I am looking for ideas to make or buy an extension for the trailer for my O'Day 192. The launch ramp at our lake is very short and we usually end up putting the back wheels of the car into the water and it is still not quite deep enough to float the boat off of the trailer. I have seen quite a few pictures on line of set ups to extend the tongue of the trailer, but I am curious if anyone here as a tried and true set up they could share. I only need this for launching and retrieving the boat. For normal road trailering, the trailer is set up fine. Thanks.
Trailer Tongue Extension
- Thread starter rswift
- Start date
The trailer came with a 10' extension and I added another 7' extension to fit into the truck receiver. I have a Catalina 250 with wing keel and need 6' of water to launch. The 7' extension requires a STRONG receiver to hold it and the system works fine as long as you be sure to also have a long enough safety chain. The simplist and cheapest way is to just launch it with a chain after you have it lined up, Chock it on the slope and unhook the ball, pullforward enough to retrieve the chocks and guide it down. One person guides the trailer with the tongue while another person backs it down.
Be careful and hope you cope, Chief
Be careful and hope you cope, Chief
There are a few tried methods. It depends on how short your ramp is... if you roll your trailer wheels off the end of the ramp, it will not matter how long your trailer tongue extends. Your trailer will be a total pain to retrieve.
I would go determine the length that you can safely back the trailer down the ramp.
Do not get too worried about getting your rear wheels in the water if you have a vehicle capable of pulling your boat from the water. In the case of a 19' O'day, an SUV or minivan should be the minimum. You could back in til your tailpipe is just clear of the water.
So, if you still need an extension, google trailer extensions to see how people have built extension bars. If you only need a few feet, you can just get a few feet of 2" square steel and add a hitch and ball to the ends. More than a couple feet, and you are gonna need a wheel to support the ball end under the trailer hitch. People have also used extension straps to let the trailer down the ramp: block the trailer wheels just above the water. Attach a strap from the trailer to the vehicle. Unhitch the trailer. Pull the vehicle forward to tighten the strap. Pull the blocks from the trailer wheels. Slowly back the trailer into the water. Do not roll the trailer off the end of the ramp! Every ramp I have seen has at least a 1' drop off the concrete into mud. The force required to pull your trailer over the ledge will be tremendous.
I would go determine the length that you can safely back the trailer down the ramp.
Do not get too worried about getting your rear wheels in the water if you have a vehicle capable of pulling your boat from the water. In the case of a 19' O'day, an SUV or minivan should be the minimum. You could back in til your tailpipe is just clear of the water.
So, if you still need an extension, google trailer extensions to see how people have built extension bars. If you only need a few feet, you can just get a few feet of 2" square steel and add a hitch and ball to the ends. More than a couple feet, and you are gonna need a wheel to support the ball end under the trailer hitch. People have also used extension straps to let the trailer down the ramp: block the trailer wheels just above the water. Attach a strap from the trailer to the vehicle. Unhitch the trailer. Pull the vehicle forward to tighten the strap. Pull the blocks from the trailer wheels. Slowly back the trailer into the water. Do not roll the trailer off the end of the ramp! Every ramp I have seen has at least a 1' drop off the concrete into mud. The force required to pull your trailer over the ledge will be tremendous.
How about a picture of the forward half of the trailer so we have something to work with. Do you want to modify the trailer or have some type of attachment? Do you want to extend/attach at the rigging area and back straight into the water or fiddle at the ramp? How long? What skills do you have or do you have someone that can do the work?
The current design I have on my O'Day 23 works very well. I will make one modification to the design when I build a trailer for my S2 (TOPOSS) to eliminate a step in the deployment of the extension to save about 3 minutes.
The current design I have on my O'Day 23 works very well. I will make one modification to the design when I build a trailer for my S2 (TOPOSS) to eliminate a step in the deployment of the extension to save about 3 minutes.
Extensions are easy. You need to decide if the bar is going to support the trailer or the front of the trailer will be self supporting.
We used the spare as the dolly wheel and made the extension out of 4" tubular thick wall aluminium to save weight.
The downside to this approach is that the trailer has to be, and stay, absolutely straight. This is year three and it's worked well.
We used the spare as the dolly wheel and made the extension out of 4" tubular thick wall aluminium to save weight.
The downside to this approach is that the trailer has to be, and stay, absolutely straight. This is year three and it's worked well.
If I had it to do over again, I'd have my buddy weld some smaller plates to the end of the extension, with holes in top, and a pin through the tabs. Instead of bolting that stuff to the trailer tongue like I did. But, the dang thing still works, it ain't broke...
Hey! What kinda boat is that following me?
Hey! What kinda boat is that following me?
Try this thread as well. I just went through the same thing.
https://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/trailer-toungue-extension.181585/
https://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/trailer-toungue-extension.181585/
Haha, that pic from the original post in this link over to the Catalina 22 forum is my setup!