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[DKizerian]

Hi all,

A club that I'm a member of currently has a 20ft enclosed trailer that weighs approx 9000lbs. We are buying a 2nd gen 2wd 1 ton dually, to tow the trailer to events (currently we just have volunteers tow it. . ) In buying this truck we are extending our storage space quite a bit.



Are we better off loading light, bulky items into the back of the truck and keeping the trailer loaded... or loading approx 1500lbs of the weight into the back of the truck?



I think that getting the load into the truck would greatly increase the stability of the whole unit, but I figured if there is some reason NOT to do this, someone here could explain it to me!



Thanks

Dave

 

[y-knot]

Your post was a little odd, you stated your club had a 20' enclosed trailer that weighted about 9,000lbs. Is this a goose neck? or TAG? What capacity is it's axles and or GWR? Since you didn't mention it and since you said till now it has been hauled around by volunteers, I will assume it is a TAG, not everyone has a goose neck hitch or fifth wheel. If you have the capacity with out going over the trailers rated GWR, then I would leave the 1500lbs in the trailer and not in the truck (another reason I figured it was a TAG trailer, you have room in the bed). I don't like lugging things in and out of truck beds if I don't have to. The trailer will handle at it's best if tongue weight is kept to 10-15% of over all weight, so you will need to rearrange accordingly. Since you mentioned the handling issue, I assume it is a TAG trailer , possibly overloaded, and with most of it's weight stationed in the rear. Most people that don't do alot of hauling, greatly underestimate the true weight of things. To get a better understanding of what is taking place, you should take your trailer to the local truck stop and have it weighted. This would let you know where you stand, it is also very good info for liability insurance issues.

 

[ndurbin]

I would try to keep the trailer evenly loaded and as level as possible. Been my expriences if you load to heavy to one end it doesn't track well and if it isn't as level as possible it bounces around and wanders. Use a drop or raised hitch if ya haveto. I'd keep weight out of the bed as much as possible.



Nathan

 

[DKizerian]

The trailer is a TAG, it tows very well as we weighed it a few years ago and found out how to properly load it for good weight distribution. .

One of the reasons to load the truck with the 1500 lbs is at the end of an event we will be driving it around to pick up all the traffic cones any way, and it would be nice to just leave them in the back of the truck for the next event where we drive the truck around and drop cones... If we decide to go this route, we have planned on re-weighing the trailer to find out optimum weight distribution withought the cones. .

 

[ndurbin]

1500 lbs of cones? thats alotta cones.

 

[DKizerian]

Originally posted by ndurbin

1500 lbs of cones? thats alotta cones.

There is some other stuff that we'd really like to put in the truck... only about 800-900lbs of cones, and this might be a great overestimation by me...