Posts: 3474
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | stdevos - 6/6/2019 12:42 PM
You'll be shifting the the weight of the boat to your hitch from the trailer axle. Try lifting the boat at the point where you'll be cutting and make sure it isn't significantly heavier. I had a 14' boat that had a trailer with a tongue that wasn't long enough. It was a boat that should have been super light, but was a pain to move because of tongue. It would also bounce really weird while trailering and couldn't open trunk/gate of vehicle. I would NOT shorten the tongue if I were you unless there was no other option.
From a physics standpoint, the weight of the boat is still in the same position, but he would be reducing the weight on the forward side of the axle. The way trailers are designed, the tongue acts as a lever. Therefore, the longer the lever, the easier it feels is to lift on your own. So...when lengthening or shortening the tongue The weight doesn't change nor does it's position on the trailer, only the distance from the fulcrum (axle) does from where it is being lifted. If for some reason the boat is hard to lift now, the trailer is most likely not set up correctly. If it is that far off, it is quite possible to adjust where the axle is located as well. These adjustments would be quite minute, though...most likely a couple of inches at most, distributing more weight of the boat aft by moving the axle forewad toward the tongue
In this particular instance, if he can cut off, say 8 inches of his tongue without adversely affecting tailgate use, it will not adversely affect the overall weight distribution much at all. If anything, it may help (depending) as a hitch is supposed to have about 15% of the weight on it when level so it pulls correctly. Being this is a fairly small rig, I don't believe he's going to run into any issues mentioned about not being able to move it around given he has a decent wheel jack on it.
Steve
Edited by VMS 6/16/2019 8:57 PM
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