Tow straps to launch?

[LuckyDuck]

We bought our 1987 C25 last fall and need to pull it out of the lake soon for some maintenance. It is a SR wing keel and I have a feeling our 1999 2WD F250 won’t have enough clearance to get the trailer far enough into the water to seat the boat and pull it out. I’m thinking a couple of 3-inch tow straps to lower the trailer into the water would work and pull it out, using the wheel trailer jack. Any good advice or warnings? Thanks!

 

[JRacer]

Have done it and seen it done many times. Would caution that if the trailer does not have enough tongue weight with the boat on it you will have the trailer trying to tip backwards so be careful about that. I've also used tongue extenders. Same problem exist with that kind of arrangement and have had to have several guys stand on the tongue or extender to add weight if the boat happens to be too far aft. - doesn't take much for the tongue to get a little light.

 

[JohnVTX]

There should be a wheel on the tongue of the trailer, not just a jack stand

 

[Dave Groshong]

We offer strapping material:
https://shop.catalinaowners.com/prod.php?4223

 

[watercolors II]

I would try the truck and trailer attachment first. Your truck has a rear end breather tube from the pumpkin up to the bottom of the bed above it, so the trucks tailgate and bed up to all most the fender wells can be under water before the water enters the rear end gears.

 

[Gene Neill]

View attachment 147169 There should be a wheel on the tongue of the trailer, not just a jack stand

For sure.

IF your trailer already has a tongue extension, but is still not long enough, here is how I designed a workaround. I would not use this if the trailer had no tongue extension:

 

[victorhoisington]

Tow strap to launch/retrieval is a tried and true method, we've been doing it at our lake for 20+ years with no issues. Do a search on this site for trailer launching. I've posted about this method in the past.

PM me if you still have questions and I can walk you through the setup and procedure.

Victor

 

[LuckyDuck]

Thanks all for the great info! I’m feeling pretty comfortable using a strap. Just need to come up with a better wheel setup rather than rely on the tongue jack wheel.

 

[JimInPB]

In the picture that Gene posted, the extended hitch, that is attached to the truck, adds a lever arm that the hitch was not designed for. This adds leverage that will significantly derate the tongue weight capacity of the hitch. I would need to get measurements to do an accurate calculation, but just from eyeballing it, I would say that the derate factor should be a maximum 1/5 of original tongue capacity. If the receiver hitch is stamped for a tongue weight of 500#, I would not want to use any more than 100# on the end of the extension that is plugged into the truck’s receiver socket.

That aside, the best truck-side extension set up that I have seen so far was something that a local sailing club uses. They have a short axle & a pair of wheels under a tow bar that has a ball at one end & a ball coupler at the other end. I wish I had a picture. It’s a pretty smart universal set up.

The extension on the trailer end of Gene’s picture is what you really want. That is the best method.

Straps or ropes can be used, but they are very much a second best solution.

 

[JimInPB]

This is a quick sketch of the extender that the local sailing club uses. Picture a ball coupler at the right end of the 2" square tube. One of these can be fabricated to any length you want.

 

[JimInPB]

Anytime you are thinking of using any kind of trailer extension trick, check the ramp first. Some of the ramps by me only go back about 25 feet into the water, then have a sharp drop off that can catch a trailer axle & leave you stranded.

 

[LuckyDuck]

This is a quick sketch of the extender that the local sailing club uses. Picture a ball coupler at the right end of the 2" square tube. One of these can be fabricated to any length you want.View attachment 147309

Thanks Jim. That is exactly what I was thinking would be the best of all worlds — support for tongue weight but the control of a rigid extension. I assume the extension could be 10-15 feet?

 

[JimInPB]

It could be as long as you want. It could be made in two pieces that bolt together for easier transport. It could be made in modular sections so that you could choose to assemble as many pieces as you want, depending on how long it should be for a particular ramp. The possibilities are endless.

I would probably start with making it the maximum length that I could carry easily on the boat trailer. 10-15 feet sounds reasonable to me. Stock length on 2" box tube is usually 20 or 24 feet, depending on who you buy it from, so that sort of just works out well for this application. You probably will need about 4 or 5 feet to make up the A-frame under the ball hitch.

Edit:
If you do have one of those things made up, I would have the width of the axle at least 1-1/2 times the height of the ball hitch, to prevent it from wanting to tip over when turning.