Everything you ever wanted to know about trailer tongue weight but were afraid to ask

Because of the size of our tow vehicle, we have to be very careful about not overloading our new Geo-Pro trailer. We know about GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) and CCC (cargo carrying capacity). We also need to be sure that we don't exceed the tongue weight allowed so that our pickup can pull it safely. According to the specs on our Chevrolet Colorado (with V6 and towing package), our maximum tongue weight is 700 pounds.

"But what is tongue weight and how do you measure it?" you ask. Mark asked the same questions and here are some of the answers:

Tongue weight is simply how much the tongue hitch weighs. We need to know how much weight is being put on the hitch ball of the pickup. If you get too much, it will raise the front of the pickup and make it difficult to steer. If you get too little, the trailer is prone to whipping. Besides keeping it less than 700 pounds, we also need to keep it at 10-15 percent of the total trailer weight. Having the proper tongue weight is important to driving safely down the road. 

"But how do you measure tongue weight?" you ask. Well, Mark read about a system of boards and pipes that would allow him to weigh the tongue weight using our bathroom scale. That was a lot of work, and he still didn't feel like it was a very exacting method.

So he built an A-frame out of used lumber, and ordered a better scale. 

Now he can get better tongue-weight readings to be sure we're not over- or under-loading the pickup's hitch.

He weighed the trailer loaded for a camping trip, as well as unloaded. The trailer's dry weight (straight from the factory with no personal items in it) is 3,475 pounds. GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) or the weight the axles and tires are rated to carry is a maximum of 5,000 pounds. When you subtract 3,475 unloaded weight from 5,000 pounds allowable weight you find that we can only load 1,025 pounds of our personal stuff in the trailer. That 1,025 pounds is called the  CCC (Cargo Carrying Capacity). You need to know all those numbers to stay safe driving down the road. The tongue weight that we have been measuring should be 10-15% of the total trailer weight. So we are hoping for a tongue weight of around 500 pounds (maximum of 5,000 pounds * ten percent). What will it be?

The loaded trailer tongue weight was right at 500 pounds!

Then Mark started experimenting with his new scale. He weighed the tongue weight after he put the bike rack on the back of the trailer without bikes. The tongue weight dropped to 469 pounds because he was adding weight behind the trailer axle. Then he added even more weight when he put the bikes onto the rack. 

The tongue weight got even lighter--429 pounds. This proves that tongue weight is not just affected by additional weight--it's also affected by where that weight is loaded onto the trailer. You put weight onto the very back of the trailer and the weight on the tongue decreases. But you run the risk of your trailer whipping because it has too much weight behind the trailer axle and the tongue weight is too light. Whew! This can be complicated.

Some additional weight was necessary for installing the lithium battery system that Mark engineered, and he needed to know how it would affect the tongue weight. This is a significant weight added to a side storage area in front of the axle. But he also removed the two regular batteries that were in a box near the hitch. All of those changes affected the tongue weight.

We also have to be mindful of the total weight of the trailer. Our Chevrolet Colorado's maximum towing capacity is 7,000 pounds. So our 5,000 pound fully loaded trailer is below that maximum. We've read that you should stay under 80% of your maximum, and so far we have accomplished that.

If you aren't confused enough with all this alphabet soup like CCC and GVWR, we should add that you must also consider the GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) which is the combined weight of the vehicle and the trailer. That might be more than everything you ever wanted to know about trailer tongue weight, but obviously Mark wants us to be safe and within our limits when rolling down the road. 

We keep learning about camping on the small side with this little trailer. After nine years of full-timing in a diesel motor home, we thought we knew lots about living in an RV. But we're finding that there's more alphabet soup to towing a trailer and lots more new stuff to learn.