"basskisser" wrote in message
om...

Uh, no...let's see if YOU want to play the game. Find in the above
where you are in HUGE error. Hint: The c.g. of the boat/trailer has
not changed in relation to the fulcrum.


Okay, run this experiment:

Find a couple of kids that are the same weight and head off to a
playground that has a see-saw (do they still have these things??). Take
along a 1 foot 2x4 and a 10 foot 2x4, a C-clamp (to fasten the 2x4 to the
see-saw) and a scale.


Clamp the 1 foot 2x4 to the see-saw, and set the kids on seats. Measure the
downward force on the end of the 2x4. If the two kids were the same weight,
and the see-saw was balanced to start with, you should be measuring
something very close to zero.

Now remove the short 2x4 and clamp on the 10 foot 2x4. Take the same
measurement at the end of the this lever arm.

Do you really think that it will be less than zero?

The answer will be that you will measure some portion of the total weight of
the 2x4.

Back to the boat application:

If the original tongue weight was significantly more than the added weight
of the tongue extension then you can safely ignore it. On the other hand, if
the trailer was close to being "in balance" then you can't ignore it.

What Steve said is absolutely correct. Without knowing the balance point
you can't determine if adding tongue length will increase or decrease the
tongue weight.