronic bathroom scale is going to like to be used for weighing "tongue" weight check...

Carried 1360 pound race car on trailer for thousands of miles, tractor weighs in at 1460 (less FEL) , think I can get it right...

Dale

 

[ruffdog]

Checking the tongue weight by using different scales.....including a bathroom scale:

Determining Trailer Tongue Weight | etrailer.com

 

[Jstpssng]

Idiots and their whipping trailers......shame people have to die from simple mistakes.

This video has been posted before, and while it raises some good points they really need to find a different "trailering expert." Look at the hookup at 1:20; she doesn't even have the hitch down over the tow ball.

 

[TimberHole]

Looks like he had an implement on the back which would have moved the center of gravity rearward. It also looks like a lightweight trailer.

 

[RSKY]

This may sound stupid but it works.

I once had Home Depot load some landscape blocks on a two wheel trailer at night near closing time while it was raining. I spent the time they were loading talking to a friend that I hadn't seen in years. Stupid me didn't even glance at the blocks before I got into the Toyota RAV4 I had at the time. Ten minutes later we hit the four lane headed for home and it immediately started whipping back and forth. I steered from one shoulder to the other and got it back under control while I coasted to a stop. Both my wife and I had to get out and walk around, in the rain, to calm down. Took a flashlight and looked in the trailer and nearly all of the forty pound blocks were behind the axle. How did I not notice? Moved the majority in front of the axle. Made a long call to Home Depot. And drove home safely.

So I came up with a system.

I now tow with a Ford F150. I have a piece of lattice under the back seat that is long enough to put one end on the ground and have the other end stick a foot or so above the top of the tailgate. This lattice has a mark on it for the top of the tailgate with no trailer and nothing in the bed. It has another mark on it with both sons-in-law standing on the rear bumper. That represents 500+ pounds of weight on the hitch ball. Whenever I load something on the trailer I lean that piece of lattice unto the tailgate and notice how far below the top (empty bed) mark is above the top of the tailgate. Then I load my tractor or whatever and make sure the tailgate top sinks the same distance below the bottom mark. Hopefully this means I have a minimum of five hundred pounds pressing down on the hitch.

I know my explanation is clear as mud but it works.

RSKY

 

[Industrial Toys]

I read a lot about tongue weight, but never in relation to the weight of the towing vehicle. Little tongue weight might cause a FORD escape to loose control but that same load might not phase an F350.

 

[aczlan]

I've seen bearings seized up on a trailer to cause it to whip. There is more than enough weight on that trailer to keep it from whipping. That youtube video of the weight distribution is misleading. It transfers weight from the front to the back, but it ignores all the weight over the axles. Having weight on the axles does not cause that violent whipping.

Good job on tying it down
Bad job on keeping the bearings greased.

I would agree with TimberHole, front to rear COG on that tractor with a tiller on the back would be somewhere between the back of the loader upright and the front of the rear fender. Either way, it would be behind the centerline of the two trailer axles.
The load COG should be no further back than the centerline between the two axles.
IMO, the tiller should have been on the deck at the front of the trailer with the bucket sitting on top at full dump, or the tractor should have been backed on.

Aaron Z

 

[3Ts]

I've done a lot of trailer loads where I get loaded in the field in rough ground and sometimes soft ground so it is not practical to weigh the tongue for COG concerns. I always use the same truck (I only have 1) so I set up on a concrete surface and with a "typical" load I measured the tongue weight AND I measured the distance from the ground to a reference point on the trailer tongue. On mine, the proper loading resulting "sag" was 1". (This sag is dependent on the trailer and truck suspension.) So, now when I'm in the field and need to be sure I'm loaded properly I measure from the ground before and after loading to be sure I have the proper sag.

 

[TXCOMT]

Good stuff here...just put money down on a SCUT with an FEL, plus a mower and a box blade. Rather than trailering it to the property myself, I opted for the $75 delivery charge; after reading these posts, I'm glad I did. I have no business towing that load, even if my truck is capable!

TXCOMT

 

[thekkfan]

I read a lot about tongue weight, but never in relation to the weight of the towing vehicle. Little tongue weight might cause a FORD escape to loose control but that same load might not phase an F350.

True, but it also will not affect AWD as much as RWD since the front can still be pulling.