Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

[dadtodc]

Hi everyone!
I bought a boat and installed a new motor and controls on it. I took it out this weekend and out it in the water for the first time. I noticed that the bow was sitting on the rubber roller in the front and had flattened it a bit. I unloaded it into the water and had my way with her! I went to load back up and backed the trailer in. The water is way down do I am a long way down the ramp. Looks like the ramp is steeper than the bottom of the lake. The trailer is sitting at a less angle that the truck. I load up and winch up. The problem is that I couldnt get the boat up high enough to sit on the roller . So I rolled it up to the roller and the bow sat on it just a little, but the safety chain would reach at all. At least 12 inches away. I winched up more, but it didnt mater. it just wouldnt go up higher. ramp was packed and people were waiting. I pulled out to let someone get in and when I did I heard a loud pop. I got out, and looked and the winch was popping from weight . Just would hold it. I borrowed a logging chain and connected the safety chain to one side and the other to the loading eye.

I drove home and if I went down a hill of any kind over 35mph I started to fishtail so bad that I was crossing lanes. Scared me to death. I managed to get home and unhooked the trailer. It sat fine. hangs off of the trailer about 2 feet. Funny thiing is that I can now lift the boat and trailer with one hand. Like it is perfectly balanced on the tires now. Also I noticed that when now fish tailing it rode nice, and weight didnt seem to be an issue.

My question is wouldnt it be better to be balanced like it is now? How do I get the issue with fishtailing gone? Do I just add weight to the toung? If so how do I do that?

 

[04fxdwgi]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

Hi everyone!
I bought a boat and installed a new motor and controls on it. I took it out this weekend and out it in the water for the first time. I noticed that the bow was sitting on the rubber roller in the front and had flattened it a bit. I unloaded it into the water and had my way with her! I went to load back up and backed the trailer in. The water is way down do I am a long way down the ramp. Looks like the ramp is steeper than the bottom of the lake. The trailer is sitting at a less angle that the truck. I load up and winch up. The problem is that I couldnt get the boat up high enough to sit on the roller . So I rolled it up to the roller and the bow sat on it just a little, but the safety chain would reach at all. At least 12 inches away. I winched up more, but it didnt mater. it just wouldnt go up higher. ramp was packed and people were waiting. I pulled out to let someone get in and when I did I heard a loud pop. I got out, and looked and the winch was popping from weight . Just would hold it. I borrowed a logging chain and connected the safety chain to one side and the other to the loading eye.

I drove home and if I went down a hill of any kind over 35mph I started to fishtail so bad that I was crossing lanes. Scared me to death. I managed to get home and unhooked the trailer. It sat fine. hangs off of the trailer about 2 feet. Funny thiing is that I can now lift the boat and trailer with one hand. Like it is perfectly balanced on the tires now. Also I noticed that when now fish tailing it rode nice, and weight didnt seem to be an issue.

My question is wouldnt it be better to be balanced like it is now? How do I get the issue with fishtailing gone? Do I just add weight to the toung? If so how do I do that?

You should have about 7-10% of the trailer weight on the tongue. IE: If boat/ trailer weighs 4,000 lbs, then the tongue weight should be between 280 to 400 lbs. Being near ballanced is causing the fishtailing on the trailer. Make the tongue weight correct (by moving the boat forward on the trailer) and handling will improve 1,000 %. Plain and simple.

 

[dadtodc]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

Thanks a lot. I kind of thought that. The problem is that I cant get the boat far enough up on the trailer now that I am out of water...hahaha Thanks so much for the advice.

 

[oregoncruiser]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

Your mistake was leaving the boat ramp with the boat in that position. You need to go find a close quiet boat ramp where you can re-float that thing. While it's floating you need to make the necessary adjustments to get it positioned properly. Post some pics, so we can get a better idea as to what is going on. Hard to advise without being able to see it.

You have got to get the toungue weight up. As you already know, that thing is just flat dangerous the way it is. Besides, you have too much invested to see it destroyed. With the heaviest 2 feet of boat hanging off the back of that trailer, think about the weight that is leveraged on the hull.

Post some pics, these guys are good, they'll help you figure out how to get this thing loading and towing properly.

 

[reynold460]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

sounds like the same problem i have ha , i recently took my trailer apart to paint it . my trailer has different bolt holes to move the axle back or forward and when i put the axle back on i put it too far forward and when you unhook the trailer from the truck the boat flips right up in the air , i did drive it this way and it was exciting for sure will be moving the axle back to get more weight on the tounge asap

 

[bonz_d]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

dadtodc, you didn't mention what type of boat this is or how big it is.

My 1st advise would be to get it back off the trailer and then check to make sure that those rollers even turn. If it's flattened then it might also be crushed and bound up on the roller axle shaft.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

Drive at maybe 3 miles an hour and tap the brakes HARD.
The boat will come all the way forward to the stops.
Do it now or it will do it itself the first time you are on the road and have to stop fast!
Better at 3 mph than 30 mph!

 

[dadtodc]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

I agree Uncle Willie! I was scared to death when it started happening. My 11 y/o was with me and I was scared i was gonna roll. I kept pulling over, and called wife to come get my son. I will try the 3mph method.

Bonz,

It is a 19' Hurricane deck boat

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

I agree Uncle Willie! I was scared to death when it started happening. My 11 y/o was with me and I was scared i was gonna roll. I kept pulling over, and called wife to come get my son. I will try the 3mph method.

Bonz,

It is a 19' Hurricane deck boat

You are now one of a small group of people that has experienced Fishtailing WITHOUT ending up up on the news! Lucky!

Every trailer has a speed where it will become unstable.
Properly loaded your trailer might have a critical speed of like 97 mph.
That is just fine because you will never reach that speed.
Normally you do not know what the critical speed is, and will only find out if you exceed it.
Your saving grace is that you loaded the trailer so extremely poorly that the critical seed was so low that it was manageable.
At 35 mph the fishtailing is relatively slow, the forces are weak and slowing down happens quickly.

If you had loaded it a little better the critical speed might have been reduced to 60 mph.
Imaging pulling onto the freeway, accelerating up to 65 and finding the trailer attempting to pass you on both sides at once.
It would get real ugly, real fast and you may not have had enough time react and recover.

Every now and then someone gets it on Video.

 

[TimBobCom]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

DO NOT drive any speed and slam on your brakes to adjust your boat, you run the risk of really screwing something (or someone) up.

To FIX the problem, since it just sounds like your boat is not touching the bow stop, you just need to move the boat, this is easy to do with the boat in your driveway. Get something that is strong enough to support your boat and also something that won't mess up the finish (don't use automobile jack stands on a fiberglass boat.) You will probably need 3 or 4 of these and they will need to just be a couple inches longer than the distance from your boat hull to the ground at the rear of your boat and at the front. Now, using your trailer jack, jack the front WAY down, which will raise the transom of your boat, place 2 of the blocks under the transom of your boat and begin to raise the jack. At this time the back of the trailer will lower from the boat and the front of the boat will lift, once the front is lifted high enough place one or two blocks under the front of the boat.

Now you can lower your jack a bit and move the trailer back and forth under your boat as long as you do not hit your blocks.

Line it up, and just work your way backwards through the above instructions.

 

[dadtodc]

Re: Boat loaded to far back on trailer (HELP)!

Thanks for all of the advice. I decided to drop the hitch 3" and take it to the lake and load it up all the way. Seems to be ok now. I do appreciate all of the help. !