Dan,
I have a Trail-rite also, and one of the first things I did when I
got my 15 was take the trailer to a commercial welder and have an
extension built. They cut off the couple and tongue, welded on a
hefty square tube about two feet long and made a seven foot hollow
steel bar that slides into the tube where it is held in place by a
standard half inch hitch pin. A new coupler was welded to one end of
the sliding tongue. They did a nice job and returned it to me with
all the parts painted to match the rest of the trailer, new safety
chains, coupler and hitch pin. Cost about $400 U.S. parts and labor.
Procedure at the ramp is to deploy the jack (I use a swing-back
model), block the wheels, unhitch the trailer, lights and safety
chains, remove the hitch pin from the extension, pull the extension
out and re-insert the hitch pin into a hole in the after end, hook up
to the vehicle and swing the jack out of the way. I use a stout
extra long dock line tied off to the bow cleat and tied off to the
truck for safety (no chains with tongue extended) and so I can
unhook the winch from the bow eye and control the boat dry-footed as
it floats off. Pretty straightforward really and sounds more
complicated than it is. All this only takes about ten minutes extra.
It is best to rig the boat with the tongue in its road position to
avoid strain on the extension. Also I do not recommend jumping into
the stern of the boat while it is on the trailer with the tongue
extended as this can exert enough force to pop the coupler off the
hitch ball. Do not ask me how I know this.
I always remove the tongue when the boat is put away in the garage.
It stows neatly out of the way on the trailer cross members and gives
an extra foot of clearance. It also avoids any possibility of the
extension rusting tight in the tube.
All said, I am very happy with this mod. It is simple and elegant and
has allowed me to sail off shallow ramps and retrieve at low tides
while keeping my truck out of the brine.
Cheers
George
"Haiku" 1986 M15 #385
Santa Rosa, CA
On Jul 9, 2007, at 8:09 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi all,
I have a Trail-rite trailer and was wondering if any of you have
added a tongue extension for your
Trail-rite. What has been your experience? Thanks.
Dan Mostue
M15 #500
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