Yep as the title states, Whats the tongue weight of your bumper pull car or utility trailer empty, I'm building and have made several calculations, one will have about 350 lbs and the other about 175 lbs. I was thinking with 175 lbs it would be easier to get hooked up, but 350 may haul better empty. It not a big change now, but if i get it all welded up and dont like it either way, itll be a big change.
My 20' car hauler has an ungodly amount of tongue weight... I'd venture way over the 350lbs you're looking at.... empty it hauls great, loaded it hauls without much difference, but I tend to load it on the back a little more to ease some of the weight off the hitch and it can get a little more squirrely then... as far as hooking it up, I have to have the ball pretty close (front to back), but side to side as long as I'm within about 6" either way I can usually muscle it over. It's not too bad once ya get used to it.
Most of my trailer you can't move with out a truck or a forklift the toung is so heavy. You just get used to being on straight when you hook it up. A heavier tough weigh empty will only result in a heavier toung weight loaded so try to base your calcs on what you are loading and how it is distributed on the trailer because that is the most important measurement.
I think that the rule of thumb is 10-15% of the total weight of the trailer. So Id lean toward the 175lb...maybe even 200-250. 350 will be way to much.
175lbs sounds fairly light. If you are a big guy you might even be able to pop the tongue off the ground just by standing on the back??? The closest I have is a tandem flatbed utility trailer. It weighs around 2K and probably has 300-350lbs tongue weight. Makes for a good pulling trailer loaded and unloaded.
when researching building trailers, I can't say that I've ever seen a figure on the amount of tongue weight specifically pertaining to each model... I do know that most of the plans I've seen have suggested a 60% front/40% back weight balance over the frontmost axle... as far as lifting the jack goes, I weight close to 280 and a buddy (who weighs about 240) have tried lifting mine by standing on the dovetail and we couldn't do it... the metal was actually flexing noticeably over the front axle with the trailer sitting level.
Nah, I have a little trailer that only puts 100 or so pounds on on the toungue, but even with I stand back there (at 240), it only lightens the toungue to 30 pounds or so. It's all about center of mass. The "toungue" weight on my other trailer is, oh, about 1600 lbs maybe? Marc
