Lost my swinging trailer tongue

[granddaddy55]

My Fulton Jack went out again (they replaced it free fir 3rd time free in one day shipping) . Made me inspect a little and I saw the trailer tongue was moving up and own 7/8-1”.

called Boatmate and they said the binocular at end of trailer frame that accommodates the bolt and the pin had worn from perfectly round to elliptical shaped.  Even a little means slot of movement at end of tongue.  

It must be the bolted side that must take more stress as the pin side was pretty much a circle  snd I didn’t loosen the bolt to inspect 

2 choices to fix ,

1. torch or cut off the binocular snd weld on a new one and cold galvanize it and paint to match, blending into the good frame paint before winch mount

2. Put a bolt on pin side and take an impact and as per Mike st BoatmAte “knock the snot out of it”. Both bolts

So do major surgery finding an expert to not make my pretty painted galvanized trailer look like dog S*** and possibly lose some now active season time and s good bit of money to pay a real expert 

OR

For zero cost I lose my swinging tongue I use for conserving driveway length under carport or when boat is out in driveway 

easy choice, they gave us the nut snd bolt and we knocked the snot out of it with an impact and now it moves none

AND I lose no season time .  

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by granddaddy55

[Bird]

Could you ream the hole and install a larger diameter bolt? To keep the drill bit centered clamp a thick plate over the top of the bad hole and drill thru using the thick plate to shoulder the bit. Overdrill the bad slot and place a bushing?

[oldjeep]

The downside of the style swing tongue that they use.  The folding tongue on my bayliner trailer was a much sturdier design. 

[granddaddy55]

I’m lucky I’m in a carport , it’s when it’s out of carport in driveway when not hooked up trying to make it easier to pull a car or truck in driveway 

at leadt I don’t lose any time this season 

[granddaddy55]

On 2/22/2019 at 2:10 PM, Bird said:

Could you ream the hole and install a larger diameter bolt? To keep the drill bit centered clamp a thick plate over the top of the bad hole and drill thru using the thick plate to shoulder the bit. Overdrill the bad slot and place a bushing?

Probably good idea if I need to get it back , cutting off binocular rewelding re gslvsnizing snd blending the paint isn’t such s wonderful thing  

on FB there was s guy who’s dealer installed s tongue extension snd supposedly that solved the problem though I dint understand how it would 

Edited February 25, 2019 by granddaddy55

[oldjeep]

16 hours ago, granddaddy55 said:

Probably good idea if I need to get it back , cutting off binocular rewelding re gslvsnizing snd blending the paint isn’t such s wonderful thing  

on FB there was s guy who’s dealer installed s tongue extension snd supposedly that solved the problem though I dint understand how it would 

Tongue extension style removable tongues slide straight in and out to remove.  Like a reciever hitch. 

[granddaddy55]

So, I still don’t see how that would solve the up snd down movement of tongue from a worn binocular 

FB poster said it did but I couldn’t figure out how it would solve that problem 

[williemon]

I just checked mine as it always has had a lot of up down slop. My theory is that the binocular and bolt pin holes is a larger diameter than the bolt and pin as well as having space between the upper and lower mounting plates. Just lots of natural slop areas. Probably installing shims both upper and lower or just lower or making it with tight machined   Bushings or mounting surfaces is key. There was no wear on mine that i could see, just a lot of space areas for slop.