My father and our neighbor are both old school guys who are know it alls. This sunday I am towing my first large load about 340 miles round trip. Its a 2001 jeep on a 16' steel deck trailer, now the trailer seems to have the axles set pretty far back. my father says that i have to load the jeep on backwards to keep the weight of the engine over the axles, but I question that because at the offroad park i see a hundred guys tow jeeps in on the weekends and they all load the jeeps forward with a little more tongue weight. id rather have a little more tongue weight tho because it makes the truck ride real smooth when the back sags a little bit.

whats your recommendations?

 

Yes more tongue weight is better in my opinion.

Also making the trailer very level with the right drop hitch or adjustable hitch helps a lot.

 

load the jeep till ur truck starts to squat then stop try and keep the truck ur pullin with level like its unloaded it gives u the best ride

 

i know i need a good 4-5" drop which i have, and its also a pintle hook class hitch so its heavy enough for the trailer and jeep ~6,000lbs

im gonna load it like you said and when the truck drops about 1.5" and levels out is where ill strap it. if i load it back wards the trailer will actually be picking up the back of the truck

 

I agree with what everyone has said here so far...but want to add one thing. If you were to load that backwards, and therefore not have enough weight on top of...and in front of the axles, it can become dangerous. Weight too far to the rear of the trailer will cause the uncontrollable back & forth motion in the trailer once you get up to speed. You always want more weight in front of the axles than behind them.

 

thank you...ive been trying to tell my dad this for 2 days now and he still says to load it with the engine over the axles...but when i do that the weight is right over the rear axle, plus it just adds wind resistance with it backwards and id like to get the best mileage possible while towing it.

my old man is one of those set in his ways old types and you cant sway his thoughts.

 

To a point! IMHO..... to much tongue weight is as bad a negitive tongue weight...which direction the jeep is doesn't matter if you can roll forward and back to adjust the tongue weight. I think our hitches are rated 500# over 1000#'s you should have a WDH. They get real snakey with to much tongue weight.

 

i plan to pull it up until the truck just sags an inch or so and strap it there...if i get up the road and it seems to wobble or snake alot...i pull over and adjust accordingly.

 

Good plan! That is what I do...sometimes I get it loaded pulls great but nightfall comes and people tell me I have to much tongue weight with there high beams....have to pull over and tune it some to keep the oncoming happy. I haul several medium tractors....I mark the bed of the trailer when I get them dialed in...then it is a no brainer the next time I haul it.

Off subject....How come sometime my sig shows and other times not?

 

I've towed this all over the place.....

Notice my truck is barely squatted, and I don't have the camper springs anymore.. It takes a TON of tongue weight to squat these things..

my F/R weight distribution is 56/44

 

Eskimo's picture and Getblown59's explaination is the way I load.

The load is fairly centered over the axle(s) with just enough tongue weight to settle the springs.

I've towed with single,tandem and triple axles for years and never had control problems.
Had the ball come of once, it was one of those with the bolt thrugh the bottom of the ball, and the chains held the trailer until I got stopped. The trailer followed well but the run-in and out was hairy.

 

I thought your Pop said you weren't allowed to tow?
I can tell you...... (uh, not from experience or anything.. )

A tandem trailer with very, very little or no (yes I'm an idiot) tounge weight can take you for the ride of your life till it settles down. I was screetching back and forth so violently The tires almost rolled themselves righ off the rim (scrape marks from the road within an inch of the bead).
As far as safety goes, just make sure you have some decent tounge weight, go with the slightly sagging rear.



You shoulda seen the look on other motorist faces.................

 

pop has no say on this one...its not his trailer and not his jeep im towing. im 20...i can handle it.

of course he is rebuilding this borrowed trailer. i get to use a trailer for free and so far i have plugged a tire, replaced the broken safety chain, and now he just went and bought all new lens covers for the marker lights, and a new tail light bulb.

 

Ideally, you like the trailer and the truck to both be level. Different planes is ok, but you want them both level. 1" of sag isn't much, 3 or 4 would probably be better, and will get you into the "smooth spot" with your springs. Might actually take quite a bit of weight to get into this, I had a 230 lb. dirt bike, probably 500 lbs of firewood and gear in my box, and then hitched a single axle utility trailer up that had 5 bikes and a bunch of camping gear in it. Truck set just about exactly level, and the trailer was level. Rode like a dream, and towed sweet up to 75, even in torrential downpours. If you have some way to way the tongue and axles, you want 10-12% on the tounge.

 

One thing not being asked here . Are you being paiid for this haul ? Are you traveling interstate ? If you are , you have to be 21 , have a DOT physical , DOT authority and forget the rest - under 21 you can't haul for hire interstate . Laws vary too much with individual states to be able to give you any info there . I know in KY though DOT has been busting a lot of locals for not having DOT numbers , DOT inspections , and DOT physicals .