Re: [a/s] My First Tow: A Lesson in Fear

[Jim Dunmyer <jdunmyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Phil,
 The PRINCIPLE is true that more tongue weight is better, less is worse.
The accepted range seems to be that between 10 -> 15% of the trailer
weight should be on the tongue. Going towards the high end is better
than going towards the low end. I didn't mean to suggest that anyone
should try to go beyond that.

As far as your statement that "a standard weight distributing hitch is
not enough", that means that there are a LOT of folks out there with
totally inadaquet hitch setups. EZ-Lift, et. al. should all be out of
business because they don't make super-duper hitches. Take a walk
through the campground at your next stop and see what folks are using,
you'll find the vast majority with 'not enough' hitch. Yet, you don't
see those trailers littering the road.

Again, I think we're arguing semantics and perhaps DEGREES, not
principles.

One other principle that I think you'll agree with is that newbies
should do 2 things that our friend didn't that caused him to become
closer to God:

1. Understand how your hitch and brakes function, and make sure that
they're working properly. He was under the misunderstanding that the
brakes should be working because the lights came on when he pressed the
pedal. And he had apparently not actually checked to see if the brakes
were working.

2. Practice under controlled conditions. Most of us didn't initially
learn to drive by taking a car onto a busy highway at high speeds, we
practiced in a parking lot, then lonely roads, and worked up to the
highspeed, crowded roads. Yet, I've read innumerable stories right here
of folks who hitched up and set off on their first trip with (seemingly)
not much more than a kick of the tires and an adjustment of the radio.

                                    <<Jim>>