Here in a couple weeks I am going to tow an enclosed 15' trailer almost 3 hours away from home with my '09 1/2 Ton Ram 1500.

Much like this one:

The Truck:

The trailer has electric brakes and I have a brake controller (Tekonsha Primus IQ).

My Question is about loading the ATVs in it.

I am planning putting some firewood, cooler, tools, and camping gear in the bed of my truck. So I will have a couple hundred pounds in the bed.

The trailer is another story... I have a Polaris Sportsman that weighs in around 800lbs and I am taking a Polaris Ranger with me that weighs about 1200 lbs.

There are only two ways I can distribute the weight. I can put the Ranger (1200 lbs) in first which will put it closer to the tounge and the Sportsman (800 lbs) in second. Doing that will put the Sportsman pretty much centered on the trailer axles.

Would it be better to put the Sportsman in first and have the Ranger over the axles?

Until this point all of our atvs weighed about the same. So we never really took this in to consideration. I am taking some one elses Ranger with me and it is kind of worrying me.

What do you guys think?

 

Why dont you put the sportsman in your truck bed then the couple hundred lbs and the ranger in the back?

 

That was brought up in our discussion last night. It is a possibility.

But I would have to disconnect from the trailer when I get there, unload it and reconnect to it before I leave. It is not a problem, a bit of a hassle.

If it is the safest way to transport them then I would definitely go that route.

 

you will probably get better answers in the 4th gen ram section than you will in OT

 

I would try to get the most weight above the trailer axles. So lighter atv in first, heavier second. If you have done this before with 2 800 pound atv's and it all worked fine, the 400 or so extra, on the axles shouldn't be an issue.

 

Put the heavier machine in back, or tongue weight is going to make your truck squat like a girl. The coil spring rear suspension can use some help with air bags, so if you don't have them you need to try to prevent too much sag. Too much rear suspension sag will cause poor driveability and increase swaying as much or more than not having as much weight on the front of the trailer.

I towed this trailer every weekend for a year with my 2009 Ram 1500, and found that it was VERY sensitive to tongue weight. If I moved one machine too far forward by just a few feet it made a big difference. You can see how we loaded our trailer in this picture.



You will want at least 10% of the trailers weight as tongue weight though, so with a 800 lb quad, and a 1200 lb UTV, and (I'm guessing here) a 1600 lb trailer, you will want an absolute minimum tongue weight of 400 lbs. Your truck is a long bed, which helps. I think you'll be pleased with it.

 

Thanks for the replies, I have air bags and love them. Check them out here,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MESoo4sofRc

As of right now my plan is to load the gear in the back of the truck. Hook on to the trailer with just the sportsman in it. I will have to go and pick up the Ranger so I am thinking I will move the sportsman up to the front of the trailer when I get there and load the Ranger in behind it and see how it does.

We are going to stop half way down and fill them up with fuel so there is nothing saying that I cant reorganize them if I have any problems.

Thanks for the advice!

 

You want to shoot for about 10% of the gross trailer weight as tongue weight. Too little and the trailer will tend to sway and be dangerous. Too much and the truck will squat a lot and make the front end light. In general, more tongue weight is better than less if you can't get the balance at 10%, but only to a point.

Rob

 

x2 - this is good advice

 

Hey guys, I am going to hook up to my Father in laws trailer today after work and give my truck a test with it . I may load the Ranger on it and go hit the scales to see how much I weigh.

I dont want to overload my truck with his trailer. I think the frame on his is much bigger than mine, so I dont know how much it weighs.