Boat Trailers

This topic didn't really fit too neatly into any of the forum subjects, so I've posted it here....

Of all the areas of trailerboat design - be it sail or power - that seems to recieve the least attention is the trailer itself. Yet it can be the make or break of enjoyable - and more importantly, safe - boating.

Here in Oz, most boat trailers are set up with multirollers. Many have nylon or similar skids stuck here and there. Up to a certain point they are generally fitted with simple over-ride brakes. Beyond that electric, hyraulic, neumatic, or a combination of the 3 are fitted.

The biggest trailerable boat we own is pictured below. All up the towing weight is around 3 1/2 to 4 tons, yet when we 1st bought it, the trailer was a shocker. It was strong enough - but was set up in such a way that the boat was difficult to get on and off. The lights were unreliable and the braking system was an over-ride set up that, whilst legal at the time of manufacture, was really woefully inadequate.

Over time we've virtually rebuilt it. It's now a triaxle with LED lighting, electro-neumatic braking, bronze discs and hubs and is fairly simple to launch and recover with. If I were starting from scratch, however, I'd make further changes.

I'd be interested to hear what others think......

 

WELL FOR STARTERS, I THINK THAT that is one very well constructed ferry
post on trailors later)

 

Spirit of Tasmania 111 - Devonport (Tas) to Sydney. WAY easier than towing all the way up. Alas this boat is now gone, so can only go across Bass Strait to Melbourne on Spirit's 1 and 2

 

Will

I am with you 120% on this one.

If I think you are saying what you are saying.

Trailers are inadequate.

For 1 very good reason.

A boat manufacturer wants to put as many benefits into a boat as he can for the money. Because people buy boats they don't buy trailers.

Go down to the boat ramp and see the number of people having trouble getting their boats back onto the trailer.

I have modified my trailer so it goes on fairly easy. Sometimes I'm by myself and people have come to help me to get my boat back on the trailer (testiment to the boating community) but then realise that it is remarkably easy to retrieve my boat.

I posted a thread on boat trailers a while back and didn't get much response, but as you said it makes or breaks a good day out if you have to struggle to get your boat in or out.

Poida

 

My current boat trailer is more or less custom (aka homebuilt) to suit the rather unusual hullform of the current boat.
There's no more than about 250 kg of boat when she's on the trailer- she's a very light lake runabout. But I've set it up with four 6' long bunks. Two are 2x6s with the boat resting on the wide side- loading on these is so low that the carpeted padding doesn't even squish down noticeably. The other two are way out at the sides, taking no weight when sitting on the level but angled to match the hull so it doesn't roll or slide. The result is a trailer that, provided you don't gun it up the ramp too hard, is more or less self-centring and doesn't place any unusual loads on the boat. No brakes (they wouldn't do anything at this weight) but a good, bright lamp system and good bearings.
Among the remarkably common flaws in trailer construction I often see:
- Hydraulic surge brakes, the type actuated by pressure on the coupler. These are, in general, junk.
- Too-small frame members, or C-channel frame members with walls that aren't thick enough. The result is a trailer that bends and flexes over every bump, fatiguing the metal.
- No convenient way to tie down the boat at the stern without chafing problems.
- Lights that ground through a poorly bolted steel frame. Inevitably causes weird lamp problems that take forever to trace.
- Tires that are too small. Anything smaller than 12" has no business supporting a boat on the highway.
- Inadequate bearings. Boat trailer bearings WILL leak grease no matter what you do; there's got to be a large grease or oil reservoir in the hub and an easy way to refill it.
- Driver stupidity- forgetting to lock the coupler and safety chains! This one usually ends up in an amusing but destructively expensive runaway boat.

 

Willallison I am also with you 100%. As I worked on my boat it gained weight and the trailer was marginal to begin with.

My boat is a round bottom trawler that weighs, with the new trailer, a little over 5 tons. I can easily launch and retrieve the boat from any ramp with a two wheel drive diesel van. I now feel safe launching and towing this boat some distance. I ususally tow the boat 4000 to 6000km per year.

 

I'm often called on to solve these and other trailer issues and can agree, the accepted wisdom used in trailer setup and outfitting is not very good.

In Florida the water is thin, so launch and recovery can be troublesome. In most cases it's because the boat is sitting on the trailer wrong. Most sit reasonably level or slightly bow high, which can mean the boat has to teeter totter on the front roller(s) until the stern has backed down, near swamping over the transom.

The first thing I do is re-adjust the rollers and bunks to get the bow down. The bigger the boat the more I try to get the LWL to match the average ramp angle. Ramp angles in this country range from 5 to 8 degrees. 6 degrees is what you see at federal parks, with 8 being at privately owned ramps, who didn't want to spend the extra money for concrete on a shallower angle.

If the boat is reasonable close to 5 degrees down at the bow, the boat will float all at once (when deep enough), not stern first. This makes loading and launching very easy, just mark the guides or fenders so you know how deep you need to back down.

The same is true when recovering, the boat hits all the bunks and rollers at the same time (or nearly so) which means the bow chock remains in contact with the boat as the boat is hauled out of the water. Typical setups cause the bow to rise and pull away from the chock as it settles on the inclined trailer, during pull out. Some of this can be addressed by moving the bow eye as close to the LWL as practical, but having it load "square" is a better approach.

Lights and brakes are always a source of problems. Better products and materials can be installed, lights raised above the water on guides, etc. Sway control struts are a good idea on larger craft.

On plastic boats a boat can be "powered" on, which is real bad for the ramp, but pretty easy to load a boat and it settles on basically a dry front half of a trailer support system. Wooden boats will be damaged easy by doing this, so the boat has to float on and get picked up evenly as you drag the trailer out.

 

I've heard complaints from a lot of park rangers and dock attendants about people powering onto trailers, in some cases to the point where they either post signs or directly tell people not to. One park I was at last summer had to add more than a tonne of new sand/gravel to the foot of the ramp every couple of weeks, then dredge the channel ten metres back from the dock.
With PAR's system of having the bunks/rollers rigged so that the boat is close to level when it hits the water, you never have to go above idle speed when powering on. When the first eight feet of the trailer are completely out of the water, people end up using half-throttle to power on- churning up gravel, eroding the prop, and destroying the ramp. Much better to just set it up properly to begin with....

 

WHY do people do this? I never saw it until about 10 years ago, now lots of new boats get powered right up to the bow chock every time.

Why don't they just use the trailer winch, like the old days?? Many are even electric, but don't get used.

I have a 21 foot inboard on a trailer with center rollers and bunks that hit the last 3 or 4 feet as the boat is winched on.

Of course, the trailer fits the boat! I rebuilt it in 1978 to fit the 21 footer. Originally I built it in 1962 for a 17 foot inboard (Registration says "1962 Homemade").

Originally, originally it was a 1934 Ford truck frame, whose front drop-axle had nice big wheels, roll over anything. Eventually, about 1980 I couldn't get tires for it any more, so I had to get one of them regular boat trailer axles.

Like PAR said, the trailer needs to fit the boat right...

 

My boat is probably about 1000#, long shallow full keel.. I ramp launch alone when necessary. Around here, ramps are often gravel. I commonly gey my exhaust abubblin' and the rear tires of the truck half-submerged.
I plan to make an extending tongue for the trailer. The idea is to extend just before launch or retreival about 6 ft. I could get fancy, but I'll most likely have a steel tube with another hitch that swings into position and is secured by a ball on top of it that the normal boat hitch drops and locks onto. By doing this I hope to gain better traction and keep the truck dry.
I wouldn't normally have to do this, but the boat doesn't float off until it's wet 24" of the keel most way to the bow. I suspect a lot of keel boats could be launched this way, with extension to suit depth requirements.
I'm wondering if anyone else has done this?

Alan

 

I have a big boat. 24' X 8', aluminium plate. It is galvunuzed channel& cross braced. Dual axel, 14" steel radial tires with surge brakes. Treated wood bunks with carpet cover.
Aside from yearly checkup/maintainence, I rarely think of it. It just does it's job. After a few miles pull, I will grab & hold each hub to see if there might be bearing or brake issues.
.
The lights are mounted HIGH (6' above road), on two 2" PVC pipes that double as guide on poles when loading. We know the angle of our moist used ramps in the area. This allows us to back in to a certain point of the water covering the wheel fenders each time we load or launch. Never get the feet wet. The tongue (drawbar) is the correct length for the ramps encountered.
.
Everything is made ready @ home or just before we back onto the ramp approach. That is the expected etiquette here. THEN... we power off AND power ON, because? because the next fellow is waiting & it's considered polite to get your business done promptly.
Sure, there are sometimes problems unforseen, when that happens every one is helpful also.
Come boating in Cajun land & have your ducks in a row, because it's NOT about piddeling around on our overcrowded busy ramps.

 

We have signs at every city and county ramp, prohibiting power loading. It destroys the ramp, there's nothing polite about it. I dived several to find the end, for especially long rigs and the damage is easy to see. Prop wash rips out the bottom silt and the end of the ramp is left unsupported. The end of the ramp then breaks and falls into the pit that was created by the prop wash, making the ramp much shorter and possibly trapping a long trailer when it falls off the end. I've also pulled people out of this situation and it's usually not pleasant, tearing up axles, lower units, wheels, fenders, you name it.

In fact, you'll be ticketed if you're caught doing it in this area. Not because they need more citations for a monthly quota, but to partly raise funds to repair the ramps that are being destroyed. There no excuse to justify powering onto a trailer, back down another 3 feet and float on with idle speed. It doesn't hurt the ramp and doesn't take any more time then powering on at half throttle, like a lot of folks seem to do, forcing their way onto the trailer.

 

Yes the angle of boat ramps is not a lot, I was surprised at the small angle. Fortunately we do have a ramp that has a steeper angle that is situated in a good spot. So if you are having a problem launching look around for a steeper ramp.

When I first used my boat getting it back on the trailer was impossible without dunking the back end of my ute.

So what I did was take a side photo of the vehicle and boat on the trailer and put them on Corel Draw. Then drew two lines, one for the water line and one at the ramp angle.

Then I moved the photo of the trailer down the drawn line of the ramp until I figured that the boat would be floating enough to get it off and on.

Measured that distance on the screen to give me the extra distance required to launch and retrieve the boat.

Got the legal information pertaining to the design of trailers to ensure any alterations would be legal.

Then made a new drawbar the extra length so as to push the boat further into the water. This makes it a bugger when you are manouvering in tight spots, like where I park my trailer.

I also installed uprights either side with rollers that keep the boat inline when retrieving as one of the common problems I see is when the skeg miss aligns with the bottom rollers and the boat gets winched up onto the trailer and then has to be removed and redone. Especially retrieving in a side wind will cause this.

On the market here are rollers that form a "Vee" at the back of the trailer that are spring loaded, and as you winch the boat on they open and close with the shape of the hull to keep the craft centre.

Lights I remove but I have them connected to the upright that stays out of water so I don't have 7 metres of cable to contend with. Raising the lights here would be a problem as the specs require lights on trailers to have a max. hight above ground.

Electric winch comes with a 6 metre cable to operate it. This is a pain when you are standing next to the winch so I installed a switch on the winch itself so when I am standing near the winch I can flick the switch instead of wrestling with load of cable.

I hope that has helped in solving problems you might have.

Poida

 

I was concerned about too long a tongue length--- particularly turning around, enough length to keep my truck dry (2wd) would definately be too long to go down the road. I will be welding up the extend-a-tongue this year.
Most everyone around here has 4wd except me, so ramps tend to discourage little toyota pickups. Get the trailer in far enough, with traction enough (and room to push without being thigh deep in water) and I think that problem is solved.
Last year, I wanted very much to go to the ocean, which I prefer over lake saling. Without the long tongue, however, and 10 ft tides (the ramp is long, but changes character as it disappears under the tide--- it's difficult to "know" the ramp in all of its incarnations).

 

Perhaps we could add a bit of commentary here on what is usually the most badly neglected component of the trailer, its brakes.
My boat trailer doesn't have any- it's far too light to need them. But most boat trailers need brakes. (Anything over one tonne gross trailer weight, IIRC, must have a trailer brake system.)
I have had very good luck with electric drum brakes on one trailer I use a lot. But that's a car hauler, not a boat hauler, and so nothing gets dunked. Can anyone with electric drum brakes on a boat rig testify to their performance in that environment?
I have come to the conclusion that I flat-out hate surge brakes. You just don't have any control over the darn things.
One of my favourite little gadgets in the electric brake system is the breakaway controller- a little wire clipped to the chain hooks that, if the trailer comes off its coupler, pulls a switch out to fully deploy the trailer brakes. I've only ever had it activate once (truck wheels went into a pothole, trailer jack hit the pavement before the truck wheels hit the bottom of the pothole) but I'd never haul a large trailer without one.