Modifying my trailer

[stinger222]

I have a Shorelander tandem trailer with 5 leaf springs, 1360 lb cap tires on 13 in rims. It currently carries my 22 ft CC Stinger which weighs about 3500 lbs. I bought a 25 ft Chaparral SX (5000 lb) which is kept in a wet slip and would like to use this trailer since I over the last w yrs I sank $1000 into disk brakes, bearings, tires on this trailer. Would rather buy a lighter duty trailer for the smaller boat and modify the exisitng trailer for the bigger boat. Steel fab guy says for $500 he can lengthen my trailer by 3 ft, ie longer tongue, and it will work fine. What do you guys think? The sticker/serial # is long gone but I'm thinking it can handle 6-7000 lb

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Modifying my trailer

Two axles is what I'm getting from "tandem" FYI, if it's two tires this is off.

The rating of the trailer for your boat is generally the sum of the ratings for the axles minus the weight of the trailer.

Eg., my trailer carries a 4500 lb boat, and has two 3500lb axles with electric brakes. It probably weighs close to 1500 lbs on its own (old, heavy trailer).

So 3500x2 = 7000, 7000-1500 = 5500, 5500 > 4500 so I'm ok, plus I have 1000 lbs left for fuel, gear, etc.

For you, your trailer would be rated for about 5400 lbs minus trailer weight.

Those are kinda odd weights by the way... not sizes I've heard of before.

I'm guessing your trailer weighs about 1000-1200 lbs, but you'd have to weigh it to be sure. So your payload capacity is about 4200-4400 if you have no fuel or gear on board which won't happen. Not enough.

You can extend the trailer, but what you really need to do is add bigger axles or a third axle to handle more weight. It might be easier to sell the trailer with its new parts and buy a bigger one.

Erik

 

[stinger222]

Re: Modifying my trailer

thanks for the reply...so how do you know my axles are the rating you said?how do you know my axles are not the same as yours?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Modifying my trailer

sell your trailer, and take what you get, and the 500, and buy a proper trailer. you were overload already.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Modifying my trailer

No way that trailer can handle 6-7000 lbs. The tires cap rating of 1360 x 4 = 5440 max capacity.

I agree with TD. You are most likely overloaded now, get a new or used trailer with the proper rating.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Modifying my trailer

I second Mark42.
Tires are definitely not going to do it. You may or may not require axles too.
Extending the trailer is a possibilty though.
Dunno about your area, but her in Chesapeake country, you don't have to look too hard to find a used trailer for $500. This would be the route I would take.

 

[stinger222]

Re: Modifying my trailer

don't think I'm overloaded right now, but can see that it may be too much with the 5000lb boat. Not many used trailers for a 5000 lb boat around here.

Plenty of them for smaller boats, that is why I was considering this route.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Modifying my trailer

To figure out your capacity I just used the rating you reported for your tires... it's pretty close to one of the standard ratings for trailer axles. Usually axles are sold based on capacity, for mine they were 3500. I could also have gone to 2000 or 5000 lb. varieties, with different hub sizes for each depending on what I wanted.

Remember that the tires hold up your trailer, boat, and everything in the boat, and also themselves, so you typically need a good margin over the boat weight to not be overloaded, which is why everyone is saying "upgrade".

To give yourself a comparison to think about: Imagine you wanted to use your existing boat to carry twice as many passengers. Sure, you can do it, but to keep the same performance and make it safe you'll have to replace the engine, drive train, probably add more deck space, increase free board, pretty much rebuild the whole boat, which isn't economical. Intuitively it can be done (and in reality too) but it's still not a good idea.

It's the same with the trailer. FYI, you can actually build a new trailer if you're handy with a welder, and scavenge your old trailer for parts if you want to save some money. But you still couldn't reuse your axles, wheels, tires and brakes unless you add a third axle to the existing two.

So the most economical thing to do is sell the trailer and get a new one.. it's not impossible to do otherwise, it just doesn't make sense to do otherwise.

Erik

 

[stinger222]

Re: Modifying my trailer

I found a used aluminum trailer locally for $1000. It currently has a 27 ft Searay cruiser sitting on it...the tag on it says rated for 6000 lb, however the Searay on there probably weighs at least that.