Cat scale weight help Micro Minnie 2108DS

[anewrver]

Ok weighed my 2108 ds on the cat scales loaded as though we are going on a
W/ trailer
Steer axle 2840
Drive axle 3220
Trailer axle 4580
Combined 10640

Wo trailer
Steer axle 2540
Drive axle 2500
Gross 5040

So trying to figure out if i am within my specs or not?

[BirchyBoy]

What’s your tow vehicle payload, etc, or are you asking about just your camper?

[anewrver]

gawr front 3086
gawr rear 3527
gvwr 6283
payload 1080
max towing 7200
max tongue 576

Just trying to dial in my weights to make sure we are good with tongue weight and other values with our vehicle kinda continuation from a prev post when we first picked up our trailer in march! You all are so much help with getting our tow set ip dialed in correctly!

We just had our brakes re-adjusted because we were also have some issues b4 we keft!

[jadatis]

I come to a tongeweight of 1020 lbs.
Thats a "bit" more then 576 you give as max allowed.

[Marine359]

Your delta between weighs on drive axle (the tongue weight) of 720# is really high for a 2108ds. Ours comes in at about 600#.

You must have weighed with a full fresh water tank. We travel with 1/2 FW tank.
Also, did you add 2x 6v GC? That would add a lot of weight to the tongue.

As is, it appears you are overweight on payload.
You did not put your tow vehicle in your profile, so no way for us to know what it is.
Could it be that your trailer is not close to level when you’re hooked up?
A ball height that’s too low will cause tongue weight to be high. If you’ve got more than 1.5” of squat on the rear of TV, you’ll want to raise the ball height to get a more level towing posture. That will also lighten the tongue weight.

I’m presuming you weighed with WDH disengaged. When engaged, the WDH should move a chunk of weight (100-200#) from drive axle to steer axle. However you should attempt to redistribute to stay under payload and tongue weight limits. Then when you engage WDH, everything will be better.

[anewrver]

We had it hooked up with the wdh when we weighed. I checked ball height and it is as high as it can go on the blue ox. We only have the standard battery which came with the trailer. Tanks had nothing in them, freshwater tank mb had a small amount in it but not much at as it doesnt register on the tank level.

The only thing i can think of is mb it wasn’t completely level when we hooked up the trailer to the vehicle? Its a 2014 mercedes ml 350? Would that account for the higher tw?

[Bcborn]

Looking over the reply from Jim he has brought up a few points you need to look at.

The issue I see too is tongue weight. The 720 Lbs does not overload the rear axle but exceeds the allowable tongue weight.

Lets assume the 720 extra is total tongue weight and the trailer axle at 4580 Lbs that gives a trailer weight of 5300 Lbs Loaded. Your tongue weight of 720 Lbs is 13.6 %. Again as Jim mentioned was this Equalized Weight.

Lets go back and look at the tongue weight at 13.6%. Your max allowable tongue weight is 576 Lbs. With a total trailer weight of 5300 Lbs (as noted) and an allowable tongue weight of 576 Lbs would put you at a ratio of 10.8% tongue weight.

This would put everything in range. This is tight, just like me towing with my Tacoma I have to be diligent on how the Tow Vehicle and trailer is loaded. In my case I cannot place much in the Tow Vehicle, have next to nothing for fresh water (fill at site). Lastly I move gear from the front pass-thru to the rear of the Trailer axles ie bathroom.

You mentioned you were not carrying water, that's good and not impacting anything here. If the tongue of the trailer is down much in front that too needs to be addressed. Rear vehicle squat is another. You can buy receivers with a longer rise/drop.

It wouldn't hurt to get a Sherline Tongue Scale (1000 Lb) to keep the tongue weight in check.

Go back to the documents I put in my album and generate the same and you will quickly see where the adjustment needs to come in (Tongue Weight). I didn't see a GVW for the trailer to compare with your weighted measurement (Tongue + Axle) to confirm it was in range.

Post your noncoupled and coupled (WDH) wheel well measurements as well as front and rear trailer frame corners (Equalized) as shown on the doc in my album. This will help us evaluate.

Hope I didn't miss anything here.

[Marine359]

I think you got it all Lyle. Good analysis.
OP should have weighed without WDH engaged to get his true tongue weight, or get a Sherline. My concern would be that without WDH engaged, his situation will be further out of whack. His MB is capable of towing the 2108, but he should be conscious of not grossly exceeding max tongue rating for the MB. He should be able to stay under 576# by redistributing weight and running with 1/2 FW @and empty waste. I’ve weighed several times, and with 1/2 FW and partial propane my tongue is at 575#. With full F/W and propane, it’s 600#. Another solution for OP is to carry a couple of water jugs in the shower.

[jadatis]

I calculated the tongeweight from trailerweight minus weight on trailer axles, and came to 1020 lbs. The 720 lbs given, is what rearaxle of TV becomes more.
And that also front axle gains weight when TT atached, suggests your WDH was set much to tight.
Or in case of tandemaxle TT a to high tonge, as you already indicated, could have given that.
Mostly, even when WDH used, frontaxle of TV gets lighter when TT atached.

For total trailerweight I calculated 10640 minus 5040 is 5600lbs.
Then 1020 lbs tonge is 18.2% of that.
And if my info is right, maximum to law for TT's is 15%.
Minimum 10%

[anewrver]

Reweighed after movinfg stuff to bathroom…

Steer axle 2640
Drive axle 3380
Trailer 4660
Gross 10680

Weighed with wdh hooked up and engaged

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by anewrver

Reweighed after movinfg stuff to bathroom…

Steer axle 2640
Drive axle 3380
Trailer 4660
Gross 10680

Weighed with wdh hooked up and engaged

The WDH must be doing something here,

The Drive axle should have went down by moving stuff to the bathroom not up 3380 vs 3220

The trailer axle went up as the gear was moved closer to trailer axles, correct.

The front axle went down 200lbs.

The theory in the WDH;

1) More tension places more weight on front axle less on rear axle.

2) Less tension places more weight on the rear axle and less on the front axle.

I think what happened here was, by moving gear to the rear of the trailer it took downward pressure off the ball, thus taking pressure off the WDH and that is why #2 played out. Jim does that make sense?

The MB has squat in the rear and starting with a higher ball might minimize the squat without Equalization and thus minimizing the WDH effort to get everything level. Not sure how your able to overshoot the Front Axle Weight from stock when you place a trailer on the ball. Does MB have something in play here that we are not accustomed to???

As Jim said and It cant be stressed enough we need to get a tongue weight of the trailer and that weight has to be much closer to the max allowable tongue weight of 576 Lbs. It is doable as Jim said, he gets his to 575 Lbs, 600Lbs with Full Fresh water and Propane.

[Marine359]

You’re spot on Lyle,
Redistributing gear weight from front to back will reduce tongue weight. Too much WDH tension with too little tongue weight will yield a squirrelly tow, which can induce dangerous sway. Too little WDH tension with too much tongue weight will yield a jouncy tow that can be dangerous if tv suspension bottoms out. 1-2” of squat before engaging WDH is ideal.

[Marine359]

One other piece of advice.
It should not be easy to engage WDH (lifting bars into their brackets) with no support from tongue jack. Lock the coupler on the ball, then raise the tongue jack until it becomes easy to pry the bars into place on their brackets. Then retract tongue jack. If you can easily engage WDH bars without using the tongue jack to assist, your bar tension is too light, and assuming the ball is in the correct position, you may need to readjust the brackets. But if you raise the ball, it has the same effect.