Tongue weight over by 50 lbs?

[370Z]

2010 GLK, hitch says 3500lb capacity and 280 for tongue weight. The trailer I bought says 2800lbs, tw is 330, when I hooked it up, driving seemed fine but I noticed the rear of the GLK was sagging a bit. Am I gonna be okay or do I need to buy a new hauler.... apparently those weight distribution hitches are only for class 3 and up? Can I just try and move the battery and two propane tanks to the back of the camper??

I don't care too much about the sag but I don't want anything dangerous to drive.

[ExtraSlow]

If it was me, I'd be okay with that. How did you measure those numbers though? If it was something from paperwork, you should for sure take it to the cat scale and get true numbers.

[370Z]

Thanks Extra, only from the specs sticker on the trailer.... ya I didn't think it was that big of a deal. One day I'll go measure for real...

[spikerS]

I was just gonna say, move some weight to behind the axle and you should be fine.

[HiTempguy1]

My concern would be if the TW is actually much higher due to the way you've loaded the trailer.

Unibody cars don't have very strong mounting points for their hitches, and too much weight can lead to tearing of the hitch mounting holes (this isn't an over exaggeration, it does happen). If there is another model built on the same chassis that can hold a greater tongue weight, then your main concern is just sagging of the rear, which is manageable.

If it really is only 50lbs over, go nuts. Keep in mind, you also want to keep around that magical 10% tongue weight of the total weight of the trailer to prevent tail wag at speed. Moving your propane tanks and battery to the back is easily 100lb's of tongue weight off the front, which could make a big difference.

[ExtraSlow]

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Thanks Extra, only from the specs sticker on the trailer.... ya I didn't think it was that big of a deal. One day I'll go measure for real...

The cat scale is fun! Those stickers are horribly inaccurate

[Thaco]

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My concern would be if the TW is actually much higher due to the way you've loaded the trailer.

Unibody cars don't have very strong mounting points for their hitches, and too much weight can lead to tearing of the hitch mounting holes (this isn't an over exaggeration, it does happen). If there is another model built on the same chassis that can hold a greater tongue weight, then your main concern is just sagging of the rear, which is manageable.

If it really is only 50lbs over, go nuts. Keep in mind, you also want to keep around that magical 10% tongue weight of the total weight of the trailer to prevent tail wag at speed. Moving your propane tanks and battery to the back is easily 100lb's of tongue weight off the front, which could make a big difference.

also consider the ol' teeter totter, battery is like 50lbs, but moving that the same distance behind the axle is gonna have a 100lb impact on tongue weight

[Mitsu3000gt]

If it's a camper it should be super easy to redistribute the weight in order to stay within the tongue weight limit. You shouldn't have to move as much stuff back as you suggest.

[370Z]

Ya it's just a 2800 lb dry camper.

[ExtraSlow]

Show pics, I love small campers