LivinDaDream
Member
Coming into this late and what I'm relating is my experience with a 5'x9' trailer that I recently extended the tongue on so as to allow the mounting of my truck tool box ahead of the front fence of the trailer. The original axle to coupler distance was 104" with 48" of that distance being from the front fence of the trailer to the coupler ball center. The current distance is now 134" with the 30" extension I added and the trailer tows perfectly. Getting the trailer to turn when backing is slower, which can be a help or a hindrance, depending on your skills. Luckily, the trailer is wide enough to see the moment it starts turning, even with the camper on the truck. My answer to your question is that you can make it as long as you like without any issues other than it being harder to back due to slow turning if using a long wheelbase vehicle (your Suburban)...with your Jeep, no problem.
As for weight distribution, extending the tongue and leaving the axle where it is will decrease tongue weight. Leaving the tongue length the same and moving the axle back will increase tongue weight. In my case, decreasing the tongue weight is a plus when I've got the camper on the truck. About the max I'll ever put in that trailer when traveling is about 1500lbs and that would be a stretch. The axle is a 3500lb unit, so it's lightly loaded.
I needed to extend the tongue at least 22" to account for the truck box in front of the fence, but decided to go to a full 30" to give me the ability to do a full 90" jackknife of the trailer without contacting the camper or rear camper jacks. Another consideration was that original coupler was welded to the tongue (3" square tube) and like all the other mods I've done to the trailer (dual side locking storage boxes 48"x18"x18", truck tool box mounting brackets and motorcycle wheel chock), I wanted to be able to revert the trailer to bone stock by making everything "bolt on".
To achieve the same situation with the tongue extension, I used a piece of 3" U-channel as the extension and bolted it onto the existing tongue (bottom) using 3, grade 8, 3/4" bolts spaced about 8" apart behind the existing coupler. Turned out great and I was able to leave the existing tilt-up tongue jack in place, too. Remove 3 bolts and I'm back to stock!
Here is an overall photo of the setup from a recent trip...
Cheers!
As for weight distribution, extending the tongue and leaving the axle where it is will decrease tongue weight. Leaving the tongue length the same and moving the axle back will increase tongue weight. In my case, decreasing the tongue weight is a plus when I've got the camper on the truck. About the max I'll ever put in that trailer when traveling is about 1500lbs and that would be a stretch. The axle is a 3500lb unit, so it's lightly loaded.
I needed to extend the tongue at least 22" to account for the truck box in front of the fence, but decided to go to a full 30" to give me the ability to do a full 90" jackknife of the trailer without contacting the camper or rear camper jacks. Another consideration was that original coupler was welded to the tongue (3" square tube) and like all the other mods I've done to the trailer (dual side locking storage boxes 48"x18"x18", truck tool box mounting brackets and motorcycle wheel chock), I wanted to be able to revert the trailer to bone stock by making everything "bolt on".
To achieve the same situation with the tongue extension, I used a piece of 3" U-channel as the extension and bolted it onto the existing tongue (bottom) using 3, grade 8, 3/4" bolts spaced about 8" apart behind the existing coupler. Turned out great and I was able to leave the existing tilt-up tongue jack in place, too. Remove 3 bolts and I'm back to stock!
Here is an overall photo of the setup from a recent trip...
Cheers!