Trailer tounge weight

[traveler]

Another in what will likely be a long line of bigger boat questions...the tounge weight of the singe axle trailer for the 20 ft fiberglassboat I just bought seems excessive. 2 of us can just barely raise it, (of course it's got a crank up wheel). I now it's still less then the horse trailer I pull, so my vehicle is up to it, maybe It's just supposed to be as heavy as it is. The trailer has an adjustable tounge to change the toungs weight as well, something I didn't know was even out there. Any rule of thumb for tounge weight?

[Valv]

A 20 ft fiberglass boat is not a light item.

I would leave it as it is, the more weight you have on tongue (within hitch limits, of course) the better will trailer down the road. If boat fits good on trailer, I wouldn't worry about it. I have a 22ft aluminum Lund and tongue weight is about 450lbs.

[BobT]

I read an article once that described how to determine appropriate tongue weight. I think it has something to do with a percentage of total load weight but I'm not sure. If I can find it, I'll post it.

I also believe it stated that problems can arise by having too much percentage of load on the tongue as well as too little and I don't recall it having anything to do with the capacity of the tow vehicle hitch. I believe it basically meant the tow vehicle and its hitch capacity should be matched to the trailer, not the other way around. In other words, once the trailer has the appropriate tongue weight setup, the tow vehicle must have a rating to handle it.

Bob

[aanderud]

The toungue weight should be between 10 and 15 % of your gross trailer weight. So if your boat/trailer/motor/gear weighs 3000 lbs you want tongue weight somewhere in the 300-450 lb range.

Not hard to hit 3k gross weight when fully equipped. I have an 1850 sportfish with a small 125 merc on it. I believe the boat/motor combo weights like 1750 lbs, when I add 40 gallons of gas at 6 lbs a gallon, that gets me almost to 2000, then add on gear (rods/reels, tackle boxes, anchor, 3 batteries, trolling motor), I'm prolly pushin 2300-2400 lbs. Add on the trailer, and 3000 lbs isn't out of the question by any means. I've never actually weighed this setup, but I'm just using round numbers here to illustrate that it's not hard to get "unliftable" tongue weights.

Obviously you need to match your hitch and tow vehicle to the trailer weight, that's another topic altogether.

[traveler]

Thanks guys, I think it's likely OK as it is from the sound of it. The tounge weight is still way less than the horse trailer, and my vehicle/hitch is rated to pull that. I guess I'm just used to my 16 lund/25 hp motor and am used to being able to move it around by hand.

[fishin789]

If you want to find out what the actual tounge weight is. cut a 2x4 to the height that your tounge sits on the hitch. then place that on your wife's bathroom scale. then put the tounge of the trailer on that.

[traveler]

Fishin; good idea, but I'd probably get in trouble if I break the scale! Like I said, it's all 2 of us can do to lift the tounge right now, so it must be in the area of 400 lbs, I wonder how much weight a bathroom scale can hold without busting it??

[Fishin4Life]

BAthroom scale can probably do upwards of 350 maybe. I know the old style ones did 300. Wife probably would be happy if you busted it

[Finns]

Traveler; E mail me for a site that shows how to calculate tongue weight. finns3 at stjoelive.com

Finns.