Shandingo

I have a CT-8045 with a tire rack up front, with the Trailex tool box and spare trailer tire mounted behind the fenders. Unfortunately to get the tongue weight in an acceptable range, I have had to position the car (GT4) as far back as it can possibly go without cross strapping the rear ratchet straps. I did try cross strapping the rear straps but did not think that setup would provide sufficient resistance against the car moving forward in an emergency stop, due to the fact that the straps were running almost perpendicular to the trailer. I am already running Mac's direct hook ratchets, and there is only a couple of inches of strap between the snap hooks and the ratchets in the rear. In addition, the D rings on the front axle straps are pushing up on (and deforming) the upside down plastic arrow elements that are positioned in front of the front wheels on the underside of the car. I think all of this can be resolved if I can position the car further forward on the trailer without adding tongue weight, and the only way I can think of to do that is move he axles forward. There is plenty of space up front to move the car forward. Has anyone tried moving their axles forward on their Trailex?

John H

Is your trailer level when attached to the tow vehicle?

Shandingo

Yes roughly. The top of the ball is at 21" with the trailer disconnected, and according to Trailex the top of the coupler is supposed to be at 21" but the ball does sag a couple of inches when the loaded trailer is connected. I am going to try adding a 1" taller ball and move the tire rack back before messing with the axles. Just wondering what others have done.

John H

I never moved mine towards the front or back but I did raise the deck due to issues related to the deck hitting rhe axles. It was an older design and I understand that issue was resolved in later years. Raising th ball to the top of the acceptable range should reduce tongue weight, says my non-engineer logic.

Matt Romanowski

I haven't done it, but I would suggest talking to Trailex. I know on our trailer they took all the car weights and stuff we had on it to calculate the axle position. They might be willing to do the same for you at this point.

It sounds like moving the axle is the right choice, but you could also go with chains in the rear to eliminate the strap problems.

pvgolfer

I have a GT4 which I load onto a Trailex 8045. I’m able to keep the tongue weight between 400-500# while keeping the vehicle reasonable centered on the trailer. I also have a tire rack and spare trailer tire (in front of the trailer fender), but no tool boxes. You really need to try to keep the trailer as level as possible when towing and measuring tongue weight. Another Rennlist poster (ARYORK ?) found that by lifting the tongue just 1” or 2” above level significantly increased tongue weight – by as much as 100-150#. I saw the same results… It was explained that much of the load was taken off the front axle and transferred to the tongue by raising the front of the trailer above level.

I don’t have exact measurements of my axle positions, but I found a picture that shows that the distance from the rear of the trailer to the rear edge of the fender is approx 37”.

Brian C in Az

The best fix is to get a weight distributing hitch.

Shandingo

What is the height to the top of the ball with your setup? Perhaps the best comparison would be to measure when the loaded trailer is attached, as I am sure our tow vehicles are different and suspension sag will be different so ball height comparison without the trailer attached won't be very useful. Also, with the GT4 centered on the trailer are the D rings on your axle straps interfering with the plastic aero pieces in front of the front wheels? I am hoping to solve that problem by moving the car forward on the trailer.

pvgolfer

I initially used axle straps, which did touch/bend the front aero parts. I'm now using the rennline jackpoint tie anchors on the front, and fabspeed rear tie down anchors. The MAC tie straps simply "clip-in" to the tie down anchors - no interference with any vehicle body parts.

ExMB

This makes no sense what so ever. If load is taken of the trailer's front axle it has to be transferred to the back axle. Claiming it goes to the tongue implies that you are bending something.

Use the bathroom scale method to verify your tongue weight if you don't want to go and get it weighed.

ShakeNBake

I ran mine in the 600-660 range depending on the load configuration. I used wheel pass throughs straight back to the D-rings in the rear - so there was space. How are you measuring?

mhm993

Trailex specifically says no weight distributing hitch's. I suspect it has something to do with the aluminum tongue design.

Shandingo

I have a Sherline 1000 lb tongue weight scale, which I put on a floor jack and lift up to raise the tongue to the same height it is sitting at when attached to the car (loaded). I believe this is the most accurate way to measure tongue weight as far as I am aware. I am getting about 500 lbs on tongue weight with the current positioning of the car and 4 wheels on the tire rack with rack all the way forward. I am going to move the car forward 3 or 4 inches to correct the issues with the ratchet straps described above, but will also move the tire rack toward the rear and get a hitch ball that is 1" higher than the current one. 500 lbs seems to work okay, but hopefully moving the rack and the ball height will be sufficient to offset the weight shift that results from moving the car forward a few inches. I am also measuring with almost a full tank of fuel in the GT4.

Shandingo

One thing I forgot to mention is that I have an electric winch on the winch platform on the trailer. The winch is something like 42 lbs., and because it is positioned so far forward, that weight is almost all going to be on the tongue. It can be removed, but it is a bit of a pain to remove and install every time I want to tow. There is no battery on the trailer though. I use the battery on the tow vehicle to power up the winch.

drive418

I found moving the tire rack towards the rear was the best way to balance my trailer trailer and get it level. Never checked what the tongue weight is. Never had an issues, or reason to do so.