Trailer jack ?

woodyard · Feb 9, 2019

I have a 18.5 crestliner. It has the trailer jack positioned back a ways in the frame since it has swing away hitch. Notice position in picture. No room to mount it any farther up. It has always been hard as heck to roll around in the shop. I put a bigger wheel jack on to replace the one that came with it. Still hard to move around . Straight line is not too bad but turning it is a pain. My 20.5 fiberglass riverboat is breeze to move around compared to this one. The trailer has long tongue and the jack is mounted closer to the hitch.

My question is , is it mainly because it is so far back that it is a pain? Has anyone used one of the trailer dolly rigs to move one around in a shop and does it make it a lot easier?

dralarms · Feb 9, 2019

Why not move it forward.

woodyard · Feb 9, 2019

dralarms":3r2po5uf said:
Why not move it forward.

Because I like to swing the hitch out of my way in the shop. No room left on frame for the jack.

dralarms · Feb 9, 2019

woodyard":6z4hyrt2 said:
dralarms":6z4hyrt2 said:

Why not move it forward.

Click to expand...

Because I like to swing the hitch out of my way in the shop. No room left on frame for the jack.

Oh, I see. Didn't notice the "swing away" portion of the trailer.

Jcalder · Feb 9, 2019

Most likely it's the plastic wheel. Is your floor slick finish or rough. That would make a difference too.

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TN Song Dog · Feb 9, 2019

Is this boat heavier than the fiberglass one or have dual axels? Dual axel trailers are much harder to turn by hand. May not be that much to do with the jack wheel location. Trailer dolly does help quite a bit though.

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woodyard · Feb 9, 2019

Jcalder":vbwjzt2m said:
Most likely it's the plastic wheel. Is your floor slick finish or rough. That would make a difference too.

Floor is slick. The other jack with smaller wheel was hard too. I thought the larger wheel would help and I guess it did some.
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woodyard · Feb 9, 2019

TN Song Dog":77oixfhq said:
Is this boat heavier than the fiberglass one or have dual axels? Dual axel trailers are much harder to turn by hand. May not be that much to do with the jack wheel location. Trailer dolly does help quite a bit though.

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It has a single axle and I think the fiberglass boat is considerably heavier.

dralarms · Feb 9, 2019

Could you not move the jack where I marked? Even if you move it to the other side, so it out of the way of the swing.

woodyard · Feb 9, 2019

Winch is in the way.

WTM · Feb 11, 2019

my pt 175 is just like that and i have to kick the wheel to turn it.

R Crabtree · Feb 11, 2019

Since you already have two jacks would it not be possible to mount the old jack out near the hitch and leave the new one in place? Use the old one to roll around your shop and then drop the other one when you want to swing the tounge out of the way? Hopefully that makes sense...

I think my boat rolls easier when I raise the jack up as high as possible and shift as much weight as possible to the axle. For storage, I do the opposite and lower the jack down as far as possible to shift weight off the axle.

I have heard that the trailer dollies work quite well but I don't have one.

R Crabtree · Feb 11, 2019

One more thought. You can buy a $25 furniture dolly that's basically just 4 castors under a couple of 2X4's. You can then lower the jack wheel onto the furniture dolly. We did this one time to move a boat around in a large garage. The weight distribution on the 4 castors made it really easy to move around.

Obviously you'd need to add a piece of plywood to the dolly...

woodyard · Feb 11, 2019

WTM":3tdcsc73 said:
my pt 175 is just like that and i have to kick the wheel to turn it.

Yep , that is the deal with mine also.

woodyard · Feb 11, 2019

R Crabtree":39ilv3q1 said:
One more thought. You can buy a $25 furniture dolly that's basically just 4 castors under a couple of 2X4's. You can then lower the jack wheel onto the furniture dolly. We did this one time to move a boat around in a large garage. The weight distribution on the 4 castors made it really easy to move around.

Obviously you'd need to add a piece of plywood to the dolly...

I still wonder if it is the position of the jack off of center that is causing it to be so difficult. With that the furniture dolly might be just as difficult since it would be off center also. I don't really need to do the second jack back and have more shin busters in the way.

I guess I need to experiment with the jack out on the end of the tongue or use my floor jack and move it around. I am just tired of nearly straining something to move it around and it is going to be moving around a lot more since I am about ready to bust loose and be fishing when the weather cooperates. I can just imagine unhitching and trying to move it in a motel parking space.

woodyard · Feb 15, 2019

After talking to some more boat owners I think it is probably just the amount of weight on the front of the trailer that makes it hard to steer and roll. The axles on a lot of the boat trailers are pretty close to the rear which would cause more tongue weight which would put the weight onto the tow vehicle. Some of the older boats and trailers I have owned over the years were easier to roll and thinking back on it, the axles weren't quite as far back as some of these today.

I guess I will have to investigate the dolly thing more if I want to move it around easily.

TNReb · Feb 15, 2019

WTM":1xcjvnkz said:
my pt 175 is just like that and i have to kick the wheel to turn it.

Mine was the same way. I out a new jack on it and that solved the issue. Yours looks pretty new though. I'm sure you already have, but make sure the wheel part is loose and greased well.

WTM · Feb 16, 2019

TNReb":23lmzl9y said:
WTM":23lmzl9y said:

my pt 175 is just like that and i have to kick the wheel to turn it.

Click to expand...

Mine was the same way. I out a new jack on it and that solved the issue. Yours looks pretty new though. I'm sure you already have, but make sure the wheel part is loose and greased well.

yeah i have greased it. i think, the problem with it is that it has a shaft that goes up into another shaft with the bearings up in that shaft. add the crappy plastic wheel and the bearing force on that narrow caster causes a lot of friction no matter where the jack is placed. not a problem now but when i get my bigger garage built i will probably replace it with a dual wheel with the bearings on top of the caster.

Pilchard · Feb 16, 2019

Replace with a quality jack.

Trailer jack ?

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