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Topic ClosedTowing with Full Water Tank
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codycountry View Drop Down
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Posts: 168 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Towing with Full Water Tank
    Posted: 04 Jun 2020 at 9:21pm
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.  
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mcarter View Drop Down
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Posts: 3419 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jun 2020 at 6:00pm
Comment - I have a 178 and have had significant sway issues with a full water tank and towing. I also had to replace the sheet metal screws holding my tank rails to the frame as they had pulled loose. My tank rails are now secured with 5/16 bolts thru the frame.
Mike Carter
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mjlrpod View Drop Down
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Posts: 1214 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jun 2020 at 7:54am
I always keep several gallons in the fwt, for flushing, washing hands while on the road. When ever I have needed to fill my fwt, I fill it at the first spigot I see once I arrive to the campground. If you are not going to a campground, then making sure you get a few hundred pounds of weight near the tongue to offset the fwt is your only option.  
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jun 2020 at 6:44am
Originally posted by codycountry

So your 177, like mine, has a thirty gallon tank, I think.  
At eight pounds a gallon for water that would be only 240 pounds from just behind the axels toward the back of the trailer. And it's low down.   
Is that such a big deal, when it's low under the trailer and spread out over a few feet?  
I think not, and I have not experienced any difficulty when towing due to the full water tank. 
 I do put some of my heavier stuff up front under the dinette seat to help offset a bit, and I pull with a ford superduty f250, but seek to have the trailer balanced with more weight on the tongue than the ass end of the trailer. 
I also always have some water in the front mounted black water tank that helps balance things since it never fills up.   
I have towed at 75 mph a lot, with no problems.  
If you are pulling with some small Suv, then yeah, you might have a concern, but if so perhaps you need a real tow rig.  Otherwise, fill up the water tank and go and have fun.  
Try this, fill up your water tank and see if you can pick up your trailer off of the jack by hand.   If it's doable, then the back of your trailer is too heavy.  Stay safe, happy camping.  

You're joking, right? How many folks on here have a F250 super duty they tow an rpod around with? Let's please get this right so we don't kill someone.

First, trailers with too low tongue weight in general are subject to sway. It doesn't matter if the weight is low or high, its the front/rear distribution that's critical.

Look at this video:



Second, there are documented cases of rPod sway at tongue weights around 10% of trailer weight or less. I did a post on this a couple of years ago.  

Third, rpods are light trailers, and 30 gallons (250 lbs not 240 btw) is a lot of weight in one. In my 179 moving 30 gallons from the fresh to the gray tank changes the tongue weight by 3%, which is a lot considering that the target range is only 10-15%. 

Fourth, even if you have a heavy tow vehicle, you really don't want your trailer fishtailing around on you driving down the road. 

So, yes, getting this right is a big deal, unless you enjoy the idea of winding up facing backwards on a freeway with a semi heading straight at you. Dead
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codycountry View Drop Down
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Posts: 168 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 10:16pm
So your 177, like mine, has a thirty gallon tank, I think.  
At eight pounds a gallon for water that would be only 240 pounds from just behind the axels toward the back of the trailer. And it's low down.   
Is that such a big deal, when it's low under the trailer and spread out over a few feet?  
I think not, and I have not experienced any difficulty when towing due to the full water tank. 
 I do put some of my heavier stuff up front under the dinette seat to help offset a bit, and I pull with a ford superduty f250, but seek to have the trailer balanced with more weight on the tongue than the ass end of the trailer. 
I also always have some water in the front mounted black water tank that helps balance things since it never fills up.   
I have towed at 75 mph a lot, with no problems.  
If you are pulling with some small Suv, then yeah, you might have a concern, but if so perhaps you need a real tow rig.  Otherwise, fill up the water tank and go and have fun.  
Try this, fill up your water tank and see if you can pick up your trailer off of the jack by hand.   If it's doable, then the back of your trailer is too heavy.  Stay safe, happy camping.  
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Colt View Drop Down
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Posts: 383 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 8:16pm
We discussed something similar in this thread.
At some point, you are gonna have to weigh your trailer.  I weighed my rig as normally loaded, ready for a trip.  As I pulled away, I got the actual axle weight.  Then, I came back and weighed my SUV. That let me calculate the tongue weight for my R-Pod.  Once I got that, I crawled under it and started measuring.  Shockingly clean for a 4-y.o.  You can get the center distance for each tank by using the corners the tank has.  From the measurements I made I built a spreadsheet that will calculate tongue weight with various loads in various places.  One hundred pounds of food/clothing in the front can counterbalance a lot in the rear.  If you want it, send me a PM.  You'll have to adjust the distances for your 177.  If you start with a base loading that you always use, then the spreadsheet will give reliable changes to that base case.  And, you only need to weigh the 'Pod once. 

I had no idea a tongue scale could be had as low as $70. 
John
'16 R-Pod 180
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Posts: 5290 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 7:19pm
Originally posted by lostagain

There other ways to measure the tongue weight and people have been very creative in this regard, but the Sherline is fast and simple.  


Creative? Tow vehicle weight with trailer - TV weight without trailer = tongue weight. It ain't rocket science, as they say. But if you want to spend $70 on a Sherline that will certainly work fine too. There is also the bathroom scale and board method if you want to try that.  The main thing is to know what you actually have, once you've got that info no need to repeat it. 
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crw8sr View Drop Down
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Posts: 328 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 5:56pm
Do it all the time with our 190.  No issues.  We always stay aware of proper loading. 
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geewizard View Drop Down
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Posts: 347 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 2:20pm
I fill the tank every time I take my 177 out on a trip.  I have not had a problem towing.
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lostagain View Drop Down
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Posts: 2587 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jun 2020 at 12:56pm
After you get a base line weight for your normally loaded trailer, you can check the tongue weight very easily with a Sherline scale.  They are easy to use and are sufficiently accurate for the purpose.  Just make sure, when you weigh your tongue, that you have at least 10% of your total trailer weight on the tongue.  There other ways to measure the tongue weight and people have been very creative in this regard, but the Sherline is fast and simple.  

I've even weighed our trailer at the two wheels and the combined measurement was remarkably close to what I got at the truck scale.  I attribute the difference to the difference low gravity where I live.  We've mined so much here that the earth is much less dense as compared to the location of the scale where gravity tends to be high.Confused 
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