Hi,
I recently purchased a sportsrig trailer to transport our 18 1/2 ft kayaks. I love the trailer but have a question for anyone else using this trailer. I have the medium hitch extention and there seems to be a fair amount of flex in the long tongue when traveling along. I talked to the owner/designer of the trailer, and he said there shouldn’t be any concern. But I wonder if anyone has added any diagonal bracing to the long tongue to make it stiffer. This might eliminate a lot of side to side flex and might stop some up and down flex as well
thanks
Mark
flex
I have no experance with this trailer,however if the owner says its o.k.;go for it.
Did you ever see an empty flatbed trailer rolling down the highway? the center curves up and when you load itthat curve is gone.
being as long as they are they flex as they are rolling down the road,otherwise the welds would crack and the bolt holes would elongate.
I obsessed over flex
with my Trailex aluminum trailer for awhile, and went as far as adding a bracing strut to it. In the end I decided the flex was actually giving the boat a bit less of a jolting ride so removed the strut.
Did you get the extensions they have to increase distance between the front and rear racks? With such long boats that might firm things up a bit, reducing oscillation.
Mike
Flex
I did get the trailer extentions that increase the distances between saddles, but the way the sportsrig trailer is made, the tung and tung extentions originate from the same place with or without the carrier extentions.
Mark
Yeah, I could tell
that from the picture on their website, just thinking the long boats might move around even more without the extensions. But since you have them, so much for that notion.
Some triangular bracing like you are thinking of would be worth a try, I guess. I’d try it, anyway. I really doubt there’s a breakage concern the way it is, but the wiggling can get annoying from the driver’s seat nonetheless.
My trailer had dire warnings about drilling holes anywhere along the tongue so I guess you might need to consider that.
SportRig has a nice thing going with their suspension and wheels, but I wish they’d come out with a trailer built specifically for longer boats. The various bolt-ons they sell for that don’t really hit the mark, in my opinion anyway. They put the wheels pretty far back, increasing the tongue weight, which may not be desired depending on the towing vehicle.
And while they’re at it, create a low-rider version that makes the tongue height more appropriate for a car than a truck or SUV.
Mike
flex
Mike,
Thanks for the comments. I must stay, except for the flex thing, I have nothing but good things to say about the sportsrig trailer. I pull it with a subaru forester and even with three boats on it with the hatches full of life jackets, etc I am hardly aware that I am towing anything.
Mark
It’s a nice trailer,
and apparently has been around for a good number of years too.
I tow my Trailex SUT-200 behind a VW GTI, and am always aware of it being back there, though it’s tolerable with the single hardshell boat I use now. For a couple years I towed a heavier Folbot double with it and the wiggling with that was more annoying. Much of this is due to the small car, I used to tow with a bigger heavier sedan and it wasn’t bothersome at all.
Still, for a single boat and small car, the trailer I have is the best rig I’ve seen available.
I’m wondering, the table on the SportsRig page says the medium tongue extension lets you carry two 18’8" boats side-by-side. Presumably when you added the extension to move the front rack forward, you moved the boats forward too a bit. Does that get you close to having turning clearance issues?
Mike
turning issues
The only clearence issues that I have had are due to bicycles that we hang off the back of the car. If we didn’t have the bicycles there, there wouldn’t be a problem. I think that we will probably solve the bike problem by putting a second level on the trailer and carrying them there. The sportsrig people have another set of shocks that you can buy to increase the load carrying to 450 lbs from the current 25o.
Mark