weight issues again?

Did my maiden voyage with the trailer this weekend for this year. Things were fine and the new "height" worked great. But, when checking along the road I found that my front tires on the trailer were running noticeably hotter than my rears. To me this means more pressure on front axle. I am running with tanks empty (water) and no more than 60 lbs gear in the trailer. Tires all at same pressure. Trailer level-maybe down in front a tidge but under two inches I think from where I am measuring. Rear end of truck of bit lower than it should be but i was scared to take up another link in the wdh for fear of throwing even MORE weight back onto the front axle. I will play this week on raising my ball another notch and mess with the set-ups from there....I raised it once when I lowered the axles . With these torsion axles are they THAT sensitive to a 22 ft trailer being lout of level 11/2 tp 2 inches??

So-any theories ????

Rick

Rick, I may be wrong, but I think if your trailer is nose-down, it's putting more weight on the front trailer axle. I'd try lifting the front a bit. And, if you've already raised the ball the same as the change in trailer height, I'd try an additional link in the chains.

One thing you COULD do, to balance everything, is weigh the tow vehicle's axles without the trailer and then with the trailer and the WD hitch hooked up completely. Ideally, you want to see an equal increase in the weight on each tow vehicle axle.

- Jack

Another thing to do is weigh one axle at a time on a scale.

On a simple scale (one weighing pad) I pull forward and stop at each axle. The operator then records each weight in succession: 1- Tow Vehicle front axle, 2- TV total, 3- TV total plus trailer front axle, TV and trailer total. By subtracting you can figure out the individual axle weights.

On a scale with multiple weighing pads you may be able to place each trailer axle on a weighing pad and the TV on another. If not, just do the calculations based on what each pad had on top of it.

Raul

Torsion axles have no compensation to equalize the weight between axles, spring axles do. So getting the trailer as level as possible when towing is needed. Also make sure the brakes are not dragging on the front axle.

Thanks everybody-all good suggestions and comments. I think an issue I have is I usually do the "set up" a few days before I leave so when I actually add passenger and gear it does throw the equation off. I need to spend a day with "simulated loads" and just keep messing getting the wdh set and trailer level-though there is a range of a couple inches , it seems to me, where that is "as close as I can get" with 'trailer leveling via ball height. But that raises a question- some posts I have read use the angle of the ball for adjusting tension on the spring bars----or is it also used for fine tuning ball height?

@ Norton Rider and Popritchie----getting those separate axles measured are tricky because they are so close together but that is a good strategy Norton suggested-I had not thought it all the way through. The issue with no "compensation" between axles I am aware of and that is why I am cautious with shortening the chain for fear of pushing weight back onto the "front axle" only-thus being able to weigh each axle is important.

Upward and onward, I guess. Thanks everyone.

Rick

You change the angle to change the spring bars torsion, that way you can go in between a chain link, also the chains should not be to short or binding will occur when turning. The min on my WDH is 6 links. It changes the height very slightly, not enough for concern.

PopRichie77 said:

You change the angle to change the spring bars torsion, that way you can go in between a chain link, also the chains should not be to short or binding will occur when turning. The min on my WDH is 6 links. It changes the height very slightly, not enough for concern.

Click to expand...

As PopRichie said, changing the angle of the ball changes the angle the spring bars are set. Tilting the ball back would lower the tips of the bars, effectively lengthening the chain length for the same amount of weight transfer. If you can't get enough weight transfer by shortening the chains (you've reached minimum length), tilt the bar back one "notch".

And, raising or lowering the ball doesn't really do any weight transfer. It just makes it so that the bars and chains can be properly adjusted.

I hope I'm making sense here. It makes sense to me.

- Jack