(Un-named CP-19) is home!

[Lost Lake]

We loaded up the trailer in Milwaukee and the first thing I noticed was the tongue was REALLY light. No more than ten pounds of tongue weight at most. The second thing I noticed was the short pigtail on the trailer lights wouldn't reach my equally short pigtail on my truck.

Oh well, I pulled it anyway, about 25 miles before I found a hardware store and bought some extra wire and some wire nuts to make the connection. The boat actually pulled well except for the clunking hitch bouncing up and down.

Once on home turf I set about changing the spark plugs in the Merc 9.8. The guy who sold me (un-named) was having a bear of a time starting the motor, especially when hot, so I figured plugs would be a great place to start. I pulled the shroud off the motor and immediately found a loose coil wire. WOOHOO!! I tightened that up, replaced the plugs and dunked her tail in the water to see how she'd start. The motor fired right up, I ran it till it was hot, turned it off and started it several times. It was running like  a champ!

Next issue was the lack of any appreciable tongue weight. The tilt trailer has a sliding axle, but I just knew those bolts would be rusted tight, the slides wouldn't move, etc... Wrong! The bolts came out easily, two jacks held the rear of the trailer up and I slid the axle back 8". A retest showed I now had about 150lbs of tongue weight, so I undid everything again and moved the axle again to the farthest aft holes. That gave me 250 lbs of tongue weight which was much better than the 10 lbs I started with.

It was getting dark so I closed shop for the night. Tomorrow I will tackle the extension tongue pole and make that a simple slide-in-and-pin-in-place unit instead of the cobbled up bolt on thing it is now. Then I will work on a really great way to trailer with the mast and all those cables. I need some way to tie up the cables and secure the mast quickly and tightly.

[Craig Weis]

Up the tounge weight...One can also move the jack for the trailer aft of the winch and snubber in order to increase the tounge weight. I moved all this fwd till it hit the flat bar where the sliding trailer tounge is. Just flip flop these two items. I had to do that.

This moves the C-P 19 fwd on the trailer. I just really cranked the winch tight then went down the lane in front of my house and slammed on the breaks. Yepo she move fwd. Then using my floor jack I re-adjusted the trailer bunks being careful not to lift the keel off the rollers. Actually she only touched two of the rollers when loaded on the trailer. And if I winch her tight she lifts off one of these rollers so normally I don't winch her too tight. No additional strapping required. skip.

[Lost Lake]

Hi Skip,

My trailer has four rollers and it almost looks like one may have been added and is not factory installed. I sit on all four rollers now, and was thinking I could slide the boat forward and re-position the rear most roller further forward. I don't know how big a concern it is that she sits on all four rollers.

The other glaring problem is my trailer ends about six feet forward of the rear of the boat, putting my lights well under the boat. I don't think this would be exactly legal!

I'll write about my first adventure yesterday on the new boat, the crash, the sickness, and the WIND!!!

[Paul]

Lost Lake:

Regarding the lights, as long as they're not obstructed, they should be fine.  You could ask you state DOT for details.

Regarding the tongue weight, I remember a referrence of 10% of total trailer load should be used as tongue weight.  150lbs sounds like you're close.  No doubt your back would appreciate it.  As long as you can trailer comfortably without fishtaling, all is well.  Generally, fishtaling will occur if the trailer load is too far aft, decreasing tongue weight.

Hope this helps.  By the way, what's your method of measuring tongue weight?

[Lost Lake]

Hello Paul,
I have always followed the 10% minimum rule for trailers with a single axle. Less than that usually induced sway.

My weights are just estimates. I know what 150 pounds feels like, and I can just barely lift 350 lbs, so I'm guesstimating I have about 300lbs. If the situation were dire, I'd scale the trailer. I know the boat documentation said it weighs 2,000 lbs, (I take that with a big grain of salt) I have about 300 lbs of gear in it and I guess the trailer weighs 700 lbs.

Oddly the trailer pulled rather well with just 10 lbs of tongue weight, although I do pull it with a 9000 lb truck which adds stability to the equation.

As far as length of boat on the trailer, I always thought anything that extends more than three feet beyond the rear tail lights needed additional lights at night and flags during the day.

[Paul]

That's quite a truck.  Certainly not a Camry, eh?

Sounds like you have a handle on it.  Good luck.

How's the thumb?

[Lost Lake]

My thumb is much better, Thanks!

Yeah, we bought the truck to pull our 35' fifth wheel. I like to tell people it's just a six cylinder, but it's a Cummins six cylinder!

Great engine, so-so truck. Just rolled 12,000 miles on it and haven't owned it 4 months yet. And I don't get to drive it, my wife gave me her old Buick, and she drives it.

[Paul]

LOL.    Somehow that sounds familiar.

Glad the thumb's OK.