What Size Trailer Jack Do I Need

Choosing a Trailer Jack for your Boat

By Tom Burden, Last updated 9/eleven/2019

Has your trailer jack turned into a hunk of rusty metal?

Your boat'south trailer jack is a simple thing. It raises your boat, lowers it and has wheels that permit it to pin. But when it seizes upwards or strips its worm gear, information technology can get out yous unable to hook up, unhook or move your trailer. In this commodity, I will offering communication on how to select the right jack for your boat when it'southward fourth dimension to supervene upon it.

What is your gunkhole'south environs?

Do you use your boat in a freshwater environment or in common salt water? How friendly is the climate to a non-stainless-steel product that gets dunked in the water?

The full general consensus seems to be that they're cheaply put together, last about one season and fail when you least wait it. Rinsing the jack with fresh h2o and lubing its gears regularly with marine-grade grease seems to assistance, only there's a lot of angst on the Internet about the humble trailer jack.

Is the jack galvanized, zinc, powdercoated or aluminum? If you lot only launch your boat in fresh water, a powdercoated jack will handle that less-corrosive surround. For saltwater use, look for a jack that has a cocky-healing zinc coating or components made from aluminum (meet Fulton's F2 products).

Wait at how many hours of saltwater exposure the jack is rated to survive. Our new ane,000 pound jack is rated for 100 hours of saltwater exposure to its articulate zinc finish.

Our 1,200 and 1,500 pound jacks are made with high-performance corrosion and UV-resistant finishes, rated to a more rigorous 600-hour standard. We as well back these two models with a full v-year warranty, so we're pretty confident they volition perform.

Elevator Elevation and Range of Travel

There are two measurements to know when choosing a trailer jack, the amount of travel between the up and downward position, and the total amount of extension the jack will provide. Smaller jacks accept a x" range of travel. The biggest heavy-duty jacks in our option have a xv" travel.

Measure out your trailer and tow vehicle to determine the top you volition need. You lot can also purchase a trailer hitch receiver with a rise or a drib built into it. Read our West Advisor article called Sizing Up Trailer Hitches and Couplers for more than on this topic.

Volition the Jack Fit the Tongue of Your Trailer?

Equally for how the jack attaches to your trailer, in that location are two styles, bolt-on and weld-on. West Marine does not currently offer any weld-on models, which need to exist attached by someone with professional welding skills and equipment.

The most common size for trailer frames is 4" high and 3" broad. Our commodities-on models and most of the others nosotros sell will fit frames up to three" wide by 5" tall.

F2 with footplate

This F2 Bolt-On 2000 lb. Trailer Jack is made with aluminum components and includes a big vii" diameter pes plate.

Does It Have Enough Elevator Capacity to Raise Your Trailer?

Do you have any thought what the trailer'southward tongue weight is? Typical natural language weights are 10 to 15 percentage of the full weight of the gunkhole and trailer. For example, if y'all accept a trailer rig that weighs x,000 pounds all-upwardly, the natural language weight is likely to be 1,000 to 1,500 pounds.

If you lot do not know the natural language weight of your boat and trailer, nosotros provide a couple of practice-information technology-yourself methods to measure out this in our Advisor article, Sizing Up Trailer Hitches and Couplers.

Small Single Bicycle, Bigger Single Bike or Double Wheels?

One pocket-size cycle tends to dig into soft surfaces like gravel and makes pushing bigger, heavier trailers really difficult. Our 1,500-pound jack uses a large, 8" wheel. Upgrading to double wheels, institute on our 1,200-pound jack, likewise helps. This made a huge difference in my ability to motility a 1,800 pound 21' boat around past myself. Upgrading to the dual-bicycle F2 jack was a dramatic comeback, and i of the all-time upgrades I've made.

Would a Jack With a Foot Work Ameliorate?

You might consider a jack with a rectangular pad on the bottom instead of a bike, a drop-leg jack, if your boat is big and heavy enough so you lot never button it around manually. We offer both pivoting models and those that don't pivot, but only extend downward.