Tandem Trailer Geometry

[Skyco]

Looking at the picture of the commercial tongue weight device, could you not make something using a cylinder with oil in the lower part and install a 1500 psi hydraulic gage in the hyd fitting on the lower half, and be able to sit the tongue on the shaft of the cylinder and be able to read the tongue weight. Chock the wheels first.

Yep I did just that. I put a gauge on my HF portopower clone so I could tell how much force I was applying to things. Then I found one of my smaller rams was right close to 1 square inch ram area. Voila! Instant scale. The one square inch makes it easy to read weight directly on the pressure gauge. I put the ram under any trailer coupler and see what it takes to lift, that is the actual weight measured on the gauge. Any size ram will work but then you have to do the math if it isn't 1 sq inch to convert.
I used it to great advantage figuring out how to position my motorcycle, atv and Bx24 all in an enclosed trailer. Turns out, motorcycle and atv go side by side in the front then the tractor is backed in. Due to weight of the backhoe pulling it in forward resulted in too little tongue weight.

 

[Egon]

How many actually drag your tractor/trailer/truck package down to the scale house to get real numbers ?

I have. More than once.

 

[Willl]

Would this be to little tough weight ?

YouTube - Oops!

 

[Oldmax]

You should have 10 % of trailer on tongue. an if trailer is over 3000 LBS should have equlizer hitch to add height back to front of TV .

 

[Willl]

Anybody ever done the bathroom scale trick ?

Well, tried doing just this today. And failed.

Actually, trying to use a electronic bathroom scale is what messed me up.

Between getting the thing to self calibrate, then lowering the tongue on to it before it timed out was to much.

I'll try again later with an mechanical one.

 

[J_J]

Well, tried doing just this today. And failed.

Actually, trying to use a electronic bathroom scale is what messed me up.

Between getting the thing to self calibrate, then lowering the tongue on to it before it timed out was to much.

I'll try again later with an mechanical one.

How heavy is your trailer? Are you trying to set the tongue on the bathroom scale, or you doing the off set method as mentioned in previous post.

I would recommend that you jack up the trailer higher than level, and set up the cement blocks or wood, and then lower the tongue onto the wood timber and multiply accordingly. The trailer should be level when you are measuring for the tongue weight.

 

[Willl]

How heavy is your trailer? Are you trying to set the tongue on the bathroom scale, or you doing the off set method as mentioned in previous post.

It's a 8000# tilt. It's in my photobucket if ya want a peek. (note the JD green pin striping )

I was using the "1foot-2foot times 3" method that I posted a pic of earlier.
See the little circles they call "pipes", they should of called them 'wheels'.

My main problem was the amount of time the electronic scale gave me between 'calibration and read-the-weight time'. Way too short.