Long house / steep access concerns

[Dahitman44]

Hi guys -- I have a question. I went from having a homemade 8 x 12 to a pre-built (Yeti-style) 6.5 x 16 with a V. I am excited about the house, but now a little worried about the clearance. I planned to fish a local lake -- Pelican Lake (in the Detroit Lakes area)but it has a very nice but steep and long access.

My house only has about 10 inches of clearance. It is all alum. tubing so it will be very strong, But I am afraid of getting hung up. Does anyone have any ideas on this? Perhaps I shouldn't be worried?

Any and all thoughts would be GREAT.

Hitman

[Savage Brewer]

Which ramp on pelican are you looking at?

[RiverChuckNorris]

I've got a 8x16 + v nose and I know it helped me a lot when I figured out I needed to use a hitch with a 1" raise. Since then, I've had no issues.

[fishingmandan]

I had a 12' yetti with a v front and changed up the drop on the hitch that seems to help alot

[Iambjm]

Shouldn't the trailer be riding level from front to back when you are towing it? I would be concerned if it was riding higher in the front when being towed.

[dangnear]

Giver hell , you'll make it

[Chad Holst]

Im not sure why people would RAISE the front of the house, by putting on a raised hitch, when the issue is dragging your tail on a long house. You will want to have a DROP hitch for going up and down the ramp. We are building our 8x16 +4' V in a shop, but we need to pull it out durring the work week. I picked up a 2-3" drop hitch so i can back it up the shop ramp, and for pulling it down, if not, that @ss draggs extremely bad. Then i put on the straight hitch again and I'm good to go.

The farther the nose goes UP, the farther the back goes DOWN. You dont want that...you want a drop hitch.

On a side note, we are thinking about putting a roller across the rear of the trailer frame, so it doesnt scrape on some landings.

[JumpStart73]

We had a 18' wheelhouse, and bottomed out on a lot of landings. The trailer was strong enough that it didn't hurt it at all. You usually have enough momentum that it will just drag. Just be careful when going slow over bridges that can have steep inclines and declines, got hung up on a bridge on Mille Lacs and it was a bear to get off. After that incident we sold it, to much hassle.

[Dahitman44]

ne inch raise? I thought I would need a bigger drop?

[Dahitman44]

Rollers are a great idea.

[Savage Brewer]

The talk about raise vs drop cannot be determined without seeing your rig loaded.

Put the nose too low and it doesn't do you any good either.

I fished on Pelican alot over the last 10 years, and have seen a number of houses on that lake.

Actually I don't remember that ramp being terribly steep either though.

But yeah for how much an Ice Castle costs you would think they would put a pair of rollers on the rear frame rails, or some other mechanism.

[outkast7222]

I had nightmares about this last night. So this morning I got up and looked under the rear, after seeing the tube steel at the rear I can go back to sleeping at night. Might scrape off a little under coating but should be fine.

[Gus]

I gotta be honest, I had the same nightmares last night! I'm new to the wheel house world. Just bought a 20 footer! Had never considered this possible problem! I figure most people say they always wish there was more room, so I went big from the get go. I hope it's not a mistake.

Snow snow stay away, I just want to use this thing!

[RiverChuckNorris]

The talk about raise vs drop cannot be determined without seeing your rig loaded.

Put the nose too low and it doesn't do you any good either.

Fact.

I pull it with a short box, 2011 F150 and with the standard drop hitch, the nose rode low. With a 1" raise, the house rides perfectly level. When I struck previously, it was at the nose, not the a$$.

Haven't had any issues since.

[Chad Holst]

RCN, i think the issue isnt if it rides flat...that depends on alot of things, weight/length of the house, how the weight is distributed, etc. Also how high or low the tow vehicle sits, shock set up...blah blah blah.

The issue is people hitting nose and or tail on steeper ramps. I dont think a longer trailer is going to effect the nose hitting (it will but not at as severe of a ratio), except that the longer trailer probably weighs more, so it would push the tow vehicles butt down a bit more. So the issue, usually, is going to be if the tail drags. To bring the tail UP, you have to put the nose down. It doesnt matter what house, what vehicle, or what lake...the tail only goes UP if the nose goes DOWN. To accomplish this, you will need a drop hitch. You may not want a drop hitch for towing it down the road, but you MAY need one for steep ramps.

If you have tandom wheels, it wont be as bad. If your wheels are set up farther back in the house, it wont be as bad.

The bigger concern i have with our house that will measure 22-23' feet hitch to tounge (16' house, plus 4' V, plus hitch) will be bottoming out over ice heaves at the ramp. The local access is always extremely bad. We busted the hitch on a pathfinder last year. There is no way our long house would make that ramp unscathed. We are going to be bringing a sledge Hammer and chain saw, when we go to that ramp.

[RiverChuckNorris]

The issue is people hitting nose and or tail on steeper ramps.....You may not want a drop hitch for towing it down the road, but you MAY need one for steep ramps.

If you have tandom wheels, it wont be as bad. If your wheels are set up farther back in the house, it wont be as bad.

I hear you, but I am telling you my real-world experience AND I am addressing striking on steep ramps as well (vs. trailering). With the standard drop hitch, I struck the nose of my house multiple times on several different ramps(when trailered on highway, the house nose sat lower than the tail due to loading/compression of the trucks rear shocks. This also cost me about .5 mpg from my bet-guestimations as well).

After year 1, I have been using a 1" raised hitch and I can (and have) now go over all 3 ramps I nose-struck in year 1, without striking. Of course you are correct that if you raise the nose, the tail will lower, thus increasing likelihood of an a$$ drag scenario BUT I found a level house in tow, provides the greatest opportunity to mitigate any strike.

One other thought for the folks with houses longer than 8x16 + V, as long as you have tandem wheels (all Ice castles do that are 8x20+ as far as I know), I don't think you are any more likely to strike than someone with an 8x16 on a single axle. Heck, you may even be less likely. It's obviously all Trigonometry but that was a while ago for this guy.

[Chad Holst]

But your name has chuck norris in it...so you dont have to worry about trigonometry, trigonometry has to worry about you!

Another side note, do you use heavy shocks in the back of your tow vehicle? I dont, but i have thought about changing them. But then the cheap ole [email protected] in my says "if the house weight is distributed evenly, then you dont need it.

(my house is single axle)