M.A.C Cruiser wrote:
How does one judge the balance?
Ideally, you should have your boat weight (not necessarily the boat) centered over the axel(s). You want it to be forward just enough to give you between 500-800 lbs of tongue weight on your hitch ball.
If you run your setup (boat and truck) by a truck stop, they will have a scale. Tell them you want to try and figure your tongue weight. They should be able to tell you how this is done. Basically, you need the weight of your truck alone, and then the weight of your truck with the boat hooked up but only the truck on the scale (the boat/trailer will not be on the scale). Subtract the two weights and that gives your tongue weight.
Push the boat forward to add tongue weight or push backward to remove tongue weight. The more weight you put on the hitch, the better the trailer will tow. But if you put too much, then all you are doing is bottoming-out your rear suspension and raising your front (not a good thing is you like to be able to steer). Too much weight on the back of the trailer (not enough tongue weight) is what causes a trailer to fish-tail or wag while towing. This can be very dangerous and will amplify with speed. It will cause you to lose control and could cause a roll over.