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wrote:
The welder who modified my power boat trailer into a sailboat trailer,
used a bathroom scale to see how long the trailer tongue had to be to
give a downward force of 200 pounds on the ball.

Serious questions coming up: How does a power boat trailer differ from
a sailboat trailer; isn't the "downward force" known as "tongue weight;"
and why could not the boat (whether power or sail) be repositioned on
the trailer so as to provide the (presumably) requisite tongue weight
regardless of type of load?

I ask the latter because, first of all, I do have a (ski) boat and
trailer (which I might like to use for a different boat), and I also
have an open frame trailer set up to haul several four-wheel rail
"speeders" (one at a time of course, but of varying weights), and I have
simply created wheel chocks to be placed at appropriate points on the
trailer frame depending on which speeder I am towing, so as to assure a
tongue weight of 150 pounds.

Ken Harrison