Tongue Length

Any recommendations or rules of thumb for tongue length?

I have built a 12 foot (10 ft. deck + 2 ft. beavertail) trailer, and built the tongue approximately 5 feet long.

I did a "weight and balance" on the weeekend, loaded the car on the trailer and hooked it up, measured the tongue weight, etc.

One thing that strikes me is that the tongue "looks" a little long in proportion to the rest of the trailer. I purposely made it a little longer so that the trailer would be less sensitive to load placement vs. tongue weight, and hoping to gain some stability. One issue with this, of course, is that places a little more stress on the junction between the tongue and the main frame.

Another thing that really suprised me was the effectiveness of the sway/weight dist. bars. The Reese unit that I got uses friction material pads on the trailer tonge as opposed to the standard chain type. It is hugely apparent that this setup is going to make a big difference. The before and after difference (even just jumping up and down on the back bumper) is like night and day.

Any thoughts? The trailer is far from done, so now is the time to make changes.

[This message has been edited by Jon Nelson (edited May 31, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by Jon Nelson (edited May 31, 2004).]