Does anyone know if tongue weight matters with beach cats? i know it matters if i was towing a 18,000 pound horse trailer, but for a 500 pound boat plus gear, i just doubt it matters.
what would help would be if anyone has ever had am accident or tongue rip off because of too much or too light tongue weight? i hear A LOT of opinions about how much tongue weight is safe (or not safe), but then i ask if you ever had a accident or break something, and the answer is always no. so if one is having any issues, where is all this so called "tongue weight knowledge" coming from. i assume its being scaled down from big trailers, but since beach cats are so light, i don't know if it even applies.
once again, i know with big trailers its different, but for beach cats which weigh a few hundred pounds, does it matter?
I can attest that tongue weight DOES matter even with these small boats. I was pulling a Hobie 14 last year and the weight was too far back and it wobbled terribly. It wobbled so badly that I could only go about 20 mph. After pushing it forward - no more wobble.
Thanks for the info Zach.
I don't think you can go too heavy with the averages cat rig unless you gave some puny hitch.
look at it this way.....if you balanced all the loads plus the weight of the trailer on just the two trailer wheels (half the weight on each trailer wheel) then there would be '0 lbs' weight on the tongue. for example, 800 lbs total weight, 400lbs on each wheel. you should be able to lift the tongue with one pinky.
then you should move the weight forward just enough so you have 15% of the total weight on the tongue (120 lbs). this should keep the tongue down on the hitch without lifting the front wheels of the car/truck/van etc.
search (tongue weight)on other forums on this site for all kinds of opinions! you decide.
http://www.thebeachcats.com/forums/viewtopic/topic/11508
Edited by arch on Apr 18, 2013 - 01:43 PM.
The rule of thumb I've always followed is tongue weight at 10% of total load, but leaning towards 15% would be fine. Hard to get too much with a beachcat rig, but too little will make it trail squirrelly.
Dave
yea dave, 10% should be plenty, i agree. about the weight of an eight year old ( maybe 80lbs in my illustration?)
here's a tip: if you want to weigh your trailer without the cat on it, just use a bathroom scale with sufficient capacity to check the weights on the tongue and tires. then add in the weight of the cat for total weight.
j