Towing with Full Water Tank

And so, wise one (you think), you missed my points about towing and water in the tanks to balance the trailer, to just attack me because I have great tow rigs.  

And yes, since you are so precise, water does weigh 8.34 pounds a gallon.  I roughed it off in what I wrote.  Feel better now?  Who cares besides you??  

I told the query  to balance the trailer and go forward with no worries.  I do it all the time as do thousands of Rpod owners without your input.

You decided to pick on me.  So now it's my turn.

You tend to use data in place of common sense in most of your posts.  

My point was, and try to get this in your cranium, that no matter what you pull with, be it a super duty ford or a suv, if you balance the load it will pull just fine. It might now stop just fine.  With a full water tank on board and some weight up front a balanced Rpod is no problem, mon.  

I use a friction sway bar and do also pull with an f150.  

If the trailer is balanced, then it is only stopping time with a load behind you that truly matters. Big trucks like my superduty Ford take care of that and I'm sorry you think I don't know what I'm talking about because I tow with a big truck. And a half ton. 

I truly take exception that you think I would give advice here that would cause some person harm.  I am here on occasion to help folks who have honest questions, you are her to spout your pseudo-intellectual dogma.

Your advice surely is under scrutiny.  Not mine.   

No one wants a trailer to start whipping around behind them.  That will happen no matter what the tow vehicle if the trailer is not balanced.  

Too many people pull Rpods with tiny tow rigs that can't handle any sort of quick emergency style stops, or if the trailer moves side to side in the wind it jerks the tow vehicle.  

Maybe that's why Forest river is building bigger trailers these days and have seemingly left those beautiful little trailers like my 177?  

Many folks were pulling them with little vehicles that could barely pull them, but not stop them, nor deal with it well when they swayed.

My point, and it was a fair and honest answer to the question, was to haul with a full tank with no fears, and mitigate it with some water up front in the black tank, and some additional weight inside the trailer up front. 

A trailer will sway, when it does sway, no matter the tow rig up front, but a strong rig up front can save the day, genius.  

1) F250's are great tow vehicles. Awesome. Excellent choice.

2) Lots of folks are trying to tow around too much trailer with too little tow vehicle. Specifically, the 3500 lb tow SUV category is marginal at best even for a lighter rPod.

3) No one wants to cause anyone harm.

4) The density of water is 8.34 lbs per gallon and unless you're one of us engineering/pilot nerds putting together a weight and balance spreadsheet that isn't significantly different from 8 (that's why I put it in parentheses). 

5) You have to be more careful to get everything right when you are towing with a light tow vehicle rather than a heavier one.

6) A heavy tow vehicle can save a sway incident by remaining planted even when the trailer is out of control. 

7) Trailers need to have their weight properly balanced so they don't sway, even if you are running a heavy tow vehicle. 

8) If your tongue weight is too low you can add some weight up front to increase it (as long as you don't exceed the max gross weight of the trailer). 

9) If you can lift your rPod's tongue by hand then the tongue weight is too low.  

Good so far? What don't we agree on? Here's what we might or might not disagree on, it's really only 3 items I think. If I'm wrong or missed something let me know.

1) The minimum tongue weight we should be shooting for is about 10% of trailer weight. Lots of real world info and recommendations on that one, including incidents of sway on rPods. Do you agree or disagree?

2) You can let the tongue weight be lower if the weight is low in the trailer (like in a water tank). I haven't seen anything suggesting that so I disagree.

3) You can check if the tongue weight is OK by trying to lift the trailer and not being able to. You described the opposite test (not OK if you could lift the tongue) which is certainly true, but not particularly useful for someone to decide they're good to go. So, if the implication is that someone can use this as a test to see if they are OK rather than actually getting a tongue weight, I disagree. Most folks will give up at around 100 lbs or less. A loaded 177 is going to be upwards of 3000 lbs. So you want the tongue weight 300 lbs plus. 

As for having different methods for working out solutions to problems, that is for sure true. I'm an engineer. I know, its kinda weird, but we like to do math for fun. Sorry about that, born that way, can't change it. You are of course free to ignore my posts if it bothers you. 

+1

Having ended up facing the wrong way on I80 with oncoming big rigs, I can fully appreciate the information given here. In my case, it wasn't sway but ice with a crosswind. However, the end result was the same.

Another thing to check is the payload of your TV. By taking gear out of your RPod and moving it to your TV, you might find that you exceed your payload when you factor in the weight of all of the passengers, gear, and tongue weight of the trailer. The sticker inside the driver's side door should give you all of your specs (look for curb weight and GVWR)

This is in addition to water tank placement, gear loading, tongue weight etc.