[Rhodes22-list] I Hate My Trailer

[Rik Sandberg]

Slim,

Been there done that, although, not to the degree you are having.

It is not a particularly difficult job to move the trailer axle back. If 
your trailer is like mine was, you shouldn't have to change anything else 
to have the room for this. If I were going to do this, I would upgrade the 
axle and springs while I was at it. I found that my original springs were 
either just a bit soft to begin with, or they had gotten soft with age and 
were not doing a nice job of controlling the bouncing. I went to a 5700 lb 
5 leaf spring and the trailer suddenly developed pretty nice manners.

How high is your hitch ball??

The only way I was able to improve the loading characteristics of my 
trailer was to improve the angle of the trailer to the boat at the launch 
ramp. I bought a height adjustable hitch head and when I loaded, would have 
it in the lowest position. I would then raise it back up for highway 
travel. I could set this by pulling one pin. Also when I upgraded the axle, 
springs, tires and wheels, I needed to lengthen the spring shackles to gain 
some axle clearance under the centerboard. The old axle (3500 lb) was 2 1/4 
inch dia, the new axle (6000 lb) was 3 inch dia. This and the 16 inch 
wheels/tires combined to raise the back end of the trailer several inches. 
So on the launch ramp, my trailer had a fair amount less difference in 
angle between the boat and trailer than a stock trailer. I could drive my 
boat on, winch up slightly and I'd be ready to drive back comfortably from 
KY Lake at 65+, towing with an S-10.

Maybe Jim or Trish will comment on how she has towed for them so far.

Rik


At 02:58 AM 8/9/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi.  Mary Ann and I just got back from a four day trip with Fandango.  We
>went up north to Leech Lake in north central MN.  The sailing and living
>aboard were great (I'd love to tell you more about it sometime) but after
>putting the boat in and out several times in several locations with varying
>degrees of steepness at the ramps, I've concluded that something is
>definitely wrong here.
>
>No matter what, I just can't get the boat far enough forward on the trailer.
>The result is not enough tongue weight.  I had to take the motor off and
>lash it on the trailer tongue, put the rudder up in the V berth, along with
>anything else that has any weight to it.  I used my bathroom scale to try to
>find out how heavy the tongue really is:  the scale only goes up to 300 lbs.
>and I pegged the thing before the tongue even budged off the hitch--so I'll
>bet I have at least 400 lbs, maybe more.  Still, the trailer fishtailed at
>anything over 55 mph and also lurched and tugged most of the way.  I use a
>3/4 ton full-size cargo van with a V-8--more than enough.
>
>At one of the ramps that had a very gradual slope, I backed in so far that
>my tailpipe was almost under.  Using the tongue extension, the forward ends
>of the bunks were just at water level and I drove the boat hard at the
>trailer, trying to get up on the damn things, but still no luck.
>
>And at the steep ramps it's even worse.  As we've discussed before, you pull
>the boat all the way up to the bow stop, but when you pull the trailer out
>of the water, the bow rocks back away from the bow stop, and leaves the boat
>too far back--actually NEGATIVE TONGUE WEIGHT!
>
>I really don't want to move the motor, rudder, etc. not to mention all the
>landing gymnastics every time I trailer.  Is it just me or is it a design
>flaw.  The trailer axle should be about 6-8 inches back or something.  Can
>anyone offer some insight, please?  Pretty please?
>
>Slim
>
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