I'm curious as to what boat trailer jacks you guys have good luck with.

My trailer jack is frozen up, this is the third one in four years. I've been using the standard Fulton tongue jack, the small ones that run about $40 or so.

I never get salt water in mine, and this last one I babied, turned it upside down and squirted it with WD-40 and everything, just like I'd heard to do... any suggestions?

I've had other ones last longer, but only when I kept my boat indoors.

-Norm.

I've been running the same cheap ones you are and even w/salt water getting in them I normaly get about 2 years out of them. Not sure how much and upgraded one would be though?

And by the way thanks for the info on the kicker,made a few good comments that I followed when installing my new baby.

Got mine at K-Mart 3 years ago for 20.00 and have never had any trouble just don't run it up all the way.

When you say don't run it up all the way, do you mean the tallest it can get, or the shortest it can get?

That was another question of mine, and perhaps that's my problem... where I park my boat is not completely level, so I have to jack the front of my boat way up so that any water that gets in the boat (rain, etc.) will run to the back of the boat, towards the drain.

So I was wondering if anyone had used any jacks that were taller than the normal jacks... any recommendations?

...and fishslayer, no problem on the kicker recommendations... what mounting bracket did you end up with, I'm curious? My buddy wanted to fabricate one of those fancy hydraulic ones for his kicker, we never did it.

I have a light OMC one, I've had to highly modify it since it had plastic bushings and thin metal to start with, it cracked, broke some of the bolts, and all the holes got enlarged. I had a friend of mine weld thick pieces on it and install bronze bushings, haven't had a problem since.

-N.

I went w/ the omc heavy duty. I looked at the full hydrolic ones that were only a $100.00 more and figured that it would be more problems then it was worth. I took the new set up out and that bracket holds the motor in place quite well

Stormin, I use an old camper jack (in the driveway). It's 5 ft tall -- The kind you used to slide under the side of the camper at balance point on each side. Cranked up both sides and drove out from under.... But one of those jacks lifts my boat trailer real high.

Stormin, for the last 11 yrs I've only had one jack. I think it's a Fulton or Attwood. It's on my sled trailer. It swivels up out of the way and is rated for 250lbs tongue weight. I've never oiled it! Had no problems neither.

Harbor Freight Tools has a swivel tongue jack that they put on sale quite frequently for about $19.00. I've had one on my 16' Sled trailer for almost 4 years without any problems.

Man, it seems like lots of you are having better luck with these than me, what the heck am I doing wrong, then??

OK, I've got another question... how much weight is your jack holding up, ie., how is your boat/trailer balanced, how hard does your boat/trailer push down on the jack?

I've had a sneaking suspicion for a while now that my boat/trailer setup is not balanced right and is pushing down too hard... just a theory, but it might explain why I'm burning through jacks...

I can barely lift my trailer at the hitch, I'd say it's for sure over 250lbs, but I'm no weightlifter, so who knows. Maybe I should put a scale under the jack and see.

I've noticed other guys can pick theirs up pretty easily. It seems like it's changed since I got the boat, but I haven't done any major modifications... of course it's different when it has gas in it or not (35 gallon gas tank is right at the transom), but I've tried it empty and full.

I've been thinking about moving the post at the front of the trailer and shift the entire boat back on the trailer a bit to see how much of a difference it makes...

-N.

I've had the same jack stand on my sled since '93. I did pop the top off and add grease last year.

When I store the boat, I use the jack to lift it, then use auto jackstands under the frame members. This keeps the front of the boat higher than the stern for drainage and takes all the weight off the jack. Since I have to lift the tongue higher than the jack will extend normally, I do it in stages with a couple of 4X8 blocks to go under the jack.

Remember to chaulk the tires before you start. Makes the boat a lot harder to steal since, even at full extension, the jack will not reach the ground without the blocks.

StormiN I think you hit the nail on the head with balance and tongue weight. I had one of the cheapy jacks under my 5,000 lb SeaRay and never had a failure. I have a buddy with a 2,000 lb Arima and he has a failure at least every year. I think if he moved the boat back on the trailer it would help.