Storage space for C-Dory 25

D

drbridge

New member
We are considering up sizing from our 22 cruiser to a 25 cruiser in a couple of years. I was hoping one or more of you that currently own a 25 could tell me what the exact measurement from the very tip of your trailer hitch to the furthest rear portion of your outboard (preferably with permatrim) is.
I am trying to determine storage space needed to fit a 25 in our boat barn. I think it may be a little to short for the 25 on a trailer.
I can extend the back of the barn out a little for some more length if needed, but would like to know exactly before I started and would rather complete this project before we went looking for a boat.
Another Question would be does anyone have a 25 trailer that utilizes a folding tongue? The Pacific trailer that our 22 is on would not be compatible with a folding tongue, and that is why I am asking if there are any other trailers out there that would be.

Thanks in advance

Doug & Susan
 
drbridge":2g8fukb9 said:
We are considering up sizing from our 22 cruiser to a 25 cruiser in a couple of years. I was hoping one or more of you that currently own a 25 could tell me what the exact measurement from the very tip of your trailer hitch to the furthest rear portion of your outboard (preferably with permatrim) is.
I am trying to determine storage space needed to fit a 25 in our boat barn. I think it may be a little to short for the 25 on a trailer.
I can extend the back of the barn out a little for some more length if needed, but would like to know exactly before I started and would rather complete this project before we went looking for a boat.
Another Question would be does anyone have a 25 trailer that utilizes a folding tongue? The Pacific trailer that our 22 is on would not be compatible with a folding tongue, and that is why I am asking if there are any other trailers out there that would be.

Thanks in advance

Doug & Susan
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Your wallet is the only limiting factor in what any boat trailer tongue can be made to do!
Any metal fabrication shop can build you what ever you can imagine.
My 25 on the trailer is 33'6" x 8'6" x 13' (w/permatrim)

:wink:

Good luck on your adventure!
 
The trailers are going to vary. Our 25 was just at 34 feet. I towed it behind a 30 foot RV, and had to be sure it was legal in Calif. at less than 65 feet LOA. There was about one foot from the back of the RV to the point of the ball hitch for the trailer.
 
Hi Doug,

You have probably already done this but I put this:

"boat trailer swing tongue conversion"

into a google search and got a ton of hits. I had a swing tongue in a trailer for my sail boat. It was years ago, and I don't remember the brand. I remember that the fab shop that put it on came up with which size. I just looked at it and said I wanted it for double their specs and I know it worked for me without any problem.

Fab work here in Sequim that I have had done is at All Form. Not cheap, but good work.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Rain":2yinhxd7 said:
One foot? I can't envision that, Bob. How the heck did you turn?
Click to expand...

Maybe you are thinking of some other dimension, but that sounds normal to me. Picture a typical drawbar and the shank is not all that long. At least the way I interpret it, he's talking about the length of drawbar that is between the hitch opening on the motorhome (open 2" square of hitch that is attached to motorhome frame) and the ball (where the trailer coupler sits). On cars this is often even shorter (look at typical drawbar), but on RV's it can be a bit longer to clear various things. Mine is around 8" to clear RV type stuff (so I buy a slightly longer drawbar than the typical short ones).

There is still the distance on the trailer between where the coupler sits on the ball and where the bow stand is. That's something like 36" on my trailer. So plenty of room for turns.
 
Thanks for all this information. I can make a fairly easy and inexpensive modification to my building to get it to 35' in length. Property line set backs would limit any more. That should get a 25 in and still be able to shut the door, but no room to work on motors or walk around boat. We would need a folding tongue to have those luxuries.
All the searches that I have done come up with the only manufacture of a tongue hinge to be Fulton. These are good hinges. I installed one on my Simmons 18 Sea Skiff trailer and it has worked out great.
The much heavier C-Dory 25 would require the heaviest hinge that Fulton makes. It can handle 9000 Lbs. The catch is it needs to be mounted on 3x5 steel tongue. Most of the C-Dory trailers I have seen are 3x3. I suppose We could have a fab shop convert it to a 3x5 tongue and rework the winch tower to allow installation of the Fulton hinge.
All Form Welding does very good work and I have used them in the past. Premium rates are to be expected for premium work. I have not approached them on this issue yet. I Thought I would see how other 25 owners might have approached this issue first. I am some what surprised not to hear of other owners that have installed a folding tongue. It makes me wonder if this is just a bad idea on a boat and trailer this size.

Thanks again

Doug and Susan
 
Doug,

From my memory, which at time could be circumspect, I can only think of 2 posters here who have done that, but then I have not done a search for that specific post or thread. One was down in central Oregon and I believe the other was somewhere in the south or southeast. Both have been along time ago.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

JC_Lately_SleepyC_Flat_Blue_070.thumb.jpg
 
Thanks Harvey. In my searches on the forum I have found a 16' that has this mod and a 22 that was thinking about it, but not a 25 yet. When fishing season starts I will spend some time looking at the larger boat trailers in the parking lots and see if I see this mod on any of them.

Regards

Doug and Susan
 
I have installed one of the swing kits from Fulton and it worked out really well for a multiuse trailer we keep around. The frame dimensions for the higher capacity trailers you would use with a 25 cruiser would likely use the larger 3x5 sized tongue and not a 3x3. Even the king trailers we have used for the past two boats (smaller than 25s) had the larger dimension tongues.

Greg
 
Doug- You said:

"All Form Welding does very good work and I have used them in the past. Premium rates are to be expected for premium work. I have not approached them on this issue yet."

Consider having them just build you a folding tongue set up from scratch on your existing trailer rather than trying to adapt your trailer to a folding tongue kit.

Would probably be both stronger and better adapted to your specific needs. They will probably consider and suggest this when you talk to them.

Good Luck!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
I am Greg with this one, both my C Dory 25 and the Tom Cat had the 3x5 inch tongue pole. My current C dory 22 trailer also has a 3x5. tongue. Both that trailer, and the 18 foot Caracal Trailer ( 3 x 3 tongue pole, but same size frame), have aluminum frames, and the conversion from 3x3 to 3x5 is bolt on, with no welding needed. As I recollect most of my all galvanized steel trailers did have welding for the tongue pole.
 
Thanks again for all this information. Length wise this should be doable one way or another.
Now all We need to find out is what the actual height of the 25 on a trailer is. In searching previous posts I found references to overall height on trailer with tall arch, but not to the actual C-dory 25 roof.
The factory Specifications have it at 10' 1". However, They have the C-Dory 22 at 9' 1" and our 22 sitting on a Pacific Bunk trailer with 14" wheels is 8'1". That is a big difference from factory specs. If anyone has a measurement for ground to roof of their C-Dory 25 sitting on a bunk trailer it would be very helpful on clearing this up.

Thanks

Doug & Susan
 
Our C-Otter is 10' 1" on the trailer with no arch. It's 10' 9 " with our custom built cantilever cockpit cover. Maximum height of the door that it goes in is 11'.
3 inches to spare. My other hanger door is 10'......no way! However if I lowered the bunks and let the air out of the tires it mite make it without the cover but no need to try.

One other suggestion is to be sure to get a trailer with enough capacity for the 25.. My trailer has a total capacity of 9400 lbs. With a full load for a long trip I'm pulling in excess of 8,000 lbs. I've see a couple of 25s on lighter trailers. One that I was dealing on did not even have brakes at all and the fellow towed his boat from Florida to Texas on it. Scary!

It took 2 years to find and buy the right boat, concrete work in the hanger and a new door for me to get my CD-25 home. But it is worth it for us.

Tom
 
I'm not saying you should do this but there is another option. I have seen a trailer tongue sticking out a double barn door. The guy had double sliding doors that slid in from both sides. Each door had a notch around one half of the tongue. I bet if you googled 'notch in door for trailer tongue', you would get all kinds of ideas. Good luck!
 
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