Caulking the 'spoiler'

If 40% is aft of the axle and 60% forward, with 10% - to 15% on the tongue, the ying and yang are in balance and the universe is at peace.

Originally posted by offgrid Originally posted by lostagain If 40% is aft of the axle and 60% forward, with 10% - to 15% on the tongue, the ying and yang are in balance and the universe is at peace. I think perhaps Confucius is causing confusion in this case.  Unless you've cut your rpod in half at the axle and weighed both pieces there is no good way to know how much weight is behind the axle vs in front. And, it wouldn't matter anyway. I could load my rpod to give me 10% on the tongue with 60% of the weight either in front of or behind the axle. just depends on how far either side of the axle I put it.  A couple hundred years after Confucius was working on the yin/yang thing a guy named Archimedes nailed rPod loading perfectly. Its a lever (or teeter totter if you prefer) with the fulcrum at the axle. Just like on a teeter you can put something that weighs half as much twice as far from the fulcrum and get the same result. Weight is not what creates the balance, torque (moment) is.

Originally posted by offgrid Originally posted by lostagain If 40% is aft of the axle and 60% forward, with 10% - to 15% on the tongue, the ying and yang are in balance and the universe is at peace. I think perhaps Confucius is causing confusion in this case.  Unless you've cut your rpod in half at the axle and weighed both pieces there is no good way to know how much weight is behind the axle vs in front. And, it wouldn't matter anyway. I could load my rpod to give me 10% on the tongue with 60% of the weight either in front of or behind the axle. just depends on how far either side of the axle I put it.  A couple hundred years after Confucius was working on the yin/yang thing a guy named Archimedes nailed rPod loading perfectly. Its a lever (or teeter totter if you prefer) with the fulcrum at the axle. Just like on a teeter you can put something that weighs half as much twice as far from the fulcrum and get the same result. Weight is not what creates the balance, torque (moment) is.   So, the moral of the story (see, I brought that back around to moral codes) don't load a bunch of heavy stuff on the rear bumper. Not only can you throw your balance way off and get too low a tongue weight, but even if you compensate for that with stuff on the tongue you will be over-stressing the frame of the rpod. Like a kid's teeter totter with two big adults on it, it might be in perfect balance right up to the point where it breaks in the middle. And there's also a thing called high polar moment of inertia (think sway) that can happen too.

I don't think I've ever heard of an rPod or any other travel trailer break in the middle from using the general rule of thumb of 60/40.  The point is be aware of where your weight it and try to keep the trailer a bit heavier forward of the axle and always follow the 10-15% tongue weight practice.  I bought a Sherline over a year ago and have been successful in not only weighting the tongue, but the axles too, at least as compared to the results that I got at a public scale weighing the exact same trailer with the same contents.  I don't check the tongue weight each time we go, instead using the "Zen" of trailer loading by paying attention to what I put in the trailer and where it is, always mindful of trying to keep the greater portion of the weight forward of the axle and at least 10% on the tongue.  [I always put the gold bars in the forward storage area rather than aft of the axle.]