Ballast Question

[Nick80]

I boat/camp at a small lake where we trailer our boats each use. I have purchased 700lbs of ballast from Lead Wake for the nose of my 2022 23ZX that is on order. My question is...Is that extra bags of ballast an issue for trailering? Do you move the weight more centered over the wheels for trailering? Do most people always keep the ballast in the boat or off load it and only add when light on people? Looking for a total better understanding of how i should use my ballast.

Thanks,
Nick

[UNSTUCK]

Welcome to the sight, Nick. Trailering any kind of weight depends on your trailer and your truck. First you need to know the GVW of your trailer (not usually high on the list of sales points from salesmen) to know if your trailer can handle 700 extra pounds of payload. If you got the two axle, 5 lug trailer there is a good chance you are overloaded with just the boat loaded for the day. In that case I would not add any lead to the boat for trailering. If you have the two axle 6 lug or the three axle trailer you will be fine.
Then you need to look at your truck. What is the max tongue weight for the hitch? Max payload of the truck, axle weight ratings, and finally gross combined weight of the truck and trailer? All of that information will be on the stickers in your driver door. Keep in mind, all the people and gear in the truck go against your payload number, as well as the tongue weight of the trailer.

Boatmate is pretty good about putting 10% tongue weight on the trailers. Tige claims the boat weighs 6000. Add 400 pounds of fluids, then anything hanging off the tower, maybe even the tower itself, and all your gear. You could be 7000 pounds. Add the trailer frame and axle weight. This puts your tongue weight at 7-800 pounds. 700 in lead in the bow will put at least most of that weight right on the tongue. So now you're at 1500 tongue weight.

In my opinion, anyone that doesn't scale their truck and boat/trailer is crazy. Find a three axle scale and drive your truck on. Front axle on the front scale, rear axle on the second scale and all the trailer axles on the third scale. Get that printout. Then unhook the boat from the trailer so that the jack is on the same scale as the trailer axles. Keep the truck on the two scales as it was before. Get that print out.
With all these numbers you will be able to see if all your weights are within your trucks and trailers specs and you will be able to make wise decisions about adding more weight. Anything else is just unsafe guessing.

I did this and found out my RZX3 on a two axle trailer came in at 8400 pounds. The GVW on the trailer was 8000. I was just overweight. I could not add any lead unless I put it in the truck, where I still had a little capacity. I now have a new truck that allows me quite a bit more payload and a three axle trailer so I have no concerns about adding lead. My lead should be here tomorrow. I will load it up over the axles and head to the scales to get an idea of where I can put it while trailering, with a goal of keeping 10-15% tongue weight and not going over the trucks payload number. I hope to be able to keep 500 pounds in the rear lockers and maybe 300 pounds in the bow. We'll just have to see what the scales say.