Moving winch stand for swing tongue.

[sdhildebrand]

Hello, first time boat owner here. I have a 3rd stall in my garage that is just a hair short for my trailer to fit. I’ve been looking at installing a swinging tongue but the space I would gain is minimal because of the placement of the winch stand. Is there another model or style that I could replace it with that would sit closer to the boat? Everything I have seen is either similar to what I have or doesn’t fit my trailer.

 

[GA_Boater]

You have one too many jacks. If the front jack is removed, it looks like there is plenty of room for the swing and the same winch stand can stay where it is.

You say the garage is a hair short - Angling the trailer or raising the tongue with the jack may give the room to close the door with no trailer mods.

I used to put a boat in the garage where I needed about 3 inches to close the door. I put a block under the jack wheel and raised the tongue, ending up with plenty of room.

 

[GA_Boater]

One more thing - Is the drive tilted up? Lowering the drive shortens the overall length.

 

[sdhildebrand]

Thanks, the boat sits in the third stall at an angle now. The problem is that it has to sit at such an angle that I can only get one car in the main part of the garage. I always store it with the drive barely off the floor. As for the extra jack, the previous owner had put it on there for whatever reason. I knew it could go away, but I figured the swinging tongue would only gain me about 8 inches and I need close to two feet.

 

[MTboatguy]

From the perspective that image is, it looks like it would close now with the tongue just as it is...

 

[GA_Boater]

Two feet isn't a hair.

Is one of the other bays deeper?

 

[JimS123]

If you remove the extra jack and put the swing tongue assembly right in front of the winch stand, it looks like you could get almost 2 feet.

Also, the garage walls look to be finished. Cut the drywall out between 2 studs so the outdrive will fit in between them. That's get you an extra 3 1/2".

I did those things at a previous house and if I angled the bow over just a couple inches, the trailer just cleared the handle on the bottom of the garage door and all was well.

Then I moved and built the garage 48 feet long, so I could back the boat in attached to the car and still close the door.

 

[roscoe]

Is that boat an i/o ?

Modify the garage.
Cut a hole in the back wall.
4'w x 4'H , or 4'H x 8'W if you like, then build a "dog house" on the outside of the garage to accommodate the outdrive.

Gets your garage back to 3 usable bays, and no dinking around every time you use the boat.

Next house, 28' deep garage.

 

[sdhildebrand]

Thanks for the replies. The kitchen is on the other side of the garage so modifyijg the wall for the outdrive isn’t really an option. I was looking for answers related to the trailer itself. If it’s not feasible, that’s ok. I was just looking for options. Thanks!

 

[roscoe]

What's more important, the garage and boat, or the kitchen?

 

[DouglasW]

This may sound crazy to the experts, but how about putting the hinge behind the winch stand? Do you really need the winch in place once the boat is settled on the trailer while in storage?

And if you have the extra winch because the original one has a bad (slipping) gear set, you can probably get replacements for the gears cheap. That's what I did and they were easy to install.

Hope this link doesn't run afoul of the mods. Shows the gear kit I used: https://www.thehulltruth.com/trucks-trailers/954723-need-new-miter-gears-trailer-jack.html

 

[JimS123]

This may sound crazy to the experts, but how about putting the hinge behind the winch stand? Do you really need the winch in place once the boat is settled on the trailer while in storage?

And if you have the extra winch because the original one has a bad (slipping) gear set, you can probably get replacements for the gears cheap. That's what I did and they were easy to install.

Hope this link doesn't run afoul of the mods. Shows the gear kit I used: https://www.thehulltruth.com/trucks-trailers/954723-need-new-miter-gears-trailer-jack.html

The hinge section on both of my swing tongue trailers has a little play in it. I think I would prefer to have the winch stand firmly fastened to the a-frame, and not have any possible movement at all.