Re: P-15 trailers

From: Dennis W. Farrell (dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us)
Date: Mon Apr 03 2000 - 21:54:11 PDT


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
        West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
                dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
           List hosted by www.tscnet.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Duncan: I've done about what you suggest and am reasonably satisfied with
the results.

I removed the coupler and welded in a piece of square-section tubing in its
place. The front of the trailer now looks like a typical hitch receiver. I
welded a coupler on the end of a 4 foot (or so) box section tube that slides
into the trailer's "receiver". I use standard receiver hitch pins to pin it
in place. ["I welded" = "I designed, the welder welded" <G>]

This works best if you can do the tongue extension/retraction without
uncoupling. Otherwise you spend a lot of time getting hitched up again,
especially if you're alone. I fixed mine up with an adjustable extension
stop so that when I remove the lock pin and pull forward, the extension can
only come out to the point where the pin-holes are aligned (well, more or
less aligned<G>). The other thing I usually have to do is take j-u-s-t
enough weight on the jockey wheel to unload the tongue without raising it
past the unloaded point.

Anyway, it works and keeps my vehicle free of salt water. A simpler
approach is to simply go to WalMart and buy a 15' yellow nylon tow strap and
use it (doubled) to allow your trailer to roll down the ramp while still
controlled by the car brakes. This of course depends on the ramp angle and
on how busy it is. It assumes you have a jockey wheel on the front of your
trailer.

  -- dwf

-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Young <dyoung@netpipe.com>
To: wwpotter@tscnet.com <wwpotter@tscnet.com>
Date: Monday, April 03, 2000 20:59
Subject: P-15 trailers

>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
> dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
> List hosted by www.tscnet.com
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>Thanks for all hot tips and advice. I haven't clipped any aircraft but I
did
>knock the New Orleans Causeway with the top of my mast one time. I thought
>it would fit under and it did when we heeld the boat over 15 - 20 degrees.
>
>Since we have an abundance of expertise on this line I have a question. I
>have a VW Vanagen that I pull my P-15 with but I really don't like getting
>salt water up my tail pipe or on the rear brake drums. Why couldn't I cut
>the Garges trailer behind the hitch and slide a 2.5 x 2.5 x.250 square
steel
>tube inside with link pin holes where I need them to make a trailer tongue
>extension? Has anybody ever done this? What are the ramifications of
>extending the tongue 4 or 5 feet? The steel book says the steel is 45,000
>psi tensile strength and 39,000 psi yield strength. I know we are talking
>about that much stress on the trailer tongue. Is it possible?
>
>Many thanks, dyoung@netpipe.com P-15 #2421 "Weigh-2-Go"
>
>
>



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 30 2000 - 03:27:08 PDT