Regarding tongue weight, the YouTube video below nicely explains how tongue weight can affect the handling of your vehicle. I wanted to decrease the weight on my set up, as I felt that the load on the hitch was excessive (about 200#), which was towards to limit of what my 1 1/4" hitch was rated for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Dgxe584Ss -----Original Message----- From: casioqv@usermail.com <casioqv@usermail.com> Sent: Monday, August 29, 2022 9:38 AM To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: Rusty Knorr <rustyinafrica@yahoo.com> Subject: M_Boats: Re: Boat moving Hi Rusty, I see what you're saying, but I've towed my M15 all over the west coast, and never felt the slightest oscillation. I never actually weighed my M15, not sure what the real tongue weight is- but I don't plan to change it since it's worked great for me for nearly a decade. It's very possible that it is closer to 10%. A few unusual things about my setup - (1) my trailer has a really long tongue that is like a permanent tongue extension but also reduces the effective tongue weight through leverage despite the boat being far forward on the trailer; (2) I tow with a VW Touareg diesel that weighs over 6,000 lbs fully loaded, which is a heavy vehicle for towing a tiny M15 - and has a lot of the weight rearward compare to a pickup truck- my rear tires aren't going to be pushed around. I probably should mention that I am a big guy and a strongman strength athlete for context in saying the M15 is easy for me to move by hand. Sincerely, Tyler ----- Original Message ----- From: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: "Rusty Knorr" <rustyinafrica@yahoo.com>, "Lawrence Winiarski" <lawrence_winiarski@yahoo.com> Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2022 5:42:51 PM Subject: M_Boats: Re: Boat moving 50lbs of tongue weight might actually be dangerous towing it down the road as it's pretty light. You actually want tongue weight as it means thecenter of gravity of the trailer is in FRONT of the axle. You are supposed to have about 10% of the load as tongue weight. I had a trailer only hauling about 300 lbs of long timbers stuff a short distance with it nearly balanced (i.e. very little tongue weight). Nearly pulled the caroff the road and it was actually a small load. Basically it can start oscillating wildly side/side once it starts oscillating. It's the angularmomentum that gets you, not that the rear tires of the car are lifted off the ground. It's an interesting physics problem to see WHY. Basically its about center of mass of the boat/trailer. Put the center of mass ahead of the axle and the trailer tires helpstop oscillations. Move toward the axle and they help less and less. Go behind the axle and they actually make things worse. On Sunday, August 28, 2022, 3:57:56 PM PDT, <casioqv@usermail.com> wrote: I find the M15 easy to move around by hand, even up a slight hill... I've never even bothered to use the trailer jack because it's only about ~50lbs of tongue weight. It depends on your fitness and strength level- I think most healthy adults could manage to move around an M15 easily but people with injuries, health problems, etc. might be better off just using a vehicle. Sincerely, Tyler ----- Original Message ----- From: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: "Rusty Knorr" <rustyinafrica@yahoo.com> Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2022 3:40:52 PM Subject: M_Boats: Re: Boat moving Good lord, I don’t think I’m ready to have R2D2 move a boat for me! I could see getting a dolly if necessary, but I’m hoping I wouldn’t need it. https://www.trailex.com/products/pc/Aluminum-Dolly-SUT-HDKD-7p31.htm www.rustyknorr.weebly.com