Tongue too light

Aug 3, 2012
2,542
Performance Cruising Telstar 28 302 Watkins Glen
A much easier fix may be to drop the level of the hitch on your truck. That will move the center of gravity forward without making any changes to the trailer.
Next, maybe lower your bow roller and change your bunk heights to lean the boat forward.
Next, see if you can move the boat forward on the trailer.
 
Jun 27, 2016
14
MacGregor 26S Beaufort, NC
I like the idea of using Jack stands to check potential axle locations. Very creative! Another cheap and dirty way to check tongue weight is to measure the rear height of the tow vehicle. Then get a friend who will give you his weight (don't ask your wife!) and ask him to stand on the rear bumper. Measure the drop. Have your friend step away, attach the trailer, and measure the drop again. This will give you an idea about the tongue weight when trailering. Not perfect but it usually works well enough to get stable trailering. Also, I leave my Yamaha 8 hp on the boat ('93 Mac 26S) and it tows well. I put the mounted spare near the front of the trailer on the port side, and I put my toolbox, drinking water jugs, and spare hardware under the V berth. The anchor is in the stern locker.
 
Mar 9, 2009
84
Macgregor 26S New Port Richey, Fl
I bought a spare tire mount from harbor freight to mount the spare tire on the front. I also have just secured a old empty dead battery there to add weight. I later bought, a new to me, anchor and 25' of chain and line which I now stow under the V birth, figured that balanced some of my weight in the stern. With the addition of the chain, I removed the battery with no adverse affect to towing.
 
Dec 6, 2016
2
Beneteau 331 Poole
I appreciate most of you guys are American, but I can give a European point of view!
I was a trailer and towbar manufacturer for over 25 years so know a bit about the subject.

In the eu, towbars have a 'd' value and an 's' value on the spec plate. The 's' value is the maximum nose weight (or tongue weight). To exceed that would be illegal.

We do things a bit differently here.... The design nose weight of trailers is generally accepted to be between 4% and 7% of the gross weight.

There is no doubt that (within the constraints) the higher the nose-weight, the more stable the outfit should be. As you said you're guessing at 2400lbs gross, then nose weight ought to be between 96 and 170 lb.

As some have said, there are various ways to achieve this....

1. Shift the load.
2. Lift the towball.
3. Shift the axle.
4. Add/remove ballast.

How much will depend very much on the configuration of your trailer, single/tandem/tri axle, and of course, the limits of your towbar and towing vehicle.

Measuring nose weight with bathroom scales is a simple operation on single axle trailers. I would go directly on the platform of the scales (using a sheet of ply to spread the load). On double (and tri) axle trailers, it is essential for the coupling height to be the same height as when hitched on to the vehicle, for results to be meaningful.

I've posted this in the hope it may help some European cousins!
 
Nov 28, 2016
3
Holiday 20 Port Deposit, Md.
Too many comments here, but ------ To weigh tongue and/or trailer/or vehicle, load, etc. , I go to the stone quarry down the street and use their scale. Many scales along major highways at truck stops have scales, though may charge for it. I'd think many places with scales would let you use theirs, if not too busy. All one can do is ask. Handy to know where to go when you want to know.
 

walt

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Jun 1, 2007
3,511
Macgregor 26S Hobie TI Ridgway Colorado
Too many comments LOL.. yes.. and one more which is of no value to the OP..

I remember reading some time ago about someone pulling a trailer (travel trailer I think) and had loaded a LOT of water up near the hitch. They of course had a TON of tongue weight. The problem came when they went over the top of a hill with a turn just after the top and the too heavy of trailer tongue weight resulted in not enough weight on the vehicle front steering wheels. I cant remember the details.. but I think someone had a bad day..
 
Aug 13, 2012
13
j boat j100 alamitos bay
I assume you have already moved the post as far forward as you can. If that is the case let's consider the problem. Boat trailered fine before with outboard off. Now you've added an outboard (80lbs?) to the transom. Depending on how the boat sits on the trailer, you may be able to add much less weight to counterbalance this at the tongue. You might want to try the bathroom scale idea and add some weight to the tongue and see what happens. For example if the stern is 10' behind the axle and the tongue is 20' in front of the axle you probably only need to add 40lbs of weight to the front. The advantage of doing this is that it is easily reversed, and seems simpler than moving the axle.
 
Feb 13, 2016
551
macgreggor venture 224 ohio river
Yes i moved post forward. When i picked boat up there was no motor mounted nor a fuel tank and it towed great and tongue was heavy! Put on a 90 +- motor and full tank of fuel and now where at approximately 140lb on the rear and a real lite tongue, 50-60lb at level so short of hanging a whole barbell set on the tongue the axel needs to move some.
 
Jan 22, 2008
169
Beneteau 343 Saint Helens, Oregon OR
I had a Venture 222 with the same issues. Even without the motor (Merc 3.5) the tongue weight was almost nil. Ended up cutting extension off of bow roller on winch stand to get boat further forward on trailer. I also put 2 x 6 planks between trailer rails on forward end of trailer to strap motor to. The planks also kept my feet dry when I had to walk out to hook up winch line. Still did not tow well.
I had a boat trailer jackknife on me way back when so have always been clenched when towing.
 
Dec 8, 2015
2
Macgregor 25 Aurora CO
I have a Macgregor 25 that even without the motor on the back used to hop all over the road due to the lack tongue weight and the I think the axle being so far forward did not contribute to road stability. So, I had my axle moved back as far as it would go, around 14" toward the rear and had surge brakes added at the same time. The improvement was enormous - very stable on road both with respect to tongue weight as well as high speed stability is way better, can pull up to 75 MPH with no fishtailing. Stopping performance was of course improved as well with the brakes. Having the axle moved and the surge brakes added was about $1000 total work at my local trailer fabricator but entirely worth it for the vast on road performance. If you do much towing between lakes on weekends, I could not recommend more. While moving the axles cost me some maneuverability when launching, I have had no issue handling it on the ramp or on the parking lot.

My advice is for anyone that has a M25, this is well worth it to have done.
 
Dec 23, 2008
771
Catalina 22 Central Penna.
Having owned my trailer and boat for 25 years and have been with many other fellows with trailerables I can say like they do on a new TV insurance commercial “I have seen a thing or two”.

The tongue weight must be in that 10 to 15 percent range or you will have towing problems. I just found out on my unit at just 10 percent it starts to become light at towing speeds above 57 mph.

One must look at his own trailer and make his own judgement on how to get the weight forward or the single axle backwards, because not all trailers are the same, the mfg may have switched trailers during a run of hulls, the previous owned switched or had to add a second hand trailer after purchase of the boat.

I once added an 18 inch extension to my trailer tongue and lowered the measured tongue weight from 311 to 287 lbs without doing anything else.

Moving the axle back 3/4 inch brought the weight back up to 310 lbs.

A friend just purchased a boat with a dual axle trailer and it swayed all over the highway. Extra eyes could see that the tongue was way to high on the tow vehicle placing all of the weight on the back axle. Making the the trailer level changed everything.

Knowing how to weld, what I would do, look at many other trailers, you’ll see that some have the axle springs and fenders welded to an extra frame that is U-bolted to the main trailer frame. These trailers are then adjustable for any size boat by moving the axles forward or backwards and can be tweaked at any time.
 
Apr 12, 2016
42
Macgregor Venture 222 Waconia
For what it's worth, to get more tongue weight, I remove the outboard from the back (since I don't want it bouncing and destroying the transom connection while trailering) and have a place to put it near the hitch (also the spare tire got moved forward). I also store the anchors up front.
 
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Nov 29, 2012
34
Beer. Actually that is a brilliant idea. Also I'd add a 5 gallon container of water and a 5 or 10 gal. Filled Gas can toward the front of the cabin(careful with that stuff.). That should add some stability to the trailer. oK, maybe 3 more cases of beer, and add 4 boxes of a fine Chardonnay and a whole lot of Cabernet. Also a couple bottles of Champagne, and an Ice chest. All placed well forward, will balance your load. OK 4 more cases of Beer. Or a Keg?
 
Mar 20, 2012
3,983
Cal 34-III, MacGregor 25 Salem, Oregon
On my mac 224 i keep my yamaha 9.9 on while towing therefore making tongue a bit to lite for comfort under tow, before season again i intend to move axel back a bit. Question is how far! What should tongue weight be?
moving it back 18-20" wont be too far, but it is probably all the trailer frame you have to work with.
 
Feb 13, 2016
551
macgreggor venture 224 ohio river
Thats a good point but i feel it wont take to much because i do have alot of weight from mid-ship forward, it just needs to break over so to speak
 
Mar 20, 2012
3,983
Cal 34-III, MacGregor 25 Salem, Oregon
Thats a good point but i feel it wont take to much because i do have alot of weight from mid-ship forward, it just needs to break over so to speak
you need more than to just break over center... 10-15% of a 2400lb load is 240-360lbs... you arent going to get that in a few inches.

my 25 had 75lbs tongue weight when it was loaded with all the gear and ice chests for a 2week cruise, honda 10-4stroke on the bracket....on the stock macgregor trailer, most of the interior load sets over the axle, and so the tongue didnt load up as quickly as I thought it should when we started loading our gear it... the boat loaded with gear, on its trailer is 4100lbs, and by moving the axle all the way back (as far as the spring hanger would allow), I Now have 350 lbs of tongue weight and it tows good.

the 10-15% is a minimum.... if the tow vehicle and trailer tongue can take it, another 10% wont hurt hurt anything, but being too light does.
and sometimes, when the load is light, the overhang of the load PAST the trailer axle, VS the length from the trailer axle to the hitch can come into play.... its ALWAYS better to have higher tongue length ratio to keep the trailer stable behind the tow vehicle.... the tongue length ratio is equally as important as the tongue loading, but its usually the loading that is easiest to adjust.
 
Feb 13, 2016
551
macgreggor venture 224 ohio river
Wow would have never figured that far, i intend on playing with it and seeing the best position to be to get atleast the 350# range, hope my tongue jack holds up, kidding i think.