All of us that have towed for years basically do what's been said about running the car up the deck and stopping when it "looks right". It comes from experience mainly. Now, with a lighweight tow vehicle with short wheelbase, if you mess up with not enough tongue weight, it can get away from you without notice on just a test run up one exit on the highway.....starts to sway, and then goes nuts...and little you can do at that point. you need to consider the total mass of the towing vehicle vs the combined mass of the tow load, plus the wind resistance of the load. It just looks wrong to me.
Most hitch companies maintain that you should have 350 to 400 pounds on the tongue. That is what all of the info sheets say for all of the hitches that I have bought over the years. But as everyone pointed out, adjust it by moving the car on the railer to get the correct balance you need for a safe pull. It gets really scarey if you have a bad fish tailing trailer. I went over a bad bump on a overpass at 65 mph and the bounce set my trailer into fishtail. It went side to side so bad that it was pushing my rear end 6 to 8 feet back and forth. I thought I was going to buy the farm, then reflexes made me remember to hit the gas and pull it out. Had to clean my shorts!!
Slightly O/T, but related, anecdote. I was selling Dodges back in the mid 80s. I had a just retired customer come in to buy a truck to pull his fully loaded 27' draw bar travel trailer around the country. I don't remember the specifics, but the gist of it was he didn't want my just barely high enough GCVW rated (and slightly over 10,000 GVW) 360 powered one ton dually because of the fuel economy specs posted on the window. He wanted me to sell him a 2.6 four banger D50 AUTOMATIC because the guy down the street at the Toyota store had told him their 2.4 four popper, automatic transmission 1 ton rated "would do the job" and he wanted the more powerful (rated) 2.6 of the Mitsu (Dodge). He acted really irritated that I wouldn't sell him something I knew wouldn't safely do the job. He kept telling me if the 2.4 Toyota could do it, then the bigger 2.6 of the Dodge would too. The harder I tried to convince him he needed more truck, the more mad he got. Finally stormed out to go back to the Toyota store. I just hope he was the only one he killed if he did indeed buy the Toyota and attempted to pull that trailer.
It's not a highly scientific method, but I can dead lift about 400 lbs in the right position. If I can lift the tongue it's too light (accounting for positioning figure about 250-300lbs). But I've been towing for years and always with a full sized truck. Like the others said it's apparent when the load is right. But they do make tongue weight scales, if I was towing with an MDX I would consider buying one to make sure you get it right. Not alot of room for error there.
A start would be measure your rear bumper height with out the trailer. Next hook up the trailer and measure the height again for a start point, and then load the car until the bumper is 1" below the untrailered height. Try towing and see if you have any sway. Most race car trailers I have towed this was a good start. If you feel the least be uneazy move the car forward until it drops the bumper 1-1/2".
Listen to Vonn and also if your weight is not balanced ,You could move the axle forward or backwards depending on the tongue weight you need.....
yeh,where I been putting the car it was dropping my bumper about 3" it towed real good ,but I would like to get the front of the car down a little---at nite headlights are up too much ,but like I said--it towed real good there,and thats why I'm trying to figure how much tongue wt I can take off and still tow without problems
Man, just go get the thing weighed. Search around and you can probably find a private weigh station or steel yard with a scale that will let you go crazy for $20. Bring a jack stand and set it at the height of your receiver, get the tongue weight. Hook it up and drop it to get the total weight. Adjust towed car position on the trailer to get 10% of the total on the tongue. You keep saying you want to know how much tongue weight you should have, and that you dont know how much the trailer weighs. Go find out. We cant tell you what it weighs. Ive had trailers that look the same but you could feel the difference when pulling them. Its not just to make the tow feel good or to keep from abusing the Acura, it's for the safety of you your wife, and the people around you. Do your due diligence and be safe out there. You've got electric brakes, that's good. More then a lot of the trailers I see getting pulled around. I don't get people sometimes. Why put a few thousand pounds on a ragged trailer stuck together with pigeon turds on tires that have more dry rot then their...well, I'll keep her out of it. If you need the nose to go down on the acura, find out where the weight should be, if it's still too high, look at supplemental air bags to keep the rear from squatting Just go find a scale and take the time to get the information you need to be safe. Ignorance wont help make things better if the unthinkable happens
If you must do this buy a good brake controller and a sway control device. Set the brakes so the trailer is slowing down the SUV, not the other way around. Reese makes a sway control bar with adjustable friction pads. You crank it down for the road, loosen it up for parking. I have never seen one on a car trailer but I think in your case you need one. Given that the trailer and car may weigh more than your SUV you could be in a bunch of hurt if you have to panic stop or emergency manuver with out your brakes set correctly and in my opinion a good sway control. Good luck, and set it up right. B
OK,thanks for all the info. I added it up and I've towed this thing about 2500 miles in the past 3 years without any problems--no swaying no problem stopping (had one panic stop) no problem steering --half the time I don't even know its back there. What made me start thinking about the tongue wt was this winter I was putting new brake pads on the Acura (after 50,000 mi) and when looking around under the car I noticed that at one time or another it had hit the bump stops. Now thinking back ,I did hit a bad section of road where they were doing construction last year and a couple big bumps snuck up on me--maybe thats when it bottomed??---anyhow,since I've had no problems I think I will just load it where I always did and let well enough alone. Maybe I'll look into helper springs or air bags,but maybe not anyhow,thanks for all the info and input Gary
Finks got it right------Bathroom scale under coupler, move T forward little at a time until reads 250 pounds (Tongue weight)---Mark front tire on trailer for future reference---Done!!
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