In the world of hairball inventions, and half-fast shortcuts, this is one that I haven't exactly tried before. But, it's worth a shot.
I think boat trailers are a whole lot like shoes. Some are shiny and stylish. Some comfortably broken in, and fit well. But, most of 'em-most of mine, anyway-have a hidden flaw and a few obvious foibles that just make life at the launch ramp harder than it needs to be. Sometimes, it's simple stuff like tail light placement, a lousy spot for the tongue jack, wrong sized tires, stuff like that. Sometimes, it's worse.
Take little Punkin' Seed's vintage (probably even factory built) lightweight little trailer. The best I can say, is that it's cute. And, there isn't a lot of interest in cute boat trailers within my rather limited circle. Nothing seems to be a standard dimension or gauge. There are some pretty remarkable features. I won't say that the "integral hub" tires, or that itty bitty axle hung from those itty bitty leaf springs are so much on the "remarkable" side of the ledger. I suppose the original builder/owner/salesman thought it was the best compromise. But, get this.
Punkin' Seed's trailer can't weigh over 300 pounds, soaking wet. The empty tongue weight can't be more than the collection of nuts, bolts, and wrenches that end up in my pants pockets when I throw 'em into the washer after a mechanical fixit session. And, yet this little rig was born with a TILT-TONGUE setup. Way cool. And, totally useless as designed. I'm betting this little getup pre-dates the built-in-the-seventies hull by a couple decades. That's judging by the number of colors and layers of paint if nothing else. The nameplate is totally illegible. Anyhow.
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Tilt-tongue trailers are supposed to let the boat slide downhill into the water like so much cow pies, or gravel, or rose bush clippings sliding outa' a tipped up wheel barrow. But, with the geometry of the thing, you need a lot of weight at the rear end of the contraption to make it tilt. And, a plywood sailboat without a motor on the butt is decidedly not heavy in the rear. And, yet, the short tongue and narrow wheelbase of this rig just cries out for a way to get the boat into the water from her high perch on that little candy assed trailer frame. And, that brings us back to the tilt tongue setup.
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Each and every one of my polyglot mix of "real" boat trailers is blessed with drop axles and long tongues to facilitate doing the deed at the ramp. This one just doesn't play well with others. Or, at least, not until I was looking through my "spares" pile for something else. I think I was actually looking for a piece of angle stock to mount something on Little Alice, the tractor, or something non-related, like that. And, behold!
There it was. A retired trailer tongue jack worm screw housing. Yep. No crank handle. No wheel. Greasy and kinda' rusty.
First off, I tried it as an adjustable bow chock and as a "launcher" on the order of with heavier boats, in the past. Then, inspiration truly struck.
I think I used it once as a launching aid for Lady Bug before I made things even more complicated for that particular boat-trailer combo to function. Just the thing for my dilemma of getting Punkin' Seed down into the water, and back up on the trailer without resorting to lots of lurching and shoving on my part-always a bad option. Especially, when you can complicate something with a "really cool" innovation.
Behold. The non-patent pending little device each and every one of you will want for your own trailer(s). Simply put a shallow ¾" socket and ratchet handle to the specially mated Nylox nuts and lock washer on the once-crank handle shaft. About a 10 degree separation among the rival trailer tongues will result in about an 18 inch drop of the once-aloof sailboat hind quarters. And, taa-dah! She just slides into the water like a wheel barrow load of those bovine trail markers I was talking about.
The trailer, here, is tiled up at about 15 degrees, and I could roll the boat off onto the garage floor with the bow line released. Just a few quarter-rotations with a wrench! There's more. But, you've probably seen all the Too Cool Fer School stuff you care to, for today.
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