I have heard 10-15% GTW. I'm wondering if that is the max tongue weight or ideal tongue weight. I'm not towing nothing big but I am in the middle of installing tie downs and want to position everything just right. I have a 12' single axle utility trailer and soon will have a 14" tandem trailer. I haul two mowers with a combined weight of 1695 lb (with full gas tanks). . I did the bathroom scale after positioning everything were I wanted it and the tongue weight was only 90lbs. I am thinking that is to lite. I use to have the 430lb mower up front sideways and the 1265lb mower over the axle. But this caused close to 600 lb tongue weight and that is the max for my class 3 ball and ball mount. Any ideas what weight I should shoot for? All city driving but I figured I should do it right for my trucks sake.
I'm not an expert either, but I've read the 10-15% guidance enough that I consider it reliable. You say your mowers are 1695 lbs, but what about the trailer? Assuming your trailer is on the order of 1000 lbs, you'd want a tongue weight of about 270-400 lbs or so. I'd keep playing with the big mower to get your tonque weight closer to this. Even moving that large mover a little bit should make a fairly large difference on your tongue weight. Good luck getting it correct.
I just dug through my trucks owners manual and it says 10% for a dead weight hitch and 12% for a WD hitch. Just got it today, truck didn't come with one when purchased used. So I am going to aim for 280 - 290 lbs tongue weight. 1,000 lb trailer with about 1800lbs total cargo when factoring in racks and hand tools.
IMO to much is better than too little. If you dont have enough the trailer will handle horribly and sway back and forth causing you to lose control.
I'm looking for best ride on back streets (some roads are a little bumpy, not to bad). This is a city driver and doesn't see any highway use. Mostly just neighborhood driving. Any suggestions?
You are going to want more tongue weight, rather than less. Going over bumps without enough tongue weight will make the truck bounce a lot. Having a little weight on the tongue will calm this down considerably. So you should probably shoot for around 300-350. Brisk is right, too much is definitely better than too little, as long as you don't go over the ball mount/hitch ratings for any period of time.
