My boat/trailer set up is weighs approximately 7500lbs. The towing capacity of my truck is approximately 9500. I have scaled it several times and although a larger truck would be awesome, it’s just not in the cards right now. The trailer has a bit of sway in the wind and generally is not a real treat to trailer.
I tow several other trailers (RV and cargo) and weight distribution hitches seem to make a significant improvement in sway and overall handling for those trailers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a boat trailer with a WD hitch. Why is that? Are WD hitches just not appropriate for boat trailers?
Hi Deuce I just went through the same process with my boat trailer. I found boat trailer tongue weight for a tandem axle trailer listed as 5-7 % not the standard 10 % for a travel or utility trailer. The info. I got was from a boat trailer manufactures web site. They also have different numbers for single axle boat trailers as well.
The number surprised me as I thought it should be 10% as well .
Boat trailers dont have the A frame style hitch connection they use a reach style frame, so no way to use an equalizer.
I had 725 Lbs on my ball hitch 7000 on the trailer and towed 4800 Km on a week long trip we towed our boat from PEI to Alberta last month.
I found the tandem front axle load much higher that the rear tandem when weighing at a scale.
When I got home I moved the axles forward 8 inches to get 525 tongue weight 7200 trailer .
It tows better than before no sway at all I also found the front tandem tire pressure needed to be 10 psi higher than the rear due to the load.
I used a heat gun to find the front tires were 30 degrees higher in temp. than the rear so I added air to the front 65 55 rear and got the temperatures within 10 degrees .
the infra red heat gun is great to check wheel bearing temperatures, tires, when you stop for fuel .
https://www.shorelandr.com/pages/pf_trstep3.htm