Front up or down

AustinHealey

I have a Boondock Lite TAG. With a two inch drop hitch on my Colorado ZR2 I am a touch low in the front of the camper, with a level hitch and no drop I am just a touch high from level. Top of ball is 22 1/4 inch from ground. I might sink a tag after loading so I am leaning towards the level hitch without a drop. Any thoughts?

HikinMike

Always go for level. I adjust to level when I start my trip and readjust to level when I head home. That accounts for the usage of water, fuel, food, etc.

If you cant do that, go for front down over front up as front up will cause major swaying.

csonni

If placing a level to check, where is it best to place it?

HikinMike

I just step back and eyeball it. But if you want to use a level I would think the trailer frame would be the best location.

WilliamA

Many folks confuse a couple things: They assume if the tongue is a little high, the tongue weight is too light. These are 2 different things.

Tongue weight first and always.

It's a great exercise to weigh your tongue weight at home. (I use a bathroom scale and a chunk of wood cut to my tongue height)

After determining your tongue weight at home, try to lift the tongue by hand. If your beefcake and can lift a 200 lbs tongue, great. If your wimpy like me, you won't be able to lift it.

What you are trying to do is make sure that when on the road you have an idea of the tongue weight just by lifting it. You could always bring the bathroom scale with you, but that's not really necessary.

What you want is a way to make sure you've got a good amount of tongue weight. My rather extensive experiments with water tank fill, loading the kitchen etc and tongue weight show me that once loaded tongue weight is established, it doesn't change much over the course of a trip. Every time you hook up, try and lift the tongue. If you are like me and can't, you're fine. If you found an old steam engine flywheel and loaded it in the kitchen, you might have problems. Otherwise, let 'er buck.

Tongue "height" has little effect (again, I actually checked this through the full range of the tongue jack) on the weight. If tongue weight is 200 lbs and you raise the tongue 2", it'll still be 200 lbs.

What matters about tongue height is that it should place the trailer frame in a parallel line through the wheels on your tow vehicle. Why? When the tongue is too high, applying the brakes will tend to scissor the tongue up, unloading weight from the rear wheels of the tow vehicle. Too low and applying the brakes tends to load the tow vehicles rear tires while making the trailer tires that much lighter, hence, they have less grip. All of this is hardly noticeable on a good road in good weather, but when things get sketchy, it could make all the difference.

For my money, it's not rocket science here. Just stand back and look at your rig. If tow vehicle and trailer make a more or less straight line you're good.

There are a million other factors to consider: Wind load, ride height, whether you're going up a hill or down a hill (I'm not kidding! It's a thing!) Etc. Most of that is massaged by use. For basic safety, get your tongue weight right, then check to see if it's all in a straight line.....more or less.... Don't make it harder than it needs to be.

And get some trailer brakes......

WilliamA

LuckyJ

I can only agree with WilliamA on this!
And level looks so much better, tongue low is tge second best, tongue high is naaa! 😉

And you will have better departing angle! 😊

csonni

I know that it's been said that 21 inches is the height from ground to top of ball for the Boondock, but mine is nearly level at 19 inches (at the frame). If I raised it to 21 inches, the tongue of the trailer would definitely be too high. Also, when looking for level, it seems that level would have to do with the exposed frame and not the body. When the frame is level, it seems as though the body is not.