Take a bathroom scale with you and keep in in the truck/car. When you get ready to leave, weigh the tongue weight. It should be about 10% of the total weight. If it's more, distribute some weight to the rear and vice versa.
Short Story..... Back around 1974 I was helping a friend tow his Oldsmobile 442 on a trailer using his wifes Pontiac 68' LeMans as the tow vehicle. We were coming down a verrrrrry long downhill run just outside of Wheeling WV. Just as we started down a 3 mile straight down grade, I glanced out the rear side window to see the Olds trying to pass us!! The only thing we could do was speed up and get the car and trailer back behind us. At the botttom of the hill was a bridge. So it was make it or loose everything. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill we were well past 80. With white nuckles and wet seats we made it. I personnally will never tow anything heavier than what I'm towing with. Rule of mass. Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Langer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 2:27 PM Subject: M_Boats: Perhaps the M-17 is not for me... M-15? >I agree with Sean and Howard in regard to the "tail wagging the dog" and >the > ability to stop issues. I've experienced both and it was not fun. > > I towed a pop-up camper for too many years with a 6 cylinder, 4 liter > Cherokee. Now most people would say, "that seems like a good match". > Well, it was terrible. Every time the tail started wagging it would > oscillate and get worst unless I reduced speed a lot. Then I would > realize > that Jeep just didn't have the capacity to quickly stop that pop-up. I > concluded that it was the worst tow vehicle every made. > > I now tow a 5000 pound camp trailer that has brakes and stabilizer bars > with > a Tundra. It is so stress free that I forget it's back there. Of course > my > M15 tows without issue with this vehicle. > > One last point, I learned from some seasoned camp trailer towers that > filling the water tanks (provided they're up in the front of the trailer) > greatly increases stability. Conversely full black and grey water tanks > (in > the rear) decrease stability. It's nice to have a tongue that's light > enough to pick up and attack the hitch, but if you tow with light tongue > weight your trailer will probably fishtail. So it's nice to have a > vehicle > that will pull your trailer up those long hills, but it's more important > to > have a vehicle that will safely pull your load down those hills. > > Rick > M15 #337 Bluebird > > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats > _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
