Positioning a boat on the trailer

[Dowclan]

Gents,
I just bought a 14' dbl wide Lowe boat with a Venture Trailer. The boat appears to be hanging over the back of the trailer too much (36"). The boat is equipped with electric motors, one bow mount and the other is a transom mount and six each, 6-volt batteries. It is decked out with 5/8" plywood, aluminum and pressure treated wood for bracing supports. The tongue weight is 70lbs without the batteries (took them out to charge).
Should the transom be even with the back of the trailer? Or is it more important to be concerned with the tongue weight with the boat fully loaded?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Truckmechanic]

You should have bunk support all the way to the rear of the boat. Do you have any pics so that we can see better.

 

[Zum]

Your tongue weight should be somewhere around 7-15% of your total boat/trailer weight.
It's important to support transom with an outboard,not sure about an trolling motor,I know it wouldn't hurt.
Are your batteries in the back of your boat...I'd support the stern if theres any weight there at all.

I think I read in your post that you had pressure treated wood in your boat.
Aluminum and pressure treated wood don't work well together,you may end up with holes in your boat.(corrosion)
You may want to do a search on the pressure trested wood topic.

 

[Quackrstackr]

If you have 6 batteries located aft of your bunks you definitely need to extend them unless you don't mind a potential crease forming in your boat at the end of them.

3 feet out makes for quite a bit of overhung weight.

 

[Ictalurus]

Your tongue weight should be somewhere around 7-15% of your total boat/trailer weight.

I wish, right now my tongue weight is around 200 lbs. The springs are welded to the frame so adjusting the wheels forward is not an option. I'm thinking of puting 8' bunks on there in place of the 6', just to be able to move the boat back a bit. Going to be a pain though, should have done it before my build, the boat is a load now. Any other suggestions?

Forgot to mention, I wouldn't worry about it at all if I wasn't pulling it w/ my Chevy Cavalier :shock:

 

[huntinfool]

We need a pic to be sure what your talking about. But from what is sounds like you have described your bunks are way too short. There are only two options that I see if your springs are welded. Lengthen the bunks or the tounge. Adding longer bunks will support the boat better but won't add much more weight to the tounge.Lengthening the tounge will allow the boat to move forward on the trailer until the bunks are at the back of the boat. Also this will add some weight forward since your changing the center of gravity (balance point). Even though your lengthening the tounge and it should make it easier to lift, your moving the boat forward and putting more weight on the tounge.
This is what I would do.

 

[Dowclan]

Thanks guys. No pictures yet...I'll work on it.
No, there is no weight in the portion of the boat the extends over the trailer.
No the bunks stop near the end of the trailer.
The previous owner had 4-batteries positioned in front of the rear bench seat and 2-batteries positioned in front of the live well (mid-seat).
I'm aware of the treated lumber and aluminum -its on my list of things to do.

I believe the original owner had the boat position as it is to address the tongue weight issue. I may have to change the battery placement in the boat in order to move the boat up further on the trailer.

There's ample space to move the boat forward on this trailer -that's not the issue. How much weight should I have on the tongue? These batteries weigh a hefty 70lbs each!

Thanks again,
Dave

 

[huntinfool]

I prefer about 100# on a tin boat. That will keep it on the ball pretty good. For a fiberglass boat I like more. Hope this helps.

 

[Dowclan]

Thanks everyone, for all of your help.

 

[Zum]

Boats weighs______?
Trailer weighs_____?
Batteries_____?
Anchors,trolling motors etc____?
1000-1500 pounds?
Then there would be somewhere around 100-150 pounds on the tongue.