Hope I'm never in these shoes

[3 Squids]

I think as long as you have proper tongue weight, your bow eye is in good shape and a transom strap you'd be fine. But freak, unforeseen things could happen, just gotta pray they don't happen to you.

[Tunnaman88]

...living on the Cape in mass, my travel time is limited to 15 minutes in either direction to hit water.. lol. I do not travel very fast. Besides, its strapped in for a roller coaster ride with bow straps, safety chains etc..

[SkunkBoat]

I always used the winch cable and safety chain on the bow eye and a strap over the stern. After seeing that V20 accident, as an added precaution, I started using the anchor chain thru the bow roller, shackled to the trailer...in case the bow eye fails.

I note about the strap over the stern...
when I had a 16' aluminum boat, I was making a tight turn and the trailer wheel rode up a very tall curb. I saw it and went REAL SLOW thinking it would be OK.
As the trailer straightened out of the turn it went up on one wheel and fell over.

Luckily I had the strap on. Boat stayed attached to trailer. We jumped out, , flipped her back up, threw the fishing rods back into the boat, secured the hitch and got back in the truck before the light turned green.

Point is... don't rely just on gravity. An accident, a bump, a swerve, a failure of the bow eye and the boat will move...

[Destroyer]

As a general rule of thumb, most manufacturers recommend 5 - 7% of the total weight of the boat, trailer and engine as the amount you should set as your tongue weight. Understand that this is a guide and can be offset by additional factors such as gear, fuel, ice, etc. Generally speaking though, it's always better to have a little too much tongue weight than too little. Too little tongue weight leads to swaying and fish-tailing at highway speeds. Too much and the tow vehicle can become difficult to steer. But it's always been my experience that fish-tailing at speed is far more dangerous.

Compliments of Boat US is this handy guide on how to determine your tongue weight, both by using a commercial scale or by doing it at home using a beam scale you can make. http://www.boatus.com/magazine/trail...weight-diy.asp

[smokeonthewater]

fwiw I NEVER set up any trailer with less than 10% tongue weight.

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by smokeonthewater

fwiw I NEVER set up any trailer with less than 10% tongue weight.

Smoke, I'm sorta in the same boat (so to speak). My tongue weight is set for 10% DRY weight (no gear, fuel or ice) in my driveway. I know that after adding the fuel etc, it's going to change slightly, but not enough to effect my trailering. Plus I use 2 belly straps (one in the back, one over the bow just in front of the windshield. So I know I'm safe, and will have a good trip to the launch ramp and back.

[macojoe]

i have seen this on cape cod roads a few times! luckly not me. but i too strap the crap out of it, as far as tounge weight goes, i adjust just till i can't lift it and i have always been fine

[1224bret]

Just looked at my bow eye last weekend... Went to remove it and the 34 year old piece of mild steel wellcraft used as a backing plate and it crumbled to dust when I tried to remove it. After removal found that the u bolt was bent and corroded also. So new project for the coming weekend I guess

[SkunkBoat]

I re-did mine with a big thick aluminum backing plate this spring.
It was not safe, really needed it.