How do I get boat off trailer?

[series60]

Hi folks,

This is probably posted in the wrong place but here goes anyway. I have a major rebuild underway in my backyard. My dilemma is "How do I remove the boat from the trailer in my backyard'? I need to do major repairs on the trailer and I thought there must be someone out there that has done this before without crushing themselves or someone else in the process. I am a 'One Man Band' here with just a 2 ton floor jack, an engine hoist and a few tires laying around. Can I expect to "Get'r None"?

Any suggestion or pictures would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Bill

[mark775]

How big is the boat and how far from the nearest water? I don't recommend jerking it off onto tires - blocking is better (floating is best).

[series60]

The boat is a 21 1/2 cuddy cabin, 305 chevy/Alpha1. No clue as to weight.
Thanks for the reply. I will continue to think about this. Don't want to rush.

[Frosty]

Pull the winch wire right out and round the back of the trailer and re attach to the front attachement . Winching will pull it off.

I used to dump a 2 ton boat onto the lawn this way.

Putting it back on is just as easy just allow the front of the trailer to rise as it wants ,--it will come back down again as the weight comes forward.

[Fanie]

I have a major rebuild underway in my backyard.

The boat is a 21 1/2 cuddy cabin...

I thought this was a boat as in BOAT boat :eek: As Frosty said you can winch it off on the grass, winch it back up when you've fixed the trailer up.

Don't work anything heavy yourself. Get the wife to do it in case you hurt your back ok.

[CDK]

Hi folks,

This is probably posted in the wrong place but here goes anyway. I have a major rebuild underway in my backyard. My dilemma is "How do I remove the boat from the trailer in my backyard'? I need to do major repairs on the trailer and I thought there must be someone out there that has done this before without crushing themselves or someone else in the process. I am a 'One Man Band' here with just a 2 ton floor jack, an engine hoist and a few tires laying around. Can I expect to "Get'r None"?

Any suggestion or pictures would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Bill
Jack it up at the transom, put some blocks under it.
Pull the trailer forward until there is place for more wood on the good side of the CoG, then move the trailer out of the way. Two stacks of blocks on both sides of the transom, one under the keel near the bow.

[scotch&water]

Cdk is spot on , you have a power plant hoist hock on to the bow eye after blockig the transom and your rocking and rolling

[PAR]

There are lots of ways to get a boat off a trailer, most heave some risk associated with them. I'd strongly not recommend using the bow eye to support, drag or other wise handle the dead weight of the boat. It's very probable you'll just yank it right off the bow and require more repairs.

The best way is to literally hoist it up. A heavy duty come along dangling from a handy branch will do. Your boat is probably in the 2 ton range so it'll make a mess if you drop it on your foot. You'll need a strap sling and find the balance point, but this is fairly easy once you start lifting.

Jacking can work, though you usualy have to do it many times and inch the boat off. If the transom is hanging past the trailer bunks, you can lift the whole stern in one shot with a floor jack. This leaves the bow to deal with. With the stern on the jack, you might get away with using the bow eye and a come along or engine hoist. This will let you move the trailer out in one shot.

Place it down on wooden blocking at a comfortable height.

Of course if you know some one with a front end loader or back hoe, it would make things much easier and a lot faster.

[Frosty]

I never advise anyone to do any thing ever ever unless I have done it. I had 2 boats and one trailer. I used to lend it out. Thats what break backs are for ,but it does'nt need to be.

A roller trailer is absolutely easy

The only wear you get is round the back roller , the wire cuts into it a bit.

You will need a fender to keep the wire from the bow cheek where the wire passes.

Easy.

[scotch&water]

OK Need to make things a bit clearer stainles Bow eyes with backing block will work fine for Boats up to 5000 lb. for Lifting the bow, inspect the eye and if it is pot metal some with only 1 bolt take it out, and the trash can is its best place to drop it, we have sets of A Frames and winches to lift boat all the time and yes V blocks under for safety< makes me feel better when I am under the boat with a grinder in my hand. Fritz " ah the fun of grining"

[Fanie]

Good grief, is this boat really this heavy ? It's only 6m500 long, how wide can this boat be ?

With the equipment at hand I'll just tilt the trailer up so it slants backwards. If the boat doesn't come off tie the transom hooks to something and use the winch to pull the trailer from under the boat.

You can still place wood planks or support under the boat for protection, but a lawn is perfectly safe. I can offload any of my boats single handedly on the lawn, and I use the method Frosty mentioned, loop the winch cable around the back and pull the boat off with the winch. I loop the safety belt I have around a roller.

Add rollers to the trailer if you don't have any but so only the last half a meter lifts the boat from the rollers onto the skids. It will get the boat easy up and easy off while still offer area support on the hull while towed. Just rollers will point load the hull.

If it is possible to lower the boat on the trailer then it is always worth the extra work and time. Even as little as 20 or 30mm makes a big difference, it launch easier, and it also tows better and is more stable on the road. Just try to lift the boat 20mm when you launch especially after a day on the water when arms get thin... Rub axle's allow for nice low trailing and ease of launch. Off late it seems to me the rub axle's also improve tyre life span.

Oh and by the by, if the boat has been sitting on the trailer for a while then you can expect the felt on the skids to cling to the hull. You will have to wiggle the boat to break it loose. Some wet the skids but I don't think that makes any difference.

[Momo2000]

To lift this boat off the trailer we first brought the front of the trailer down, this lifted the stern up, stacked up 6x6 or 8x8 blocks tight under the stern, put a cushion, then lifted the tongue of the trailer which took the stern off the trailer, then supported the fwd part of the boat with the jack stands, then lowered the tongue of the trailer and later pulled it from under the boat.

[Safety 1st]

There are lots of ways to get your Boat off your Trailer. Take a look at this link for at least one safe way to do it. The Portable Boat Lift might save you a lot of money in repairs and also a limb or two. www.portableboatlift.com

[series60]

Ah, the mind is a marvelous thing. Given a task, it sets out to solve it. I want to thank everyone for the great response to my question. Lowering the trailer tongue down, I was able to place large 8X10 blocks under the transom. As I raised the trailer tongue, the boat lifted several inches off the bunks. A little more blocking and I was able to roll the trailer out a little at a time to clear all the bunk hangers.

Thanks again Gentleman.

Bill

[owene]

To digress, the question reminds me of an incident a few years back where a local yokel bought a new Salamander 570. After a couple of trips out in it, he returned to the dealer complaining that he couldn't get it to plane. Dealer checked all over and said he'd go out the next day and observe. So the yokel backs the 4x4 down the ramp, unhitches the trailer, jumps into the boat and away. No wonder it wouldn't plane - the trailer was still strapped underneath it.

[Fanie]

Hi Owene,

I heard that one before :D I guess news travel fast. At least the guy was quick to get away from the dry. I also feel like that currently, getting very land sick (sick of sitting on land).

[Safety First]

FYI, the ABYC states that the Bow Eye be constructed and installed to withstand twice the Gross weight of the boat in a direct tension pull... along with other specifications. It would be rare to find any boat with a bow eye mounted on a truly vertical plane to allow for the Bow Eye to be perpendicular to the bow plane while its being towed on absolutely flat calm seas for a direct tension pull to be employed. It is more likely that the Tension forces are shared with sheer and torsional stresses and that is why I believe that it is engineered to withstand the amount of tension that the ABYC states. If in fact a boat did weigh 2 tons, 4000 lbs, and if a boat is supported by boat stands under the transom, and if in fact there was half the weight of the boat at the Bow Eye, which would be 2000 lbs. The weight at the Bow Eye is usually substantially less than half the weight of the boat. Imagine the stress applied to a bow eye while a boat is being towed in 2 to 5 foot seas. Imagine the acceleration that occurs when the tow boat is going faster and then slower than the boat being towed. Have you ever towed a car with a chain and you slow down and the car behind you doesn't so you quickly give it the gas and the slack in the chain now jerks tight and puts a great amount of stress on both attachment points? The same thing happens to the Bow Eye of the towed boat. Although the Bow Eye is not defined or designed to be a lifting point, which is intended to raise the entire boat from along with other fixed lifting points, it is engineered as previously described which can be calculated into your usage of the Portable Boat Lift as it applies to your boat. There is in fact engineering involved in span tables of Lumber regarding its ability to withstand certain stresses depending on many factors such as size, species, and so on; The same way, there are also codes and engineering to determine the span for these manufactured or naturally milled wooden members. There are also codes and engineering that apply to the manufacture of steel structural components.
There is no engineering available for the sizing and/or any other criteria for a "Tree Branch" and you'd be wise to never go under any load supported by a Tree Limb. As a kid I was always surprised when the bough broke.
I would confidently suggest that the bough would more likely break before the "Bow" does.
Take a look at www.portableboatlift.net and see if the engineering and fabrication don't in fact take the difficult task of separating boats from trailers and make much more sense than using a tree limb and/or getting under boats to inch them out with dunnage, bottle and floor jacks.

[Commuter Boats]

"series60 " got his boat off the trailer, there was discussion about bow eye strengths ( which are listed in the catalog) and then some discussion about ABYC and engineering tables for wood. This chart may not be relevant but I hope some will find it interesting.

[alan white]

Interesting to see this thread come alive just when I was about to build my own design for transferring a boat from trailer to stands/cradle and back again.
I too do not believe the bow eye is on average up to being stressed as seen in the ad for the boat lift above. One reason is that there's a tremendous lateral load on the fitting, which is often no more than 3/8" in diameter on a 2000 lb boat. The stress will possibly bend the eye bolt and effectively loosen it as well. Also, with the bow eye lifting method, two well-spaced stern stands are needed while a sling arrangement requires only one. Add to this the fact that no two boats are alike in bow angle and what I see is a bunch of lift manufacturers selling a product that would have to be more sophisticated and expensive to lift the boat properly---- in slings or rather one sling, which distributes the load safely every time.
The bow eye is designed for a straight-line pull to load the boat on the trailer. Even then, there's generally some angle involved. I wouldn't tow a boat with it. I would use a bridle through chocks to the deck cleat. Easier to rig and quickly release.
My transfer system would use a sling, an over-the-top spreader, and two tall tripods, and one or two (depending on the boat design) jack stands at the stern.
This setup will be fast to set up and it will reliably raise any boat without any chance of damage to fittings.

[SafetyFirst]

If you're like me you have tried any number of ways to separate your boat from your trailer to service the trailer or the boat hull. I have used a product by Portable Boat Lift that allows one person to safely separate their boat from their trailer in minutes, anywhere. They can be found at www.portableboatlift.com

[Red Tide]

Some "rich" guys use these portable hydraulic jack yard arms:
http://yardarm.com/marine_products/boat_handling_jacks.htm

[Safety First]

Yardarms are pretty heavy duty but mostly heavy, about 350lbs each and you need four of them. Not very portable but yes heavy duty. Portable Boat Lift has 3 main components each weighing about 75 lbs. It's a lot easier to use, a lot lighter, and a whole lot less money, you're right.

[PAR]

Why don't you run some paid advertising rather then smooching up free space here? Self promotion is a fairly easy thing, but that's not what this arena is about.

I find your contraption an expensive contrivance. Any boat lift that need other equipment just to help with the lift, isn't a boat lift. It's overly complex for what it is and incomplete to say the least, perticularly at the current asking price.

Any one that regularly needs to remove a boat or boats from trailers can rig up a lift from cobbled together boat winches and straps, likely for considerably less then your setup.

My lift is home made, handles 5 tons and is operated by a single 1 HP motor. I think I have about 1,000 bucks invested in it. It works just like thousands of boat house lifts do.

[gonzo]

I take boats off by backing fast and slamming on the brakes with the winch cable having some slack. Then put jacks or large styrofoam blocks on the corners and let the boat down.

[Safety First]

Why don't you run some paid advertising rather then smooching up free space here? Self promotion is a fairly easy thing, but that's not what this arena is about.

I find your contraption an expensive contrivance. Any boat lift that need other equipment just to help with the lift, isn't a boat lift. It's overly complex for what it is and incomplete to say the least, perticularly at the current asking price.

Any one that regularly needs to remove a boat or boats from trailers can rig up a lift from cobbled together boat winches and straps, likely for considerably less then your setup.

My lift is home made, handles 5 tons and is operated by a single 1 HP motor. I think I have about 1,000 bucks invested in it. It works just like thousands of boat house lifts do.

I'll stop here and I will not reply to any more replies to my posts. No more smooching. I don't care if you like it or hate it, it was for informational purposes only. My reason for posting was to offer just one way to help with the arduous task. Jack stands did not come with the floor jack I bought, but I purchased them as I needed them to use with the floor jack. I will use Timber Blocks but will not use cinder blocks. Jack Stands are simply easier and better for me as they are adjustable and rated. I contacted a boat stand manufacturer and they walked me through what type, how many, and the placement of their boat stands for my particular boat. I don't believe in cobbling, to make or put together roughly or hastily, when it comes to lifting my boat or that can affect my health or safety. I am not here to put anyone off, argue, or purport the Portable Boat Lift is the only way, it simply works well for me.

[DianneB]

A long time ago when I hauled my 2.5 ton inboard cruiser home for the winter (on a big roller trailer) we tied off the stern to a stake driven into the ground, moved the trailer ahead a few feet, put blocking in place, moved the trailer a bit more, more block, and so forth until she was standing proud on the blocks. Worked fine as a one-man (one woman?) job without any cost and without any sweat.

[alan white]

Now put it back on.

[Frosty]

Pull the winch wire right out and round the back of the trailer and re attach to the front attachement . Winching will pull it off.

I used to dump a 2 ton boat onto the lawn this way.

Putting it back on is just as easy just allow the front of the trailer to rise as it wants ,--it will come back down again as the weight comes forward.

Some things need saying twice.

[alan white]

Anyhow, I've got this Rhodes 19 with the short fin keel and a couple of other keel boats. Like a lot of boats I transfer, it isn't a trailer-launched boat. But it does move around on a trailer.

[PAR]

Most small craft can be handled with a chain fall, come-along or hefty ass winch, dangling from a handy tree branch. I have several chains around branches in my yard and use them frequently as it easier. If I had a paved lot, I used a rolling gantry that I've made. But with the sugar sand and roots yard that I have, it just lives in front of the barn where it belongs and tools are handy.

A small, light weight gantry is a fairly easy thing to make, especially if you can weld, though it could bolt together too. The first one I made was wood and it could hoist a couple of tons, but it moaned and bitched about it the whole time, making me nervous and eventually cracking. I've made a few since, most from square and rectangular tubing and some very simple chain driven drive systems to hoist straps, hooks or and elevator.

A gin pole is even easier, though the boat will swing unless contained with lines or straps. On a budget, I'd use a gin pole, a trailer winch and some tackle to multiply power if necessary. You can snatch just about anything up off anything with a gin pole. Of course it's not portable, but it can be swung through a radius.

[Frosty]

Trees are handy, just tie the back of the boat to a tree and drive away.

Roller trailers are just simple to do this.

[Fanie]

Old thread, but if any one is interested, here is a trailer I built. You can launch the boat in two minutes on the hard and get it back on in the same time.

http://www.faze.co.za/Trailer/Trailer.htm

[scotch&water]

Great job, I like your work pit.

[Fanie]

I want to double it's function now. I think I must put spikes in it to catch these nightly philamon visitors in.