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Boatmate Trailer Tongue Failure


Big Jay D

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So this just happened to the gentleman that bought my boat. 2004 Boatmate towing a LSV. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. 

He said that he went over a rise in the road coming into a parking lot. The spare hit the rise and then the tongue snapped. Judging from the skid of the spare it doesn't look like he was going very fast at all. 

Looking at the welds it's apparent that there has been a crack for a while and it looks like the welds didn't have great penetration. I'm not a welder but that's what I see.

He did say that Boatmate was helping resolve the issue even though the trailer is long since past its warranty. Kudos for that! 

Im just glad that it happened at the end of his drive and not while he was buzzing through canyons and populated areas on his was from AZ to UT. It looks like it could have happened at anytime. 

Please take a little time and check the trailer on your ride just as a precaution. The boat is just fine. The trailer has never see salt water.

 

D6C4D3D3-E603-4F68-97CB-59D496B59F25.jpg

5FBD5E19-BB83-4830-A35C-C159DAA48627.jpg

04d801f8-f3d0-46b4-865d-e86b8605711b.jpg

Edited by Big Jay D
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Wow, that stinks. So glad that didn't happen to me. Time to go check the trailers... guess I'm glad I'm taking a welding course right now.

Also great to know boatmate is helping him out, that really says something about them.

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I had a tongue weld fail, as well as the bolt on the swing away portion shear on my Heritage trailer under my Crownline.  It was also a 2004.  There must be quite a bit of strain there.

Good on Boatmate to help out on a 13 year old trailer.  That said, welding it back together properly isn't that big of a project.

That would be a disaster if it happened going down the interstate.  Glad it happened where it did and no-one got hurt, and there was minimal property damage.

Edited by RyanB
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2 hours ago, shawndoggy said:

great, another thing to have nightmares about!

this thread and JWL019's broken bolt thread are keeping me awake at night, even though it is off season and the boat is not moving for a few months.

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15 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

"See honey, I told you the new tow rig would tow the boat like it wasn't even there."

That's funny. I hate it when people say that ...... "tows like the boat/trailer aren't even there." Right.........

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2 hours ago, oldjeep said:

how big a hump and how low was his hitch? Hitting the spare on the road isnt an easy task.

 

looks like it has been cracked a long time with all that rust.

Not sure. But the fact that the crack is obvious and has some age means it wasn't  of how, but when. 

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22 hours ago, oldjeep said:

how big a hump and how low was his hitch? Hitting the spare on the road isnt an easy task.

 

looks like it has been cracked a long time with all that rust.

I have a steep transition from my driveway to the street and my spare rubs slightly every time I take the boat out. However I can't imagine how a normal road would a steep enough transition/bump for it to rub. Seems like really bad luck coupled with a failure point that just needed a little extra stress to break - kinda like the straw that broke the camel's back.

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Looks like it was just butt welded right to the pivot piece. Not exactly a strong joint for an area that receives a lot of stress. But, it's held for 13 years, so...

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On 1/18/2017 at 5:10 AM, Big Jay D said:

So this just happened to the gentleman that bought my boat. 2004 Boatmate towing a LSV. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. 

He said that he went over a rise in the road coming into a parking lot. The spare hit the rise and then the tongue snapped. Judging from the skid of the spare it doesn't look like he was going very fast at all. 

Looking at the welds it's apparent that there has been a crack for a while and it looks like the welds didn't have great penetration. I'm not a welder but that's what I see.

He did say that Boatmate was helping resolve the issue even though the trailer is long since past its warranty. Kudos for that! 

Im just glad that it happened at the end of his drive and not while he was buzzing through canyons and populated areas on his was from AZ to UT. It looks like it could have happened at anytime. 

Please take a little time and check the trailer on your ride just as a precaution. The boat is just fine. The trailer has never see salt water.

 

D6C4D3D3-E603-4F68-97CB-59D496B59F25.jpg

5FBD5E19-BB83-4830-A35C-C159DAA48627.jpg

04d801f8-f3d0-46b4-865d-e86b8605711b.jpg

Now we know why mounting the spare here is better than underneath. Makes a good kickstand when needed. Hope it was inflated properly.

 

  • Like 2
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2 minutes ago, Steve B. said:

Next time I tow, I'm taking a darn good look at the trailer.

Steve B.

@Steve B., that is a a great idea and everyone should, but some things are not or may not be visible to the naked eye. Sometimes it is inecessary to look with a magnifying glass and even then things can and will happen, we just pray that it doesn't. 

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ahopkins22LSV
8 hours ago, BlackBluMalibu said:

@Steve B., that is a a great idea and everyone should, but some things are not or may not be visible to the naked eye. Sometimes it is inecessary to look with a magnifying glass and even then things can and will happen, we just pray that it doesn't. 

Yeah very good point. The only true way to tell if a weld is good is to do a macro cut and etch test. But then you would be destroying your trailer anyway. 

It is tough to see if there was any penetration of the weld but again the only true test is to acid etch it then polish it and get it under a microscope to measure the penetration. In my area of work we look for a minimum of 0.2mm of penetration for a mig weld. Granted that's on much thinner material so on a trailer you might want a min of 0.5-0.8mm(educated guess) or so but you don't want the weld melting all the way through the parent material either. Just food for thought...

Glad to hear boatmate is standing by it though!

  • Like 1
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14 hours ago, dalt1 said:

Now we know why mounting the spare here is better than underneath. Makes a good kickstand when needed. Hope it was inflated properly.

 

Looks like a good reason to not use the types of mounts that include a spare hub and allow the tire to spin ;)

  • Like 1
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Did the weld fail or the material fracture with fatigue? Looking at the crack from the bottom where this has been cracked for awhile from the rust, there is no sign of a weld only material thickness.

the weld at the top appears to be for the top hinge plate

there does not appear to be welds on the sides where the crack is or adjacent.

only part that looks odd to me is the front view as the material just next to the hinge point looks like it tapers out back to the hinge point, so this may not be just a folded channel with parallel folds housing the actuator coupling. Could just be camera perspective although the cut out would suggest this tapers out. 

I cut off & threw out my Boatmate hing point so I don't have anything to reference what it looked like from the factory.

if anyone has the same coupling, some pics from above, the side & under may help the crew come up with ideas

 

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