Video Transcript for Weigh Safe Ball Mounts| Safe and Reliable Towing | Manufacturer Interview

Hey neighbors, Kevin with etrailer. And today we have our friend Kyle here from Weigh Safe and he's gonna be telling us a little bit more about their ball mounts. Awesome, thank you Kevin. Yeah, so like Kevin was saying, Kyle from Weigh Safe, we're out of Utah. Here's a couple of the different ball mounts that we offer. Starting off, obviously what makes us a bit different is as you can see, this builtin gauge that measures the tongue weight.

The vast majority of our products have that builtin gauge to measure the tongue weight or the amount of force that's applied on this tow ball when you set up your trailer. As you may or may not know, the amount of force that's applied on the tow ball, your tongue weight's incredibly important to towing safely, towing properly, and just the performance of your truck and trailer that you may or may not know. But the tongue weight of the trailer or the amount of tongue weight on the tow ball should be 10% to 15% of the total weight of the trailer and whatever's in it. And so ask any company, anybody out there, 10% to 15% of the total weight should be on this tow ball. But obviously what makes us different, we are the ones that take the guesswork out of knowing your tongue weight because it reads in real time right there, right So as you're loading up the trailers, you'll be able to see where your tongue weight's at and you can adjust that loader in your trailer so you're in that safe zone, which again is 10% to 15%.

And to go over it quickly, too little tongue weight causes trailer sway, incredibly dangerous, rolled over trailers, accidents, fatalities. But what people don't realize is too much tongue weight can be just as dangerous as well as wear down the truck and trailer, its components costing you thousands upon thousands of dollars in repairs and premature replacements of parts and pieces. And so it's what makes us unique and helping the neighbors, you all tow safely and properly just making the towing experience safer and more enjoyable and saving ya a couple bucks while doing so. So we'll kind of go through a couple of the different ball mounts that we have. Starting off right here this is what we call our Aero hitch.

Obviously like I was talking about, we have that built-in gauge signaling people what their tongue weight is, helping 'em load it correctly. You can notice besides this built-in gauge, it comes with a two inch stainless steel tow ball and our clamshell adapter, which converts this two inch stainless steel ball to a 2-5/16. We also sell this part individually and fits on any two inch tow ball. This one's rated up to 12,500 pounds and available in a couple different sizes depending on the lifted, if your vehicle's lifted or not. Moving on to the steel Weigh Safe products, typically if you think of Weigh Safe, you think of this unit right here, either in steel or aluminum, but again has that built-in gauge and it even has a dual pin lock included and the optional hitch pin lock with the same key that you can get as well.

But again, has that built-in gauge and it actually comes with a two inch and a 2-5/16 stainless steel tow balls. Super easy to interchange. Just unlock this dual pin lock right here, pull it off and behind this unit right here, there's a little pin that you just remove. Switch out the tow balls, whichever one you need, put it back in there, lock it into place. And again, available in steel, which we have right here. And aluminum. Aluminum where you go up to 21,000 pounds rated gross trailer weight, the steel up to 22,000 pounds. And so, like I said, a couple different variety and you'll notice, you know, as you peruse the different Weigh Safe products that many of 'em have that built-in gauge. But we also offer a normal version of a hitch. We call it the 180 hitch by Weigh Safe. As you can see it does not have the gauge but still comes with that dual pin lock. And instead of the interchangeable tow balls, like the Weigh Safe, the two tow balls are fixed. The two inch ball and the 2-5/16, it's optional. You can get 'em with stainless steel tow balls, which you have right here or chrome tow balls. And again, in order to change the tow ball, depending on what size you need, unlock this dual pin lock, pull it out, take the head off, flip it around, put it back on, lock it back into place and you're good to go, incredibly fast. And then just like the Weigh Safe where we have it available in the aluminum and steel, the 180 hitch, we have it also available in aluminum or steel. Right here is the 180 Pro or the Steel 180 hitch, excuse me. It has again the dual pin lock for security purposes, just pull that out, interchange it, depending on the tow ball you need. And it even has this fun little accessory two inch receiver to put in, you know, cargo carriers, a step, flagpole, bike rack, whatever you can fit into a two inch receiver as well. And then as far as weight ratings, forgot to mention, this one goes up to 21,000 pounds, just like the aluminum Weigh Safe. And the Steel 180 Pro actually goes up to 25,000 pounds. Well I wanna thank you for that detailed breakdown of each one of your ball mounts here. Really makes a difference when we're trying to help you guys at home figure out exactly which one's gonna be the right fit for you. And along with that, safety's definitely the big important factor here. It's even in the name. So even if you're starting out with the basic ball mount, you're still getting that gauge in there, which is gonna help you properly load your trailer. Now yesterday Kyle and Jamie we inchesre in here and they we inchesre showing us how big of a difference it can make simply moving your load four inches on your trailer. And we we inchesre talking a couple hundred pounds of difference. So that could be the difference between you making it safely to your destination or having your trailer spin out on you while you're out on the highway. So why don't we go ahead and show you what we mean right now. Pop quiz, I suspect this is like, and all the questions that you get asked, like this is the easiest question. What percent of tongue weight should you have on the tow vehicle of the trailers Total trailer's weight Anyone know Customer 1 10%. 10%. 10% is I think perfect. 10% to 15% is like acceptable. So this, we're gonna do some quick math, so keep up. This weighs 1,500 pounds, this weighs 600 pounds for a total of 2,100 pounds. So if we're looking for 10% to 15% of tongue weight, how much weight should we have on the tongue of the tow vehicle Okay, perfect. So can somebody with good eyes come up and tell me how much tongue weight we have on the tow vehicle right now Just look at the scale. Yeah, so I'm sorry, I'm trying to eliminate many of you. Customer 2 We're sitting, are these by a hundred Instructor Yes. Customer 2 Probably at like 170. Instructor Yep, that sounds right. Okay, so we're slightly light. Here, let me make sure we get this exactly right first. So I've stopped turning it on 'cause I don't feel that cool when I turn it on to do this. So I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, okay, there we go. That is probably the appropriate tongue weight. So what we hear often though is, well, I'm not gonna have too little tongue weight. I just put it on and I do it until I hear the noise, until the wheels touch the front, until whatever, I slam it to the front of the trailer and I'm good to go. So let's do that. Let's see. So we're at about 200 pounds right now if I wasn't in this. I'm gonna just push it back. Boom. I'm at the back it until it hits. I felt it hit. So what are we at now Can someone come check this for me Customer 1 Like 240. Good guess. Customer 1 My eyes can't see on that. I feel like it's more credible coming from someone other than me 'cause I might be lying to you. It's all right. We're sitting like just south of 400 actually. So like 390 I'd say. So 400 pounds. So I moved it about that, yeah, about that far. So let's call that six inches. I don't estimate very good. So six inches back and it doubled the tongue weight. So we went from 10%, just under 10% to 20%, 20 plus percent tongue weight on this trailer. And so you might go, all right, well 15%, 20% isn't that much more than 15%. Well it turns out, stay tuned. I will show you why that that is important. But it is actually really important. It makes a big difference in a lot of ways in your experience towing. And as we talk about the neighbors, and going along with this discussion and we'll have some awesome demonstrations on like too little tongue weight and this particular demonstration, too much tongue weight is just as dangerous or just as problematic. I had a working a trade show obviously for Weigh Safe. I had a gentleman come up to the booth, he's like, oh, hey Kyle, Weigh Safe. I actually am familiar with their products. I'm a big towing guy. I've been towing my entire life. And he is like, funny enough, most familiar with their products, familiar with how they work, but I never needed one. I've been towing forever. I know how to position that on my trailer. But happenstance is one of my buddies bought a Weigh Safe hitch and he is like, oh, just for kicks and giggles, can I borrow your Weigh Safe hitch just to see how I'm doing And so he takes his buddy's Weigh Safe, hooks it up to his truck. He was pulling a flatbed trailer and a Jeep on there. And so he pulls his Jeep onto his flatbed trailer, puts it exactly how he's always done it for years, puts it exactly where it is, gets off, takes a look at his Weigh Safe. And he's like, oh, you know, according to the Weigh Safe, I'm actually a little bit heavier than I need to be. He was probably at the 20% to 25% range. He's like, ah, again, for kicks and giggles let's see. You know, if this Weigh Safe is what it says it is. And so he scoots this jeep back, you know, six inches about, and checks the gauge again. He sees it within the 10% to 15% range. He's like, all right, straps it down, hops into his truck, and starts off on his normal route, right And he is like, Kyle, I can't tell you. He's like, I never knew that my towing experience could be that much better. My steering was more responsive, my brakes we inchesre more responsive. And so he's like, I'm a fan for life. He's like, I bought myself a Weigh Safe hitch. He's like, I absolutely love it. I'm not having to guess what my tongue weight is anymore. I'm experienced, but I'm still guessing. He's like, why would I need to make it hard on me when I could just know what my tongue weight is Get a real time live, you know, tongue weight and not have to guess about it anymore. And the funny thing about it is, if you ask any hitch company out there, not just Weigh Safe we didn't create it, but every hitch company will tell your neighbor that they need 10% to 15% of the total trailer weight to sit on the tow ball as their tongue weight. But Weigh Safe, we're the only ones that actually tell 'em what their tongue weight is and make it super simple for the rookie tower but even for those really experienced towers. I just wanna add one last thing. So sometimes like people take it as like it's an indictment on their ability, their skill. Like, oh, you're a bad tower if you can't balance it. Like, no, that's not what this is at all. If you looked at it, do I need to put my side by side here Do I need to put it here or do I need to put it here Like that is just for a human, hard to determine. You can't look at the tongue or the position on a trailer and say, I know what my tongue weight is. You can only guess. And minute differences make a huge, make a huge impact on the overall experience. And so, like it is a tool that I believe everybody should use and everyone would benefit from. It doesn't make you any less of a tower, it just makes you have a better experience.