Much to my dad's chagrin (He's a very casual fisherman) I recently helped my mom buy a 2005 Sea Doo Sportster 150 (15.5' 215 HP Jet Boat) because she just thought they were cool and she just likes cruising the river in something easy to handle.
Anyway, they have a 1.5 car garage that's 18' 2" deep with a utility sink at the back and a door that swings in. I really need to get this thing below 16 ft from tongue to stern so they can keep it in the garage so it stays clean and ready to use at all times (My mom's requirement). This is a very light boat + trailer combo. The boat is about 1,450 dry and there's not much to add to that besides 21 gal of fuel and a battery. I need to weigh it but the trailer can't weigh more than 1,200 lbs for a total wet weight around 3,000. This trailer happens to be a Karavan brand trailer (SeaDoo doesn't make their own OEM trailers, at least not for this boat).
I bought the Fulton 3x3", 5,000 lb fold away hinge kit. If I install it in front of the existing winch post and relocate the jack it would only net us a 1 ft, 7 5/8" reduction in length putting us at a total length of 16' 6-3/8" from the tip of the folding tongue hinge to the slightly protruding step ladder at the rear of the transom.
I've seen pictures of where others have put the hinge behind the winch post and it seems to work fine. I'm having trouble precisely visualizing the arc that the bow roller will take when the tongue is folded but it seems that since the pivot point is offset to one side that the roller will pull away from the bow as the tongue swings. I assume that if the pivot point was too far towards the tongue relative to the roller that the roller would have to first move laterally across the bow which probably wouldn't work. The pivot point needs to be as close as possible to the center line of the roller or aft of it. Just unhook the chain and the strap and swing the whole rig over as shown in the pics below.
Logically that all sounds fine and I can make the cut and place the hinge where I have it resting in the picture below but I have 2 main concerns:
1) What if the boat is pinned hard against the roller when retrieved from the water and makes it difficult/impossible to remove the pin to release the hinge? I see it potentially putting downward pressure on the bow roller which puts the hinge in a bind and prevents the removal of the pin (At least not without tools and/or a jack on the tongue to take the load off). Has anyone lived with a setup like this? Has that ever been a problem?
2) To a lesser extent I'm concerned about the boat settling in the bunks while stored with the bow roller folded away. I've read one anecdotal report of this on another forum but with a much heavier boat. He left it for a few months and then couldn't swing the tongue back into position because the boat was a couple of inches lower than it was when it had originally been stored. The trailer seems rather beefy for the size/weight of this boat so it may not be a concern.
The other solution is to re-work the winch post to make it more vertical and allow the install of the hinge further back. That would require finding a welder I trust and paying him to do the job though and would reduce the strength of the winch post to some extent due to simple geometry/physics. Of course I'd have to paint too at that point. I'd prefer to just install it behind the post if I could be more confident that it would just work without issue. I'd really rather not cut the tongue off and have it not work right.
Does anyone have experience with this setup? I know Ram-Lin puts the folding hinge behind the winch post and bow stop for the OE Nautique trailers because that's how my neighbor's SAN was from the factory. You had to remove the bulky bow stop to fold the hinge on his though.
Here's the tongue in question:
Anyway, they have a 1.5 car garage that's 18' 2" deep with a utility sink at the back and a door that swings in. I really need to get this thing below 16 ft from tongue to stern so they can keep it in the garage so it stays clean and ready to use at all times (My mom's requirement). This is a very light boat + trailer combo. The boat is about 1,450 dry and there's not much to add to that besides 21 gal of fuel and a battery. I need to weigh it but the trailer can't weigh more than 1,200 lbs for a total wet weight around 3,000. This trailer happens to be a Karavan brand trailer (SeaDoo doesn't make their own OEM trailers, at least not for this boat).
I bought the Fulton 3x3", 5,000 lb fold away hinge kit. If I install it in front of the existing winch post and relocate the jack it would only net us a 1 ft, 7 5/8" reduction in length putting us at a total length of 16' 6-3/8" from the tip of the folding tongue hinge to the slightly protruding step ladder at the rear of the transom.
I've seen pictures of where others have put the hinge behind the winch post and it seems to work fine. I'm having trouble precisely visualizing the arc that the bow roller will take when the tongue is folded but it seems that since the pivot point is offset to one side that the roller will pull away from the bow as the tongue swings. I assume that if the pivot point was too far towards the tongue relative to the roller that the roller would have to first move laterally across the bow which probably wouldn't work. The pivot point needs to be as close as possible to the center line of the roller or aft of it. Just unhook the chain and the strap and swing the whole rig over as shown in the pics below.
Logically that all sounds fine and I can make the cut and place the hinge where I have it resting in the picture below but I have 2 main concerns:
1) What if the boat is pinned hard against the roller when retrieved from the water and makes it difficult/impossible to remove the pin to release the hinge? I see it potentially putting downward pressure on the bow roller which puts the hinge in a bind and prevents the removal of the pin (At least not without tools and/or a jack on the tongue to take the load off). Has anyone lived with a setup like this? Has that ever been a problem?
2) To a lesser extent I'm concerned about the boat settling in the bunks while stored with the bow roller folded away. I've read one anecdotal report of this on another forum but with a much heavier boat. He left it for a few months and then couldn't swing the tongue back into position because the boat was a couple of inches lower than it was when it had originally been stored. The trailer seems rather beefy for the size/weight of this boat so it may not be a concern.
The other solution is to re-work the winch post to make it more vertical and allow the install of the hinge further back. That would require finding a welder I trust and paying him to do the job though and would reduce the strength of the winch post to some extent due to simple geometry/physics. Of course I'd have to paint too at that point. I'd prefer to just install it behind the post if I could be more confident that it would just work without issue. I'd really rather not cut the tongue off and have it not work right.
Does anyone have experience with this setup? I know Ram-Lin puts the folding hinge behind the winch post and bow stop for the OE Nautique trailers because that's how my neighbor's SAN was from the factory. You had to remove the bulky bow stop to fold the hinge on his though.
Here's the tongue in question:
Last edited:
