Either way, ensure the final tongue weight still falls within 10-15% of your trailer's total weight to be extra cautious. If you adjust anything on your trailer after this calculation, you'll need ...

2020 Ford Explorer | Cars.com photo by Aaron Bragman Tongue weight is the amount of weight a trailer puts on the towing vehicle’s trailer ball. The tongue is the part of the trailer that sticks ...

For our sample truck above, towing a 6,000-lb trailer (600-ish pounds tongue weight) would leave a safe 1,050 lb for passengers and their gear.

What Does the F-150's Smart Hitch Function Do? This feature utilizes the same sensors as the scales feature, but it helps ensure the trailer hitch's tongue weight remains in spec. This is trickier ...

So, if you're towing an 8,000-pound trailer for example, aiming for 10 percent of that trailer's weight to be pushing down on the tow hitch, that's 800 pounds of tongue weight.

If the trailer jack is too high, use one of the wooden blocks to close the gap. But if the tongue weight is too heavy for your scale — or if you're unsure — that's where the lever method comes in.