DaySailer.org Forum

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone has made an extension or such like to allow the trailer to get further into the water. A combination of low water and a short wheel based tow vehicle, (Rav 4) is making it difficult to launch the DS1. I did a search of the forum and did not come up with anything, even though I'm sure I read a thread on it a (long) while back.

TIA, John on the Vineyard.

I made one about a year ago for two 2x2's glued and screwed together. I had to drill for the ball, and chisel out for the tongue. You also something to secure the extension midline on the trailer so it does not pivot.

If I was to make something like that I would want it to slide into the current tongue and stow there. That way when you needed it you could just pull a few pins and slide it out.

At one of the clubs I sail out of they have a square tube extension that is about 12' long with a ball and wheels on one end and a coupler on the other. Once you have your boat almost into the water you chalk the wheels un-hook fronm yoiur truck and hook the extension in and back it the rest of the way in. This is something used on bigger keel boats.

I made one out of a Rhodes 18 mast, it's aluminum so it's lite. I also use it as a gin pole for my larger boat to raise the mast.

One end has this - You connect this to your RAV 4


The other has this with a ball on it. - You connect this to your trailer


I use it all the time to launch and pull my larger sailboat. It works like a charm.

Jdoorly made a pretty creative extension for his trailer. He and a few others posted descriptions and some photos here:

http://forum.daysailer.org/forum/viewtopi ... ght=#18815

Good luck!

I finally got some pix of my trailer extension today. The 8 foot long square tube ($45) fits inside the existing tongue, tongue is 3" square and the extension is 2.5".
[thumb=1344] [thumb=1345]

I've tried several kinds of pins but will stay with these from Harbor Freight ($5)- they are the only ones with enough leverage!

The white block is my first try at stopping the extension before it fell out of the tongue. It worked OK but I had to get the holes in the extension past it before I could move it over a hole where it would deploy a pin into a hole just before the extension fell out. It worked perfectly every time but it was scary to watch. I'm much happier with the cable stop. There is a turnbuckle to fine tune where the extension stops and I can just pop in the pins. I removed the white block stopper right after I took this pic.

I used to get my car quite wet when launching (actually got the front carpet wet once), but with the extension, which is effectively 6 ft 7 ins, my back tires don't get wet. I use a wheel chock to hold the trailer while I move the car to ploy or deploy it.

That's downright elegant, Jay.

I've been trying to come up with a compromise length for the tongue. Sometimes we've got a canoe on top of the tow vehicle sticking out the back, sometimes not. A tongue that's adjustable for towing length, as well as for launching on shallow ramps, would be perfect.

Thanks for the good ideas everybody. I think I'll go the keep it simple stupid route for right now and just make one out of a couple of 2 x 4s. This winter though, I can see whipping up one of those nifty internal sliding ones.

Thanks again!

John on the Vineyard