Tongue Weight

I picked up an old spring driven bathroom scale at a garage sale for $5. It reads to 300 pounds. I put a jack stand on the scale and use my floor jack to raise the tongue, then slide the scale right under where the ball goes

I have a Sherline tongue weight scale from etrailer.com, would recommend the 1000 vice the 2000. The weight station will give numbers about total trailer and vehicle weight. I use the tongue weight scale because I change tongue configuration (genset/no gen set). Yes it does effect sway and whether you need WDH. It's important to your hitch capacities. As an example if you have an allowable tongue weight at the hitch of 300 lbs, you don't want a tongue weight of 600 lbs. It's a safety and a capacity issue. BTW - a sway bar compensates for sway, however it is induced. The WDH compensates for load. I like to do mine at the house not travel to a weigh station.

We weighed it at the truck stop.  I think we were charged $11, but it gave me piece of mind.  We rarely vary what we carry and are under the limits.  I always use the sway bar and can tell a difference without it.