Trailer Tongue Extenders

[CaptGregg]

Hello All!

I've been doing some research on the net concerning bars that will extend a trailer out into the water while the extension bar is connected on one end to the trailer hitch on the vehicle and the other end of the bar is connected to the boat trailer.

I noticed in pics of a launching of the Vinny II that one of these were in use. I've emailed the guy who owns her but apparently all my emails to him are going to his spam folder.

Have you guys got any experiences with something like this?

 

[Bilbo]

Some of the C22 trailers have tongue extensions. It's basically a bar with the tongue attached that slides back into the trailer when not extended. It's advantage is to put the trailer further into the lake and is used for fin and wing keels more than swing keels. Its disadvantage is that a bit of rust can cause the extension to jam up. Here is a swing arm extension:
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rwahlfel/www/TongueExtension.htm
and a nice thread on another forum:
http://www.catalinadirect.com/forums/fr_topic.cfm?topic_id=2223
and another type:
http://www.xtend-a-hitchnorthwest.com/

 

[GDTRFB]

I think a lot of the '70s came with trailrite trailers that had the built in tongue extension. My rusted trailer has one. What do you need to know about it? I think they are must useful launching into bays etc. When the ramp is not steep enough. I only used mine extended once and really didn't need too.

 

[jfrench]

One thing to remember about tongue extenders is that your winch goes out further into the water. Prepare to go wading to unhook your boat or to winch it in when reloading.

 

[Bilbo]

One thing to remember about tongue extenders is that your winch goes out further into the water. Prepare to go wading to unhook your boat or to winch it in when reloading.

True, that this is something to consider but at some locations, the only option is to get the trailer deeper. My lake has badly designed ramps. They could have considered for proper ramps and did some excavating in an area when they made this reservoir but ramps usually come to mind after the water is added.

 

[Chris Patterson]

Hey Gregg, these pics are not the best, because they weren't taken to illustrate the extension specifically, but I've never been able to get the boat in, or out without it. Maybe it's the bunk height, or the ramp angle, or both; but I had to use it. In order to do this, I would have to uncouple the truck, and pull it out by hand to line up the lock pin.
That said, another big time PIA for me/us. So I just bought a slip down here, and said I'm not going to deal with all this anymore..

 

[jfrench]

<<I've never been able to get the boat in, or out without it.>>

Me too. Down the road, I intend to lower the boat by adding a "drop" axle with a "V" in the middle, and possibly putting the leaf springs under, rather than over the axle (see pic). This would allow the boat to sit lower on the trailer and the trailer to sit closer to the ground.

Here's one site that offers all the parts and info:
http://www.championtrailers.com/spdlubax.html

 

[CaptGregg]

The only time I've launched thus far, the ramp was clean, no algae and my tires on the Jeep were in the water and the tail pipe was under water. There was no room for slippage or a mistake. I found a pre made 4 ft extension from draw tite, I sent them an email and they said that longer than 4 feet would put too much stress on the hitch mounted on the vehicle.

The one a fellow Catalina 22 owner used in his pics an extender that had wheels under the trailer end of the extender... looked like it would take the pressure off the hitch. I've emailed him several times as to if that particular one was his or was it one owned by the marina but no response.

My main problem with extending the trailer deeper in the water is ramp drop off (very common problem here since bass boats REV their engines driving their boat onto their trailer which dredges the end of the ramp).

My father has driven his trailer past these drop offs and with the boat off the trailer, he has no problems pulling the trailer up but if you add the weight of a 22 ft boat in such conditions, things could get sticky... definitely a dilemma for trailer sailors.

 

[CaptGregg]

My trailer is a piece of sh*t and I can't afford to replace it now, much less buy a slip. I dreamed last night of a trailer you could leave attached to the vehicle and remove a pin and crank the trailer down into the water, replace a retaining pin for pushing the boat off and pulling it back up the trailer. Never saw one before but I liked the idea.

Hey Gregg, these pics are not the best, because they weren't taken to illustrate the extension specifically, but I've never been able to get the boat in, or out without it. Maybe it's the bunk height, or the ramp angle, or both; but I had to use it. In order to do this, I would have to uncouple the truck, and pull it out by hand to line up the lock pin.
That said, another big time PIA for me/us. So I just bought a slip down here, and said I'm not going to deal with all this anymore..

 

[Chris Patterson]

I do not understand the fellow saying it would put to much weight on the hitch. That defies all the laws of physics. The longer it is, the lighter it gets. If it were stuck out there 20 feet, you would be able to pick up the trailer hitch with one hand.
Now this will sound stupid, most of my thoughts are, but you could back the trailer to the edge of the water, chock the wheels, pull the truck up ever how far makes you comfortable, hook a chain securely between them, ease it up off the chocks and remove them, then let gravity back the trailer in as you move backwards. Gotta love Newton, huh? It would be ugly, but it would work.

 

[GeorgiaBII]

I do not understand the fellow saying it would put to much weight on the hitch. That defies all the laws of physics. The longer it is, the lighter it gets. If it were stuck out there 20 feet, you would be able to pick up the trailer hitch with one hand.
Now this will sound stupid, most of my thoughts are, but you could back the trailer to the edge of the water, chock the wheels, pull the truck up ever how far makes you comfortable, hook a chain securely between them, ease it up off the chocks and remove them, then let gravity back the trailer in as you move backwards. Gotta love Newton, huh? It would be ugly, but it would work.

That is how I put my boat in every time. Ugly but works

 

[Bilbo]

I do not understand the fellow saying it would put to much weight on the hitch. That defies all the laws of physics. The longer it is, the lighter it gets. If it were stuck out there 20 feet, you would be able to pick up the trailer hitch with one hand.
Now this will sound stupid, most of my thoughts are, but you could back the trailer to the edge of the water, chock the wheels, pull the truck up ever how far makes you comfortable, hook a chain securely between them, ease it up off the chocks and remove them, then let gravity back the trailer in as you move backwards. Gotta love Newton, huh? It would be ugly, but it would work.

The difficulty in ding that is to guide the trailer and to keep the trailer tongue off the ground. Those tongue jacks are kinda junk and the wheels are too small.

 

[watercolors II]

CaptGregg

“I sent them an e-mail and they said that longer than 4 feet would put too much stress on the hitch mounted on the vehicle.“

My experience on your hitch stress is the opposite. My used boat came with an after market trailer, this trailer was built to fit a number of sizes of boats by making a small adjustable extension to the front of the trailer for different lengths of boats.

I changed vehicles a couple years ago and found that I didn’t want to back this new vehicle as deep into the water as the previous one. So I used this adjustment to extend the tongue 18 inches and moved the winch tower back on this extension to fit the boat still sitting in the same spot on the bunks.

The boat didn’t trailer as well with this 18 inch mod so using the bathroom scales and taking a tongue weight measurement I found that the 18 inch extension REDUCED the weight at the tongue hitch by about 30 lbs. I had to move the wheel axles back about 1 1/2 inches to add that 30 lbs. back to the end of the tongue for better towing balance.

They would be correct in saying that the extension would add additional weight to the hitch but that weight would only be the weight of the extension minus the un-weighting of the tongue as I experienced which would amount to squat.

The problems associated with a tongue extension that has not be described so far would be if there’s a hump in the ramp where a transition from the level parking lot to the down slope of the ramp, I’ve seen dragging of the original trailer tongue. Using a wheeled device is the work around for this situation. A wheeled device is also the answer to needing an extra long extension because usually trailer mounted extensions are no longer that 4 to 6 feet. A wheeled device would not need heavy duty tires cause you would only be placing about 300 lbs. on them. Whatever you do, DO NOT use the tongue jack wheel on the launch ramp with an extension.

 

[maiettan]

My 1990 came with a standard trail rite with an extendable hitch. Although the local ramp expert tells me I'd be fine launching/retrieving without it, I always use it to retrieve. I don't like the idea of my little jeep liberty half a wheel deep trying to pull the boat out. My girlfriend hates it, but it allows the wheels to stay dry (even though I have 4wd) and that peace of mind is worth the extra 5 min on either end. I don't use the extension to launch because pulling the empty trailer out doesn't really scare me. Here is a picture with the extension out on my first time out with the boat last year. You can see by my pant legs that you can definitely get wet out there that deep. I've since devised a system to step off the bow of the boat onto the trailer tongue and avoid getting knee deep. The other pic is for comparison with the extension closed.

 

[CaptGregg]

I agree with you guys about what the email from draw-tite said, I don't assume that just because you receive a response that it's a correct response. If it put so much stress on the hitch, it would have torn up hitches and you wouldn't see so many pics and vids on the internet of people using them.

Maiettan is using exactly what I wish I had and I still may wind up modifying my trailer to match. I will have to remove the actual ball receiver, cut some out of the two channel beams to receive the outer tubing and weld work. As you can see in the attached pics, there's a piece of 3 inch flat metal extending from the trailer ball receiver to the first cross member. If the back of the boat is strapped to the trailer and you try winching the boat forward, that 3 inch flat metal plate will flex and that scares me...

 

[CaptGregg]

Just for clarification, the weight tied to the trailer is to weight down the tongue so it does not fly up. I don't think it would do much for the switching while being pulled but even with it tied on the trailer, I can still lift the trailer tongue with one hand.

 

[Richie50]

The difficulty in ding that is to guide the trailer and to keep the trailer tongue off the ground. Those tongue jacks are kinda junk and the wheels are too small.

I use a Trailer Dollly from Harbor Frieght that I picked up on sale for $50, ugly but has worked well. I have to get my rusted tongue extension fixed so that I can give that a try.

 

[Time_Out]

The only way I can imagine someone saying an extension would add stress is if they are thinking of extending the receiver portion from the vehicle, and not from the trailer. This would be the wrong approach for many reasons. Extending the trailer tongue is the better approach. Although I do like the concept of the tow strap or chain especially if launching in salt water.

 

[CaptGregg]

When I first googled Trailer Extension, I ran across a post where someone took a 4x4 and put the ball receiver on one end and a ball on the other end and was using it for an extension. Don't know if I wanna go that route.

 

[Bilbo]

I use a Trailer Dollly from Harbor Frieght that I picked up on sale for $50, ugly but has worked well. I have to get my rusted tongue extension fixed so that I can give that a try.

I would use one of those on flat ground but not for the ramp. I can't imagine that the extended extension would add much weight to the tongue because it's all about levers//fulcrums. You do want about 125 lbs on the tongue with these trailers so that the boat doesn't start swaying on the highway. On mine, I can climb the stern of the boat without having the tongue rise off the ground.