Interesting, John. I didn’t figure in the tongue weight. They had me weigh the entire rig (tow vehicle + boat & trailer) and then again with just the tow vehicle on the scale. I just subtracted the vehicle weight (4680) from the total weight (7580) to arrive at the 2900 lb. I can see my boat weighing 200-300 lb more than yours because of the fuel, motor, and equipment on board as well as the trailer tongue extension and sleeve. But a 600 lb difference makes me think I calculated it wrong. What do you make of these numbers? Henry M17 #310 MONITA On Mon, Apr 27, 2020 at 12:14 PM John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net> wrote:
Nice pic of your boat. I didn't realize we have the same (or very close) hull color!
I weighed mine the first season I had it, at a local truck stop scale. It gave me weight for boat & trailer, & for tow vehicle. In the truck scale printout, it shows as "steer axle" (tow vehicle) and "drive axle" (boat & trailer) and then "trailer axle" ends up as zero because the rig is so much shorter than a semi with trailer so there's nothing on that part of the scale.
I had nothing much in the boat or tow vehicle to add weight.
Tongue weight ends up registering on the tow vehicle, as the scale said 3840 for that and curb weight per spec is 3490 plus 150 lbs for me in the car. That leaves ~200 lbs tongue weight which is about right (I measured that roughly with a bathroom scale).
Anyhow for the boat & trailer part the scale said 2120. Not sure what the physics is to factor in the tongue weight but at most it would be ~200 lbs more so 2320.
My trailer is a heavy, closed rectangular tubing, full A-frame type from Atwood. No idea if it was the original or not, but the fore & aft bunk supports are cut & welded (not bolt-on and not adjustable), the middle ones are also cut & welded on but a little bit adjustable vertically. The bunks are quite long compared to others I've seen pics of here.
I've not weighed the trailer separately but if the boat weighs 1500-1600 lbs then my trailer is 700-800+ lbs. It seems overkill for the boat. I could probably lose 100-150+ lbs of trailer weight with a leaner design.
cheers, John
On 4/26/20 8:59 PM, Henry Rodriguez wrote:
I had my boat and trailer weighed at a truck stop on Friday. Total combined weight is *2900 lb.* I wonder how that compares to other M17 rigs that have actually been weighed (not guesstimated?) I believe the trailer is the original Trail-Rite, not Pacific.
Weight factors: I had my Evinrude 4hp motor on a mount at the front of the trailer and 3 gals of fuel in the cockpit tank. A 7' homemade trailer extension with a 2' sleeve accounts for about 75 lb of extra weight. Other heavyish items are a 55 lb Rolls battery, 15 lb Delta anchor w/35' of 1/4" chain on 200' rode, and a mast raising 2 x 4 gin pole with attached brake winch. Also a pair of experimental trailer "goal posts" made from 1" steel conduit and PVC pipe that are way too long and need to be cut down by several feet.
How heavy is your rig? Henry Rodriguez
-- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com
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