Little Help - Hijacked but still on topic

[David Avard]

I'm working on reducing tongue weight as I only have like 5lbs margin on the rear tires.

Not having a passenger in the rear seat (Julie) might help with that margin. And actually, without me in the RF seat, you were 10 lbs over.

And if you weren't carrying around 1/2 ton of shi, stuff , you'd be doing better on the tongue weight.

[KJ Christopher]

VGT EXHAUST BRAKE
The VGT Exhaust Brake works in conjunction with the engine and transmission to provide an integrated braking system to help slow the vehicle. This is commonly referred to as exhaust braking. Braking power is achieved by modulating the sliding nozzle ring to restrict the flow of exhaust gasses from the engine, this will create high back pressure on the engine. The high back pressure creates a high level of resistance to the motion of the pistons within the engine and this resistance is used to reduce engine speed and thus vehicle.

Interesting. So they replaced the flap thing (like the old heat riser valves) with a sliding nozzle ring. Sounds high tech. I guess it makes sense. Since you already have the sliding nozzle ring making the turbo VGT, might as well use it to plug the exhaust for braking.

[Steve Ekstrand]

When we weighed too, we full truck tanks, Julie and I in the cab, full black and grey tanks that are ahead of the trailer axles and extra luggage stowed in the master bedroom. It was about as much tongue weight as we could ever achieve. Pluss we stored more heavy stuff in the front underbed that will eventual go on the wall over the trailer axles. Plus were nosedown about 3" from where I'd like it. Fix all those things and I think we'll have a proper truck rear axle weight. Definitely going to have to watch those rear tires. I thought it had a tire pressure monitoring system, but I guess it was an option, I can't find the button where it shows in the manual. I thought it was on my sticker, I'll have to check. Just not sure where I put that....

BTW- David, I checked the trailer labels, empty weight is 11,484lbs.

And the waste tanks are labeled correctly, the guages are just very very flaky.

Oh, and Julie's waste products must have been very very caustic..... :barf:
The sewer hose sprang a leak on its third use...

[Steve Ekstrand]

BTW-I got under the trailer today and saw what I was worried about before in regards to dropping it 2".... The trailer has 6 shock absorbers, they are very very short. I'm worried about compressing them 2". Obviously they can be moved, but its work.

[David Avard]

BTW-I got under the trailer today and saw what I was worried about before in regards to dropping it 2".... The trailer has 6 shock absorbers, they are very very short. I'm worried about compressing them 2". Obviously they can be moved, but its work.

How about some pictures?

[George Schilling]

With all this trailer towing talk, I was just a little worried until I realized that Ricky and Lucy towed that BIG trailer coast to coast with a late '50's Pontiac.

Just on tidbit of advice Steve.............as pretty as they may be, avoid picking up any souvenir boulders along the way.

[Steve Ekstrand]

The shocks look easy to remove I should have just removed one and tested.

The frame height is 26" so I need to check harbor freight for jack stands that tall.

[David Avard]

The shocks look easy to remove I should have just removed one and tested.

The frame height is 26" so I need to check harbor freight for jack stands that tall.

You'd have to go with their 12-ton ($80) jack stands to get that tall, but their 6-ton jack stands are close (and $28-32), and $5 worth of cinder blocks (I guess you could steal them out from under the Barracuda ) would get you to 26" (or more).

[Steve Ekstrand]

I wonder if I can tip the trailer part of the way forward on the front jacks. Insert the jack stands right behind the axles.
Then raise up the front with the jacks and insert stands in front. I'd need four stands. Then I could support as well with the stabilers and the front jacks. I just need the tires unloaded like you said, don't even need to lift off the ground.

Only trying to raise like 14K lbs... Not anything heavy.

[David Avard]

Looking at the Atwood catalog, you either have 5k, 6k, or 8k front jacks. 5k or 6k might not be enough to lift everything.
Maybe if you back the Civic in and leave the back door open so you can leave the front wheels on the back edge of the trailer...

[Tom Berry]

We are leaving on tues. the 9th ... somewhere around noon.

[Curt Luther]

We are leaving on tues. the 9th ... somewhere around noon.

I'll call you this week and set up a time to drop the stuff off. Thanks again, Tom.