Snafu wrote:
Gary, I'm not understanding the part about "the longer the tongue, the
furthur back we can put the wheels." To maintain the ~10% of the weight
on
the hitch rule, increasing the tongue length works the opposite way.

Absolutely the longer the tongue (drawbar?) the further "forward" the
wheels will by to keep the balance right.


Say you have a rig, single axel, 24' long from back to tip of tongue. The
center of gravity of boat + trailer is @ 8' from the back. So if the axel
was
at 8' the thing would essentially be balanced over the axel, no weight on
the tongue.

Then you move the wheels back until you get the desired 10% / 400#
on the tongue. Say you have to move it 1' to do that. So now the
axel is at 7' from the back.

Now, you make the tongue longer. That tongue has more leverage to
the piviting point (the axel). It would be easier to lift that tongue. It
would have *less* weight when put on the ball. To get back to
the 400# you would have to move the wheels *back* more.

By tongue I do NOT mean the draw bar on the truck. I mean
that the length of the "pole" hanging out the front of the trailer
is extended and made longer.


If I'm thinking of this wrong I'd love to hear it...but I think I'm right
and more likely we just aren't picturing the same thing / using the
same language.


Thanks,
Gary


PS: Ours will actually be dual-axel and these numbers are just a guess
at what our situation will be...I don't know the actual weights or
centers-of-gravity yet. Our boat is 3800 to 4000 lbs and I think
the trailer will be 1200 or so.