Weight distribution questions

[McDugals]

Headed out Saturday for our first adventure with our new setup. Fully loaded and added what ended up being about 20 plus gallons of water. Scale results as follows:

Truck: Steer 3420. Drive 2800

Trailer (unhitched): Hitch 1340. Trailer axles 6900

Truck/Trailer with WD: Steer 3320. Drive: 4020. Trailer 7220

After I dumped water: Steer 3320. Drive 3920. Trailer 7140.

This is where weight distribution gets foggy for me. It appears as if there is 320# shifted from hitch to trailer axles from WD which would make my TW 1020. 12.5% of 6900 is 862#. So I think I need to shift some weight back into the trailer axles and/or get rid of some stuff from my front compartment. Am I figuring this right? Or is this where the washers can come into play? Does increasing the tilt send more weight to the trailer axles? Currently 2 washers. GVWR of trailer is 8495. I'd like to make any necessary changes so I can stop at the scales on the way home in a few days. Forgot to take pics at the scales. Thanks in advance for any help.
Jeff

[huntr70]

Going by your numbers, you lost weight on the steer axle of the truck.

The WDH should be adding weight to the front axle. You need to make the spring bars work harder (not sure what WDH you have).

[JCR GD]

Agree with Hunter and be sure trailer (and truck) are level.

[Calbar]

Agree with all of the other comments. You need to increase tension on your spring bars to get the steer axle back to unloaded weight for best steering control.

Rob

[xrated]

A trailer's tongue weight NEVER changes by using a W.D. hitch. If you start out at say 1340 lbs without the W.D. system, you still have 1340 lb WITH the W.D. system. The job of the W.D. is to redistribute weight both to the front axle and also to the trailer's axle(s)......but the tongue weight never goes away. Obviously if you move some things inside the trailer to the rear, that will lighten the tongue weight, but it also puts more weight on the axles.

[McDugals]

Going by your numbers, you lost weight on the steer axle of the truck.

The WDH should be adding weight to the front axle. You need to make the spring bars work harder (not sure what WDH you have).

I have a ProPride. I'm at 7.5" on the jacks. I realize I need to move 100 more pounds to the front. I raised the jacks to 8" after I pulled out of the scales. Thank you.

[jw^2 family]

It appears as if there is 320# shifted from hitch to trailer axles from WD which would make my TW 1020. 12.5% of 6900 is 862#. So I think I need to shift some weight back into the trailer axles and/or get rid of some stuff from my front compartment. Am I figuring this right? Or is this where the washers can come into play? Does increasing the tilt send more weight to the trailer axles?

Jeff,

Yes, the weight distributing hitch is transferring some of the weight back to the trailer's axles.

If you were to run your rig (truck + trailer) across the scale again, but disengage the WD hitch's spring bars, you would see a lot of weight lifted off the truck's steer axle and a lot of weight added to the truck's drive axle. You would probably also see the trailer's axle weight return to what it was when you weighed the trailer by itself.

Depending on what type of WD hitch you have, increasing washers / increasing tilt of the hitch head will increase pressure of the WD hitch's spring bars. Adding more pressure to the spring bars should transfer more weight to the truck's steer axle, and should also transfer more weight to the trailer's axles as well.