[Rhodes22-list] Axle location

[ROGER PIHLAJA]

Graham,

If the single axle on your boat trailer is 7 inches too far forward; then, that’s huge!  This is undoubtedly the source of your problem.

The previous statement about the boat “looking” like it’s sitting in the right spot on the bunks is irrelevant.  The fact that the tongue weight is too low when the engine is mounted on the transom is diagnostic of the boat being too far back on the trailer.  It is completely reasonable for you to expect to be able to trailer your boat with the engine mounted.

On my Lil Dude trailer, the position of the bow stop can be adjusted.  On my trailer, this adjustment is made by loosening 3 U-Bolt clamps on the trailer tongue and sliding the base of the bow stop assembly fore and aft on the tongue. Once you’ve moved the bow stop forward, you also have to adjust the vertical position of the supports for the bunk boards.  On my trailer, these vertical positions are also adjustable.  Adjusting the vertical positions of the bunk board supports changes the shape of the bunk boards.  You change the shape of the bunk boards such that the hull will sit more forward on the trailer.

S/V Dynamic Equilibrium originally came with a 6 hp 2-cycle Evinrude outboard.  When I upgraded to the current, heavier 8 hp 4 cycle Honda outboard, I moved the bow stop on my trailer forward about 2 inches to compensate for the extra weight on the transom.  The adjustment to the bunk boards was minor.  As I recall, only the front bunk supports (my trailer has 4 bunk supports on each side) had to be lowered a fraction of an inch.

I would think that any boat dealer that sells trailerable boats could make these adjustments for you for a nominal fee.

If you either can’t or don’t want to adjust the position of the boat; then, you could always consider adding more weight to the tongue.  A few hundred lbs of pig iron would be cheap and easy to clamp onto the tongue.

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium

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From: Graham Stewart<mailto:gstewart8 at cogeco.ca>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2021 9:33 AM
To: 'The Rhodes 22 Email List'<mailto:rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Axle locattion

I just measured the location of my axle and compared it to the drawings prepared by Todd and found that my axle is 7" forward of what the drawings specify. That strikes me as a pretty significant difference. I am wondering if the others who have found it impossible to get their boats far enough forward might also measure the distance between the back of their trailer to the center of the axle to see if this is the reason for the difficulty. The drawing stipulates that this distance should be 70" but mine is 77".

Does anyone know whether this dimension changed at some time between older and newer iterations of the boat?


Graham Stewart
Agile, Rodes 22, 1976
Kingston Ontario