Re: Measuring tongue weight
Here's a quick way to get an idea of what the tongue weight is on your vehicle. It assumes that you know your own weight.<br /><br />1. With no weight on the draw bar of the vehicle, measure the height of the bar above level ground. It doesn't matter whether you measure from the top or the bottom of the bar, as long as you use the same point consistently.<br /><br />2. Now stand on the draw bar yourself and measure the height of the drawbar above level ground. In my case, I weigh about 200 pounds. The difference between #1 and #2 is how many inches a 200 pound weight on the draw bar pushes the bar down.<br />For example, if I push the drawbar down 2 inches, then that means about 100 pounds per inch.<br /><br />3. Hitch up your boat and trailer to the draw bar and measure the height of the drawbar above the ground. Suppose it pushed the drawbar down 3 inches.<br /><br />4. Calculate the weight of the boat and trailer on the drawbar by comparing the measurements in #2 and # 3. Using the examples above, that suggests that the tongue weight is about 300 pounds.<br /><br />5. This doesn't require subjecting a set of bathroom scales to excess weight ( assuming that your own weight fits within the limits of the scale).<br /><br />6. This method, like all the others, assumes that you know approximately what your loaded boat, motor and trailer weigh. This is important to ensure that your tongue weight is in the appropriate range.<br /><br />HTH,<br /><br />Ed
