ADJUSTING TRAILER FOR 23' SF

[peterb]

I have always drooled over those impact wrenches and compressor setups. My next door neighbor is a big time gadget guy. I will see what he has.

thanks

[klaucke]

I agree it is much easier to adjust the trailer w/o the weight of the boat on it. Moving the axles is a pretty easy, straight forward job once everything is in position. If you live near some water, I would look into just dropping the boat into the water and leaving it tied up somewhere, if you have access to that sort of thing.

Once you have everything jacked up (either w/ the boat or w/o), you only need to remove the bolts and move them back to the desired mounting holes. Please be very careful that the trailer is properly supported w/ back up in case a jack stand fails, etc. Some blocks of wood or spare tires are cheap insurance!

[peterb]

Yeah, but generally speaking I don't like to do things the easy way.

I spoke to my friendly mechanic who recommended a nearby garage. I will probably do it with them next monday. I will drop off the trailer w/out the boat, get him to tweak the trailer and then try it out (complete with weighing it).

Am thinking of moving it back 9 inches. A couple of people, including Father Frank, mentioned this estimate.

What are the odds that it will work out the first time?

[peterb]

Well, the trailer is finally finished. First, I had the axels move back 9 inches. Not enough tongue weight (about 140 pounds). Just had them moved back another 3 inches. Bingo. Now I have around 350 pounds of tongue weight. No more fishing tailing at 50 miles per hour.