first, where are you getting a 500 pound tongue?
20 yrs experience in the RV business and I can tell ya a class three trailer HITCH can handle up to 300# TONGUE WEIGHT. And TONGUE WEIGHT (the amount of weight at the hitch ball) is always taken to be a maximum of 10% of the trailer's gross weight. SO....a class 3 trailer should weigh up to 3,000#.
The vin is generally stamped into the trailer tongue frame or stamped on a metal plate that is welded to the trailer tongue frame.
Depends on who manufactured the trailer
The tongue is the part which connects to the tow vehicle's hitch.
Draw bar is a trailer attachment device. Tongue is the point on a pintle mounted trailer which attaches to a ball or clevice on the tow vehicle.
at a public scales, weigh the vehicle without the trailer connected, connect the trailer and pull back on the scales leaving the trailer tires off the scale. The difference in the two weights is the tongue weight
On my 1999 M-2205 travel trailer, the VIN is etched into the tongue. Look on the tongue. It should be etched in.
10-12%
The tongue of the trailer presses down on the trailer hitch, and that is tongue weight. How hard it presses down is a function of the weight in front of the trailer wheels, and how much of the weight is not offset by the weight behind the wheels. If the tongue weight is too great, the rear of the towing vehicle goes down. Too light, and the boat trailer will swing side to side.
If you have a Class IV hitch, the hitch can handle up to 12,000 lbs of gross trailer weight and 1,200 lbs of tongue weight.
5 to 10 percentwhen are lights required to be istalled on a trailer
so that there is a bit more weight towards the tongue of the trailer.