Boat trailer draw bar modification

**monkeyrelish** · 29th July 2014, 10:15 PM

Hi all, Hoping for a bit of guidance on a boat trailer. I have an late 1960's ski boat on the original trailer and i would like to put brakes on the trailer to bring it up to current compliance. Also looking at extending the draw bar a little to hopefully improve backing the trailer as the nose of the boat comes close to hitting the back of the ute when reversing and it's just generally a bit of a pig to reverse. As you can see the previous owner has cut and moved the nose bar to keep the boat back on the trailer to make it easier to reverse. However this results in shifting a lot of the weight too far over the axle.

The chassis channel is around 3.2mm thick and there is a approx 60mm angle 6.5mm thick set back with the first roller fixed to it. My thoughts are to cut out the existing tow hitch plate and insert (and weld in) a new draw bar that will continue through to a new cross piece that will also be used to add a post for a winch mount and so get rid of the old bar that goes over the nose of the boat. So I was wondering what size draw bar should I use and how much longer can I safely extend it past its current set up? I was thinking of working out where the nose of the boat will sit and then locate the cross bar around this area and run the winch post from the cross bar. The end result would be similar to the pick below.

Any help is appreciated. Cheers p.s. sorry for the formatting, for some reason the formatting isn't recognizing spaces etc.

**KBs PensNmore** · 30th July 2014, 01:19 AM

Hi, I presume that the channel is about 100mm. If so you could go about a metre past the coupling, of 100 mm square RHS with a 4mm wall and extended back to the angle bracket. Regarding the weight balance is the suspension set up on a fixed bracket and bolted or clamped? If so, it could be easily moved forward to get the balance right again. Where in Adelaide are you?
Kryn

**Marc** · 18th August 2014, 11:52 AM

I have done this on a box trailer, cut the hitch off, welded a 150x50 new towbar from the last cross bar through the old hitch position, extended forward 600mm and welded a new hitch back on.
However with a boat trailer, with the complications of adding brakes and moving the nose bar I am not sure it is worth it. Possible yes, yet will it pass inspection after?
I wouldn't bother. Sell it and buy one that suits your boat better, you can always make small improvements on the new one but no need for such radical changes.

If you are really determined to keep the old trailer, Rather than modifying its front end, try to move the wheel shaft back a bit to improve balance

**soundman** · 19th September 2014, 07:52 PM

looks to be a fairly straight forward mod....I gather the trailer is now 750Kg and you want to go up to 1 tonne

I'd be more inclined yo use 50 x 75 rhs.

as described....carefully cut the hitch out but leave the existing drawbar members in tact.

cut a slice 50mmm wide thru the apex of the drawbar.

If you came back 600 is from the apex with your crossmember you should be pretty safe extending 600 past the existing apex.

you will need to plate over the apex and the drawbar extension......75 x 6mm plate should be plenty

Lots of boat trailers are built this way from factory.....i have recently reworked one of mine built like this.

remember you need to mount an overiding hitch.....which are heavier and longer.

cheers

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