382 newbie

great thread ! my 382 squashes my f-350 hard. TechSun supposedly checked all this but I'm not convinced. My boat has 1 motor out but when I get it back I'm gonna compare notes and weigh the tounge and trailer. The winch stand is as far back as it will slide already. Thanks

t500hps

Yeah, I can't just measure the tongue weight at the moment.....both drives AND both engines are out!!! Plus I'm going to have to set it on the new trailer this way. Once the drive train goes back in I don't want it to lift the truck off the ground!

FormulaM2Formula

Hmm, 350 lbs tongue weight on a trailer weighing over 10k sounds like an accident waiting to happen. The more tongue weight, the more stable the whole thing will be. Also, there is no point in using a weight distributing hitch unless there is some weight to actually distribute. A weight distributing hitch will move some of the tongue weight from the rear of the tow vehicle to the front of the tow vehicle, but it won't move trailer weight to the tow vehicle. (Sorry if this is already obvious.

The tongue weight is going to change between low fuel and loaded fuel. If the tongue weight is set low with a full load of fuel, then it may be too light when the fuel burns off. At least on my setup, the center of teh tank looks like it would have to be forward of the center of the center axle which will change the balance point.

There is nothing wrong with having some healthy tongue weight as long as the tow vehicle can handle it. The more weight you can put on the truck, the less likely the truck is to jack knife under emergency situations. My F350 dually squats ~2" when I drop the 382 on it. Not very much compared to the spring travel, but still a considerable amount of weight. I'd guess at least 1k lbs. If my tow vehicle couldn't take 1000 lbs of tongue weight for a boat and trailer weighing over 10k lbs, I'd seriously think about getting a bigger vehicle.

The trailers seen "whipping" on the freeway, usually do not have enough tongue weight. Or the person is trying to pull a 25' camper with a Ford Ranger.

I used to pull a GN race trailer that put over 4k over the rear axle. That thing towed like a dream. That probably had more to do with the GN than the weight though.

If it wasn't for other considerations, the best setup would be a GN trailer for the boat. They tow better with the weight over the rear axle. But, the resale value and the extra 5 or 6' of length would kind of be a bummer. Not to mention they won't hook up well to an SUV.

Happy Towing! (I only drink after I get there.)
Garrett

Rippem

definitely 10-15% toungue wieght.

dukenrock

I had Prestige Trailer (Byron) come out and inspect my 382 trailer because it appeared to be dog tracking. They measured the tongue weight over 1000 pounds.