First, an admission. I've been towing things (several boats, truck camper, horse trailers, and now a 22mle) for the last 45 years or so and never weighed a one of them, until the other day, that is. I just set them all up to tow well and when I did use a weight distribution hitch, a tape measure worked fine. If what I had to tow with was a little sketchy, I upgraded tow vehicles if it wanted to keep towing what I was towing.
That said, a recent vehicle replacement (a really nice 2017 ram 1500 quad cab 5.7) gave me the incentive to actually check things as I knew the truck would be close concerning payload. It replaced a 17 year old expedition that towed the trailer fine, but I wanted a little more horse power for those West Virginia hills, and it would be only a matter of time that I would have to get intimate with the timing chain in the expedition, so time to upgrade. And I wanted to go back to a truck. Also, I knew that with a second battery on the tongue and a real mattress inside, the tongue weight could be an issue.
There's a cat scale about 5 miles away, and I also ran across those Haul Gauge and Better Weigh devices online. Neat idea if it worked, so I ordered a Haul Gauge for $39 from them. That's half the price of the other product. Same device (Curt bought Haul gauge), same app. Different labeling. The idea was that if the tongue weight feature worked it might be a useful thing to have around when packing for a trip. So I checked it against the Cat scales to see.
I won't go into all the boring details, but I weighed the trailer with 2/3 tank of water in and dumped, moved my 2 honda gens around from garage compartment to a couple of places inside the trailer, etc.
I found that the Haul gauge was within about 2% of the actual weight of the truck. The gvcr was within 6% of the real thing. Unfortunately, they were in opposite directions and the compounding error caused the trailer weight to be off by about 14-15% once you subtracted one from the other. I can actually live with that as I now have a good idea on the weights from using the scales. Where things really failed was on the tongue weight. It was off by a whopping 25-32%. Haul gauge knows your vehicle engineering specs when it reads your vin automatically, so the big difference actually surprised me. A little investigation found the reason. A previous owner put a set of Timbren bump stops on the truck, so haul gauge expected a linear spring travel and got a surprise when the Timbrens kick in loaded. I tried recalibrating it just in case that helped (it didn't). I emailed Haul gauge to see if he had any ideas to calibrate it and he said no, since it is programmed for a constant spring rate. I wonder how that works with the new Rams with progressive springs on them? Maybe the reason for the $39 deal?
I was planning on returning it but had another idea. What if I calibrated it using the trailer at the one of the mid trailer loads I weighed. I did that, and I can now say it's right on the money for what I wanted to use it for. Move my 2 50 lbs gens from to the garage to the way back of the trailer and it unloads the tongue by about 120 lbs, just like I found on the scales. Of course, at light weights, like me sitting on the tailgate, it measures a bit heavy but that's to be expected and I don't care about that. Some day, I'll try a 500 lbs load in the bed and see how that works with payload. I initially played with the weight distribution hitch setup on the Haul gauge, but with the tongue weight off it was a no go. Haven't had a chance to play with that again, but my tape measure works just fine and the scales backed that up. I also didn't bother with the gain setup as I set the gain by feel when driving anyway.
So for a retired guy with an afternoon to kill, I learned a lot about my truck and trailer. Not sure the haul gauge is worth the money I paid for it, but it might come in handy, and the entertainment value is priceless. Actually, if your wdh is engaged and you run through a scale for a weigh, you'll find out all you need to know for a trip, so long as the truck and trailer work together as expected. Sorry for the marathon post but thought it might help someone contemplating one of these devices.
That said, a recent vehicle replacement (a really nice 2017 ram 1500 quad cab 5.7) gave me the incentive to actually check things as I knew the truck would be close concerning payload. It replaced a 17 year old expedition that towed the trailer fine, but I wanted a little more horse power for those West Virginia hills, and it would be only a matter of time that I would have to get intimate with the timing chain in the expedition, so time to upgrade. And I wanted to go back to a truck. Also, I knew that with a second battery on the tongue and a real mattress inside, the tongue weight could be an issue.
There's a cat scale about 5 miles away, and I also ran across those Haul Gauge and Better Weigh devices online. Neat idea if it worked, so I ordered a Haul Gauge for $39 from them. That's half the price of the other product. Same device (Curt bought Haul gauge), same app. Different labeling. The idea was that if the tongue weight feature worked it might be a useful thing to have around when packing for a trip. So I checked it against the Cat scales to see.
I won't go into all the boring details, but I weighed the trailer with 2/3 tank of water in and dumped, moved my 2 honda gens around from garage compartment to a couple of places inside the trailer, etc.
I found that the Haul gauge was within about 2% of the actual weight of the truck. The gvcr was within 6% of the real thing. Unfortunately, they were in opposite directions and the compounding error caused the trailer weight to be off by about 14-15% once you subtracted one from the other. I can actually live with that as I now have a good idea on the weights from using the scales. Where things really failed was on the tongue weight. It was off by a whopping 25-32%. Haul gauge knows your vehicle engineering specs when it reads your vin automatically, so the big difference actually surprised me. A little investigation found the reason. A previous owner put a set of Timbren bump stops on the truck, so haul gauge expected a linear spring travel and got a surprise when the Timbrens kick in loaded. I tried recalibrating it just in case that helped (it didn't). I emailed Haul gauge to see if he had any ideas to calibrate it and he said no, since it is programmed for a constant spring rate. I wonder how that works with the new Rams with progressive springs on them? Maybe the reason for the $39 deal?
I was planning on returning it but had another idea. What if I calibrated it using the trailer at the one of the mid trailer loads I weighed. I did that, and I can now say it's right on the money for what I wanted to use it for. Move my 2 50 lbs gens from to the garage to the way back of the trailer and it unloads the tongue by about 120 lbs, just like I found on the scales. Of course, at light weights, like me sitting on the tailgate, it measures a bit heavy but that's to be expected and I don't care about that. Some day, I'll try a 500 lbs load in the bed and see how that works with payload. I initially played with the weight distribution hitch setup on the Haul gauge, but with the tongue weight off it was a no go. Haven't had a chance to play with that again, but my tape measure works just fine and the scales backed that up. I also didn't bother with the gain setup as I set the gain by feel when driving anyway.
So for a retired guy with an afternoon to kill, I learned a lot about my truck and trailer. Not sure the haul gauge is worth the money I paid for it, but it might come in handy, and the entertainment value is priceless. Actually, if your wdh is engaged and you run through a scale for a weigh, you'll find out all you need to know for a trip, so long as the truck and trailer work together as expected. Sorry for the marathon post but thought it might help someone contemplating one of these devices.
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