Tongue Weight ???

[Stotch]

On the way home from todays fishing trip we decided to go to the local truck stop to find out the total weight of the boat (with all of the fishing & boat gear aboard), the motor and trailer. It was 3300 lbs. Would need this info to determine the tongue weight on the truck hitch. (usually 8 to 10 %)

2 questions:

- How do you check the tongue weight of the trailer. By using an ordinary bathroom scale ?? ( Mine only goes to 270 lbs.) Or some other method.

- How much does a gallon of gasoline weigh

Thanks for any & all responses.

Stotch

[Bottomfeeder]

I don't know the weight of gasoline, but I do know the weight of water. My father -in-law taught me " pint a pound the world around". My guess is that a gallon of gas weighs about 8lb.

[Carl]

a gallon of gasoline weights approximately 6.25 pounds

[RANGER]

Gasoline weighs slightly over 6lbs per gal but I am not sure if it is 6.25. When calculating aircraft loading we always used 6lbs even.

As for your tongue weight it should be between 7% and 10% of total weight which, of course, brings it to between 231lbs and 330lbs. To weigh it - ? - ! There are inexpensive bathroom scales that can weigh 500lb people, otherwise, I am at a loss for something convenient. Feed and/or supply stores, U-Haul dealers, ???????????


RANGER,


"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD"!

[chadk66]

Ranger,
Here's the weight of gasoline right out of the Standard Aviation Maintenance Handbook. 6.00lbs. You were right on buddy. Now can you guess the specific gravity? 0.72 is correct lol. Speaking of specific gravity, did everybody know that the only way to accurately check the remaining charge on a battery is with a hygrometer checking the specific gravity of the battery. That was kind of neat. Also, Oil weighs 7.4 pounds so those of you that have an oil reservoir thats the weight. But then I read synthetic oil is 7.74. Then there's alcohol. But then nobody ever takes that in the boat. That weighs 6.75 lbs. So there you have it, the most common weights associated with boating.

[Jim O]

This might be a bit of a hassle for you, but you can scale the unit by itself for a weight and then hook up the unit to the tow vehicle and reweight the trailer with the trailer axles on the scale and the tow vehicle off the scale. The difference is your tongue weight.
Jim Ordway

[Mac]

You could put a 2x8 between 2 bathroom scales and add the totals. It would be a bit of a rough estimate but would get you in the ballpark of 10 to 20 lbs. (Subtract the weight of the 2x8) This will get you up to 460 lbs.

[RANGER]

Thanks! I thought that I had it right but, I wasn't the loadmaster, just the mechanic.


RANGER


"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD!"

[Gunga Din]

http://www.sherline.com/lmbook.htm

[ezmarc]

good info. Thanks!