Fold away tongue for drift boat trailer

rooftop

rooftop

Steelhead
I’m trying to make some room in the garage and have been eyeing the tongue on the drift boat trailer for a while. I’m curious if anyone has one of the fold-away adapters on their trailer. Has it been ok for long, bumpy roads? Any issues or concerns?
 
There has been one, since 1986, on the trailer of the boat I just sold. If problems were going to arise my guess is they would have occurred by now.
 
rooftop said:
I’m trying to make some room in the garage and have been eyeing the tongue on the drift boat trailer for a while. I’m curious if anyone has one of the fold-away adapters on their trailer. Has it been ok for long, bumpy roads? Any issues or concerns?
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one thing to be aware of is the need to remount the tongue jack to behind the hinge. Since I have a short tongue, I changed the swing-away horizontal for a vertical jack.
 
SurfnFish said:
one thing to be aware of is the need to remount the tongue jack to behind the hinge. Since I have a short tongue, I changed the swing-away horizontal for a vertical jack.
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Thanks for mentioning that. I'm sure I would have figured that out.... eventually. :) I have to figure out how to rearrange the kick-stand, jack, and hinge in a way that still shortens the tongue in a meaningful way. I love the kick-stand, so it has to stay.
 
rooftop said:
I’m trying to make some room in the garage and have been eyeing the tongue on the drift boat trailer for a while. I’m curious if anyone has one of the fold-away adapters on their trailer. Has it been ok for long, bumpy roads? Any issues or concerns?
Click to expand...

I pull an open racecar trailer so about 6000lbs. I bought the smallest trailer to fit in my garage. Then I cut the tongue off it and built/welded a structure to make the tongue bolt -on. It works perfect and has towed well for several decades. So my racace and trailer fit in my garage.
 

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fatbillybob said:
I pull an open racecar trailer so about 6000lbs. I bought the smallest trailer to fit in my garage. Then I cut the tongue off it and built/welded a structure to make the tongue bolt -on. It works perfect and has towed well for several decades. So my racace and trailer fit in my garage.
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Wow, that's a smidge heavier than my boat (even when there are 3 very wet dogs on board).
 
I have a fold-away tongue on my motorboat trailer and it works great. My boat mechanic said when they came out, the shop spent most of their time retrofitting them on trailers. I see them on boat trailer sites so they are available. My motorboat probably weighs 1500 lbs with the motor and fuel and I’ve had no problems with it and I see many heavier boats with the folding tongues on them. If I had one on my drift boat trailer, I would use a ring to hold the bolt in place rather than the clip (not sure what it’s called) which could back out on rough roads. My drift boat tongue is short enough to not be a concern.
 
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