Bent Trailer Tounge Repair.

Can anybody suggest a safe repair of a bent tounge on a trailer? My son, learning how to back up the duck boat with his pickup, jack knived.The trailer hit the bummper and put about a 20 degree bend in it and, a small dent in his bummper.
It did not appear to effect the trailering of the boat returning home.Other than beating on it with a sledge hammer,is there another repair? Thanks in advance, John K.....

I'm sure you can get a replacement tongue, if this a name trailer company. What brand is it? I'm sure somebody here can help you locate a nearby dealer.
Worst case...say a homemade trailer,... just cut it off and weld on a new one. The couple should just bolt on...and hollow "square tube" is easy to run wiring through.

[Kevin B]

John K - Get out your yellow pages phone book, look under trailer sales/parts/mfgrs. They fix trailers year-round. When I did welding there were always several people wanting me to repair trailers, especially horse trailers, with bent tongues.

[Kevin B]

John K - Get out your yellow pages phone book, look under trailer sales/parts/mfgrs. They fix trailers year-round. When I did welding there were always several people wanting me to repair trailers, especially horse trailers, with bent tongues.

[jcass]

Abny body shop should be able to bend it back I would think. Might want some reinforcing done to it.
I bent one back years ago with just a jack, some trees and some chain.

[jcass]

Abny body shop should be able to bend it back I would think. Might want some reinforcing done to it.
I bent one back years ago with just a jack, some trees and some chain.

Yup, Big hammer, tree, torch to heat it up, come along, then comes the big lawsuit when the metal fatigue lets the trailer loose across the centerline, just when that car full of kids is coming down the road............. Good plan ;)

Worst thing to do is torch it. Structural integrity coupled w/ the metal crystallizing from moisture getting through to the core layers would certainly be cause for a lawsuit from an impending accident caused from a breakage at the weak point.

[rickn]

Don't heat it! When I had one bent a while back thanks to a neighbor, I just backed it around the other way. Sounds crude, works great.

[Lomdunor]

20 degree ? Beat it back into shape--cold. Yup doesn't know what hes talking about.
Or, as the later man said back it the other way. If you still don't feel secure in that the weld an angle iron to the side covering the "bend" area.
Lomdunor