I now have a boat (and trailer)! The trailer is for a boat from 14-18 feet long and my boat is 15 feet. The tongue is too long and won't fit in my garage (at least not easily) so I want to either shorten the tongue or install a fold-away hinge on it. The problem is that I don't have the needed tools or expertise to do it.

Does anybody know where I can take the trailer to get it modified?

yup - my buddy has a rigging shop in st pete -Brian at Yacht Riggers
He has modified his jetski trailer so it fits in his garage - he added a hinge on it and it folds a few feet of the trailer tongue

You may want to ask him if his daughter is available to help you rig your new cat too (she used to work at the CCSC) - she is home from FL State currently - she MAY possibly be hired for a few hours to help you rig (I am guessing here but it's right up their alley)

Take a picture of the trailer with the tongue up to the A-frame. I'm sure we can suggest something. If the trailer tongue is routinely removed or pivoted, you will want a 4-way light plug to allow for easy connection. Many tongue extensions are simply a sleeve of U or square channel large enough to fit over the existing square channel and bolted-through, so measure the dimensions of the tongue.

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Tom
NACRA 5.7 (1984 Sail 181)
Pennsylvania
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I've delt with this problem on two different occasions. The first time, I simply sawed off a section of the tongue by hand with a hacksaw. It was a lot easier than it sounds, the wall thickness was pretty thin. The coupling was easy to remove and reinstall. Be careful not to make it too short, especially if you have a bumper hitch. The reason for this will become obvious if you ever jackknife the trailer. The second time was with a different trailer that only needed to be two inches shorter to fit in the garage. I cut an opening in the drywall 5 inches square. I had to roll the boat in frontwards by hand, but it was no problem because of its light weight. Sounds ugly, but really worked and I saved the piece of drywall I cut out so I could repair the hole when I moved. This might also be a good time to check out your lights and make sure the wiring harness has no connectors that will be submerged.

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Bill Townsend
G-Cat 5.0
Sarasota
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making the tongue shorter MAY change the balance and may impact how safe the trailer is on the highway - IF you think you may ever go on a distance drive at speed caution should be used when modifying a trailer