Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

Designing our trailer it looks like for our 22' boat we could have the
tongue as litle as 2' from the bow -- or 24' total rig. But we'ld like to
put the wheels (tandem) as far back as possible so less boat and
less weight is hanging out past the wheels. This should help
stability. SO, the longer the tongue, the furthur back we can
put the wheels. ~ Storage of the trailer is no problem and though
a longer rig makes tight manuvering harder I don't think we'll
have any major prolems with that.

So, any other problems with having a longer trailer tongue?

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

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.

In my case, my trailer has a short tongue; it's just a couple feet forward
of the bow. I find it to be a pain in the arse because I can't back down
the ramp far enough for the boat to float off the trailer. I have to give
the boat a pretty good push to slide down the bunks. If the trailer had a
longer tongue, the boat could float right off.



"Gary Warner" wrote in message
...

Designing our trailer it looks like for our 22' boat we could have the
tongue as litle as 2' from the bow -- or 24' total rig. But we'ld like to
put the wheels (tandem) as far back as possible so less boat and
less weight is hanging out past the wheels. This should help
stability. SO, the longer the tongue, the furthur back we can
put the wheels. ~ Storage of the trailer is no problem and though
a longer rig makes tight manuvering harder I don't think we'll
have any major prolems with that.

So, any other problems with having a longer trailer tongue?

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

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.

K



In my case, my trailer has a short tongue; it's just a couple feet forward
of the bow. I find it to be a pain in the arse because I can't back down
the ramp far enough for the boat to float off the trailer. I have to give
the boat a pretty good push to slide down the bunks. If the trailer had a
longer tongue, the boat could float right off.



"Gary Warner" wrote in message
...

Designing our trailer it looks like for our 22' boat we could have the
tongue as litle as 2' from the bow -- or 24' total rig. But we'ld like to
put the wheels (tandem) as far back as possible so less boat and
less weight is hanging out past the wheels. This should help
stability. SO, the longer the tongue, the furthur back we can
put the wheels. ~ Storage of the trailer is no problem and though
a longer rig makes tight manuvering harder I don't think we'll
have any major prolems with that.

So, any other problems with having a longer trailer tongue?

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

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.

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

I added a 3 foot, removable, tongue extension onto my little (14 ft Carolina
Skiff) trailer so that I could get the boat into the water more easily on
shallow ramps.. It did NOT add any problems in towing of which I am aware.
It certainly helped in backing up and launching. RichG

"Gary Warner" wrote in message
...

Designing our trailer it looks like for our 22' boat we could have the
tongue as litle as 2' from the bow -- or 24' total rig. But we'ld like to
put the wheels (tandem) as far back as possible so less boat and
less weight is hanging out past the wheels. This should help
stability. SO, the longer the tongue, the furthur back we can
put the wheels. ~ Storage of the trailer is no problem and though
a longer rig makes tight manuvering harder I don't think we'll
have any major prolems with that.

So, any other problems with having a longer trailer tongue?

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

If you increase the tongue length, you will increase the tongue weight
by exactly the amount of weight of the added tongue material. Leverage
has nothing to do with the tongue weight. If you move the axles
backward you will increase the tongue weight, forward will decrease the
tongue weight. Tom.

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

You get too many doe-eyed female trailers
following you around.

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

If you increase the tongue length, you will increase the tongue weight
by exactly the amount of weight of the added tongue material. Leverage
has nothing to do with the tongue weight. If you move the axles
backward you will increase the tongue weight, forward will decrease the
tongue weight. Tom.

I disagree. A trailer is just a class 2 lever. If the distance between
the wheels & the ball were doubled, the tongue weight would be cut in half.

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

Gould 0738 wrote:

You get too many doe-eyed female trailers
following you around.




Watch it with the sexual innuendo, Chuckster...we have Republicans
about, and you know how nervous sex makes them...

--
Email sent to is never read.

Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
 

On 07 Dec 2003 13:03:34 GMT, (Wwj2110) wrote:

If you increase the tongue length, you will increase the tongue weight
by exactly the amount of weight of the added tongue material. Leverage
has nothing to do with the tongue weight. If you move the axles
backward you will increase the tongue weight, forward will decrease the
tongue weight. Tom.

I disagree. A trailer is just a class 2 lever. If the distance between
the wheels & the ball were doubled, the tongue weight would be cut in half.

That's assuming it's a perfect theoretical lever where the weight of the
lever itself is 0, which it's not. The actual answer is "it depends".
For example, if the tongue weight is currently 10lbs and you double the
length of the tongue but the extra length weighs 20lbs, you'll be
increasing the tongue weight. But if the current tongue weight is
1000lbs and you double the length same as above, you'll be decreasing
the tongue weight.

With a real world trailer, doubling the tongue length would cause the
new tongue weight to be somewhere between (old weight+weight of new
tongue length) and (old weight/2) but never actually being equal to
either of those unless you use some sort of extra load leveling device.

Steve