Rear end dragging when towing "With Pics!"

[Sedition]

What the best way to stop this from happening when I tow? I tow a load like this probably twice a month or more. Any advice or Ideas would be much appreciated. I thank you in advance, Sedition...

 

[doug625]

the tongue on that trailer looks pretty long to me, maybe it's normal idk, but most of the vehicle weight is on the front of that trailer and that long tongue could be adding more "leverage" due to it's length...just a guess judging from that pic unless your springs are shot?

 

[Sedition]

I would like to get hold of some stronger springs but there isn't much to choose from over hear in the land of Oz, so I'm kind of limited by what I can get sent over from the US. My rear springs are by no means old and tired they just aren't strong enough when I load them up. Sometimes I use another trailer with a shorter draw bar and the sag is worse.

 

[plumcrazylx]

With that load in particular, you could put the car on backwards & by the looks of it, you could also move it a little farther to the rear of the trailer. With any load put as much of the weight to the rear of the trailer as possible.

Monroe makes a load carrier shock absorber that has coil springs around them that would help also if you are able to get Monroe products over there. Monroe 58617 SENSATRAC

 

[IAmTodd]

Weight distributing hitch?

 

[my98nnj]

Tongue weight is way off.
The issue can be corrected by loading the trailer properly. As somebody mentioned, put the car on the other way placing the engine at the rear of the trailer. The trailer should be loaded so the weight is centered on its axle. Yours is loaded putting most of the weight on the tongue. That's the biggest issue in your picture.

The load carrier shocks will help stabilize the truck better, but you've got to load the trailer correctly.

 

[deweyville65]

Yep, put more of the weight on the rear of the trailer. Then you can go buy a new tow vehicle when you wreck this one. For one thing the Explorer is not big enough to handle that much weight. All the years driving trucks, I can not count the number of wrecks I have seen from IMPROPER towing. You might get away with moving the car back a little bit on the trailer, but watch out for SWAY. I know, everybody(including me) has towed more than they should. Some get away with it for a long time, some don't. Believe me, I am not trying to be a smart ass know it all. I have seen way too many results of towing with too small a vehicle. At least, if you insist on using the Explorer to tow this big a load, get a load leveling hitch.

 

[sport97]

Maybe put additional leafs into the leaf pack, I see you have an AAL, but somewhere there are steps on how to modify f150 springs to work, not sure if you have access to them...

But like was mentioned, that is a heavy load for an explorer and too tongue heavy. I def would not pull it on backwards though, that would be way to much negative tongue weight.

 

[traveler]

Yep, put more of the weight on the rear of the trailer. Then you can go buy a new tow vehicle when you wreck this one. For one thing the Explorer is not big enough to handle that much weight. All the years driving trucks, I can not count the number of wrecks I have seen from IMPROPER towing. You might get away with moving the car back a little bit on the trailer, but watch out for SWAY. I know, everybody(including me) has towed more than they should. Some get away with it for a long time, some don't. Believe me, I am not trying to be a smart ass know it all. I have seen way too many results of towing with too small a vehicle. At least, if you insist on using the Explorer to tow this big a load, get a load leveling hitch.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I came to this post. Thats a load for a 3/4 ton or 1 ton pickup. Not an Explorer. That being said, move the car back on the trailer so the weight is sitting on the axles, not the tongue. You need 200lbs (? I'll defer to the more knowledgeable deweyville on the exact number) of tongue weight, not a thousand.

 

[deweyville65]

Thanks, traveler, but I think you are giving me too much credit. I have just been around for a while, and have made (hopefully learned from) some of these mistakes myself. You dont tow a two horse trailer, with lumber in it, with a 61 Valiant down hill on a dirt road for instance.
The tongue weight varies with the load, but without a weight distributing hitch, I would not want more than 350-500#. A weight distributing hitch with sway control for the load pictured, I think would be good. Better have brakes on BOTH trailer axles too.

 

[traveler]

First load leveling hitch I saw was on my grandfathers Chevy "travelall"(?) He used it to tow a 28ft "land n sea" houseboat on a 3 axle trailer. It got the job done, and yep, all axles had brakes. LOL (Loved that ol boat, lots of fun on Grand Lake!)

but I digress.. LOL Yea, a load leveling hitch would be a good second choice, the first being finding at least a 3/4 ton pickup to tow that load with.

 

[sportblack99]

With any load put as much of the weight to the rear of the trailer as possible.

No, this is why people get in wrecks. This would make the situation even worse than having it tongue heavy. Putting all the weight at the rear would take weight off on the drives.

 

[desertsky]

The rule of thumb is 10% of the load as tongue weight. That would put your tongue weight at around 300-350#. You can go to Summit Racing web site and get an extra leaf for the rear that can take the weight. I have one in my '99 and I tow a 3100lb boat most weekends in the summer over 10,000ft passes to go fishing. It really makes a difference!

 

[coco944x4s]

No, this is why people get in wrecks. This would make the situation even worse than having it tongue heavy. Putting all the weight at the rear would take weight off on the drives.

This is very correct. As has been said more than a few times, center the load as best as you can on a trailer, that is the purpose of the trailer springs, axles and tires after all; to carry the load. The tow vehicle is simply intended for one thing, towing. While there is no PERFECT towing situation, this instance isnt the worst I have seen either. I would start with purchasing a weight distributing hitch, centering the load over the axles as much as possible, and maybe look into some load helper shocks. Rockauto.com offers a set for the rear of my 94, which is probably very close to yours, but i would look it up for yours anyway. You may also want to look into purchasing some overload springs from any online retailer such as LMCtruck.com and jcwhitney.com.

If you are towing loads like this twice a month or more, i would seriously consider upgrading to at least a half ton truck if possible, that may not be within your budget or current life situation. Another thing to remember to take a look at is your tires, make sure they are rated high enough for the loads you are pulling. Also make sure you have an auxiliary transmission cooler in front of your radiator if you have an automatic transmission as heat is the #1 killer of automatics. Also never use overdrive when pulling heavy loads. I realize this might not be new information to you, and has wandered quite far from the opriginal topic, but I thought I would expound upon the safety and reliability aspects of towing since your current state of towing is a great hindrance to both of those aspects. That is all for me, call me crazy or stupid if you wish, COCO.

 

[koda2000]

Dude, wwwaaayyyy too much tongue weight. As other's have said, turn the car around and move it further back on the trailer. If that doesn't do it I'd add air bags to the rear of the X.

 

[01STrunner]

And add a leaf can really help. Also air adjustable shocks like from Monroe are amazing. I have them on my ST and they level put any load I throw on it and I've had as much as ~5-600 lb on it. Both are really cheap fixes.

 

[Cranmaro99]

Too much tongue weight.

 

[Sedition]

Do you think F150 springs from a 88-89 model F150 will fit? Also, what would they be rated at?

 

[BK_89iX]

As someone mentioned above, proper tongue weight is dictated by the load, not what the tow vehicle can handle without excess sag. Only way to correctly set it up is to measure the actual tongue weight. Number of ways to beef up the rear suspension. I like the Roadmaster concept, but it's a bit pricey (no first hand experience yet). Here's a good general read on trailering:

http://www.sherline.com/lmbook.htm

BK

 

[01STrunner]

I have heard of those working.

Check out this leaf spring chart: http://littlekeylime.com/MrN/mrnimages/leaf_springs.png