Something else I thought of as to way I only keep 25lbs tongue weight. The more weight on hitch, the less weight you will have on the front tire.

 

I've always taken the cooler rack off the motorcycle trailers or else never used them (the Champion Colorado trailer in my sig line pic was soon relieved of its rack after its maiden trip home). Even the "normal" sized ones loaded with drinks and ice are too much added hitch weight for my likes. The standard size rack cooler is one of the heavier items I load and it goes centered on the trailer axle. It keeps ice much better in there than outside also.
Weigh your options and try to keep them light. Emergencies come up unannounced.

 

Yea I always thought a cooler mounted on the tongue of the trailer was too much weight. I use a large Polar Bear soft cooler...it has weighted 86 lbs at times on the start of my trip. I put it over the axle in the center and towards the front of the trailer...being inside the trailer and out of the sun the ice last so much longer.

 

It will hold more weight than you can put in it safely. Just make sure you have about a 25 lbs of weight on the tongue. Including the weight of a full ice chest on the front. Good luck. tires about 30 psi is all you need. Might grease the bears while the tires are off. I rode the dragon with wife on the back and pulling my mtc alumna trailer without any problems.

 

I packed the bearing yesterday, wanted to see what the bearings looked like, they were fine, getting tires on Friday, ordered brake lights today. I know about stopping with a big load I farmed and pulled wagons without brakes behind my pickup. Probably won't haul too much more than I put on my 2010 just that the 2018 has less storage, thanks for all the advice

 

I took my bike and trailer to a United Van Lines moving company location just up the road. I weighted my bike separate loading for a long trip and then the trailer on their drive on scales. They didn't even charge me, as they thought it was a neat looking set up. Then you can do like Roadie stated and do your weight and balance for your tongue weight. Side note......I use to do weight and balance calculations on commercial aircraft many years ago. But that's a story for another time.

FWIW their scales have to be tested and certified by the state, since they charge some loads by weight on their trucks.

 

I could end up making this rather long, but I think I will try and make it shorter. The major key along with having a proper tongue weight, is where the "heavy" is in the trailer. You can get away with a lighter tongue weight if all of the "heavy" is over the axle and not pushed out away from the axle. Why I say this is where it gets long and involves physics that may get people lost. I don't have a good video to demonstrate like those two posted by sailordudeii, but I would love to have that setup to do some other weight distribution demonstrations to show it. With that said, my target is 25-33 lb. tongue weight with all of the "heavy" over the axle. Getting up to a 40 lb. tongue weight just leaves the bike feeling "off", and I do not like that, especially if I am going to end up on a twistie road pulling.

Now, to the riding part..... Before I got a trailer, I asked to pull one at one of our GWRRA chapter parking lot practices. I did not do any of the drills with it, I just wanted to pull it and do some basic stuff. The trailer was a rather heavy one and really not optimal distribution of weight. Tongue weight was OK, it just had it pushed out away from the axle. It was a BBQ grill built into a small trailer with the gas grill being the rear of the trailer. It did give me an idea of a few things. Later, when I got a trailer, I took it to a parking lot practice and I did pull it during all of the drills. It was empty, but I did accomplish what I needed to experience. My basic idea was that I needed to mentally be in "haul a in the twisties" mode; but actually ride like a calm leisurely ride. The Haul a in the twisties has a key point of being upright for hard braking as well as being at the correct entry speed for turns so you do not need to over-brake if at all while leaned over. Medium to hard braking in a curve with a trailer will either stand the bike up and you run wide, or you slide out the rear wheel in a low side. A heavy throttle coming out of a driveway will pull you over more than you want to go potentially leading you into the curb. These issues are why the actual ride is a leisurely ride.

 

I can’t remember where I learned it, but I was taught to visualize a triangle between the hitch and the trailer axles (single/double/triple/etc). In that triangle you put the heavy items ( to include the axle areas) then the remaining area in the trailer outside of the triangle (to the rear) is for light things. The advise had held up throughout the years whether working for someone else or pulling my own load.

 

Lots of great info, tips and advice already posted for the OP question. When I first started pulling a cargo trailer, I also looked here for tips and advice. I did weigh both tires and tongue with bathroom scales, did the math, moved things around, weighed again looking for that 10-15% tongue weight. I believe that is a great exercise to give you an ideal of the "Ideal" weight distribution. but not practical on a long distance trip. The act of loading/unloading, clothes distribution from a clean/dirty baggage separation, adding newly purchased items while on a trip, the weight of an ice chest changing nearly every stop, combinations are endless. You definitely want more weight in front of the axle, the U-haul video already posted shows a great example of what happens when you have a heavily loaded rear trailer. DON'T DO THIS!
You want a tightly packed trailer (not overloaded) to prevent weight from shifting to the back giving the undesirable heavy rear loading. If you experience the trailer wagging, slow down and pull over as soon as possible and re-distribute weight to the front. Keep in mind, the more weight you tow, the more your stopping distance increases. Deter from heavy breaking while leaned over in a corner, the trailer weight could push your rear wheel into a skid.
Enjoy your trailer, it's a great accessory!!!

 

I've pulled different brands of trailers over 10s of thousands of miles and I totally disagree with having of 10% weight on tongue. I always my tongue weight at 25lbs and 12" tires at 25lbs pressure and never had any issues. Assuming when you tour, majority have a passenger and all compartments are loaded. Do you really want to add anymore weight onto the rear tire than is needed ? What if your loaded trailer weighs 400+ lbs ? Do you really want to add 40+lbs of weight onto the rear tire ?

I placed my tool kit and cooler on top of the axle then distributed everything else accordingly.

 

Place all the heavy weight over your axle ( I want as little weight at the tongue as possible) and enjoy the ride. You should'nt even know the trailer is even there behind you,

 

Start out empty to get a "feel" for it. You probably won't know it's behind you.
I'm conservative about weight because it relates to stopping properly. Towing something is relatively easy. Stopping and maneuvers during an emergency situation can be totally different. If you haven't had much experience towing things even with "normal" vehicles there is a lot to learn and be aware of. Start out slow and add cargo weight as you get used to towing your trailer. Starting out on a trip fully loaded isn't the best way to learn.
Balance is key as has been pointed out. Proper tongue weight is essential but too much isn't a good thing either.

 

LOAD ER UP ! PLENTY HORSES TO PULL THAT WAGON !! AS STATED ABOVE BALANCE OF WEIGHT AND GIVE MORE FOR STOPPING . I'VE BEEN KNOWN TO CARRY TOO MUCH

 

The best visual I ever had, was my riding buddies overloaded Bushtec. While trying to initiate a hard stop deep in the Colorado mountains, the overloaded trailer (most of the weight loaded aft) lifted the back tire off the pavement and the result was already set in stone. With no rear tire contact patch on the road, the bike went down and the trailer flipped onto its roof.

Now, whenever I load my Aluma MCT, I have that image forever burned into my memory and load it properly.

- David

 

Sounds like an improperly loaded Bushtec...its hard to get too much weight aft in a Bushtec, especially if you have a cooler full of ice, water and other things on the tongue. It is something I notice with my Bushtec. The wheels are pretty far back, lots of room to put stuff in front of the wheels, not much behind them...then add a cooler on top of that, but you didn't say what kind of bike he was pulling the Bushtec with. It's pretty hard to picture putting so much weight in a trailer that you'd lift a Goldwing's rear tire.

To the OP, you've got the advice you need. Proper load distribution and tongue weight is the key. I've loaded my Bushtec chock full and never weighed or weighed the tongue, but I can tell when I lift it on the hitch and watch the bike move what I'm working with.

Lastly, not sure if anyone else mentioned it, but there's a Sub Board for pulling trailers:

MC Trailer Board

Use this board for information about pull behind and transporting MC trailers.

www.gl1800riders.com

 

Also think about slowing or stopping in a straight line. You want the trailer pushing on the back of the bike in a straight line while applying the brakes or downshifting while slowing or stopping.

For example, I got myself in a situation where I was entering a traffic circle and did not slow early enough. With the trailer tongue at an angle to the bike, the trailer momentum will try to push the back wheel sideways.

 

You received excellent recommendations from Roadie and Sailor. I pulled a cargo trailer 56,094 miles with a GL1500.

 

I'm thinking that if ya put each wheel on your bathroom scale, and then the tongue, then add up the three: there's yer weight. Multiply that total by .10 and there's your minimum; mult. by .15 and there's your max (tongue weight). Adjust load as needed from there. Remember that too much tongue weight is better than not enough. That wagging is dangerous, but too much tongue weight (within reason of course) won't affect towing that much. Obviously if you have 200 pounds of tongue weight, it will overload the shocks and cause problems, but as I said, within reason, too much is better than too little. I wouldn't worry if I had 20 percent on the tongue for example, but I would NOT tow with just 5 percent on it.

 

Stopping is the key! That bike will pull 500# with ease. So be careful when in town traffic where non thinking drivers can pull out of a parking lot right in front of you while you are slowing down for a light and then stop in front of you and taking up the space you had counted on.
If your trailer wags at all(!!!!) then pull over and put some more weight up front. 60% of the weight forward of the axle and 40% behind the axle.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

^^^What Roadie said but I will add one thing. Just because you can pack a lot of weight in a trailer doesn’t mean you should. The less weight you pull the safer your setup will be and the more you will enjoy pulling and more importantly…..stopping it.

 

When I first started towing my trailer I bought a fish scale and weighed everything that was going in it....you want 10 to 15 % of the total weight on the tongue of the trailer and you find that out by hooking the tongue of the loaded trailer to the fish scale and lift it up....adjust the items in the trailer to get that number on the tongue...with my trailer I pack the heavier items like my cooler over the axle towards the front and lighter items towards the rear..we usually carry the same things while on trips and after a few times you get the hang of where everything goes

 

Roadie,
You are absolutely correct about wanting 10-15% of the total weight on the tongue ( can't stress the importance of this enough); however, things have gotten a heck of a lot easer since the fish hook days. I have a "Weigh Safe Adjustable Ball Mount" hitch with a built-in gauge to tell me exactly what my tongue weight is.

As to O.P's question as to how much weight he can put in his trailer....there is metal tag on the left of the Aluma trailer tongue that has the load info.
You are going to love your Aluma trailer!

Jim

side of the tongue on your Aluma trailer that has the load info.
Your going to love your Aluma trailer!

Jim