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More noob stuff...again

ohmagoo

ohmagoo

Member
Is there a good source for how to's on setting up a trailer correctly for the boat. I have my 23 ZT on an Ez-Loader tandem but I am quite sure the trailer is not set up properly for the boat.

The winch tower is not correct.... the bow has to be rolled up on the roller to set it in place properly. Tongue weight is off...too light. The bunks are not set evenly so the boat never loads evenly and there are only 2 bunks for a 23 foot 3000 lb boat. In addition, the front of the bunks do not support the hull and can be seen flexing when driving down the road.

Most of what I need is probably common sense and I can guess, but my boating experience has been...shall we say, colourful, thus far, so I do not want to guess at this.

Thanks in advance
Peter
 
How did you check the tongue weight? How long are the bunks? Are they bolted on or welded in place? Is the winch tower bolted or welded in place? The boat can also be moved forward and rearward on the trailer to adjust tongue wieght and to facilitate loading and unloading (or 'launch' and 'recovery' as the trailer guy puts it). I suggest parking vessel on it's trailer, in the driveway. Obtain foldup chair. Obtain adult beverage. Observe the way the vessel sits on the trailer. Imagine the water level, angle of vessel to the water level, and the angle of your most used launch ramp. Next time you launch boat, make notes of how far you submerge axles before stern begins to float after first installing bilge plug and uninstalling 'TT's (transom tie downs)(playing with TT's is acceptable, in my opinion). As long as the launch ramp isn't a cliff, The trailer fenders will be just awash when the stern becomes buoyant, but not always as each trailer/boat combination can be different. If you start moving stuff around on the trailer, and the stuff is held onto the trailer by u-bolts (not U-boat), you will probably need to go to the boat store and get some new hardware at some point in the near future cause you're probably going to scuff up some of those old u-bolts when you 'try' to loosen them. It would probably now be time to rebuild your adult beverage. The winch cable, rope, strap, bailing wire, should be pulling at parallel to the bunk support line for a speed type of hull, so that the bow eye is pulled right to it's place at the winch. If you have to lift the bow into place at the winch, try raising the winch up. Don't forget to raise up cool drink also. When properly set up, you will be able to push vessel off of trailer after first attaching lanyard to bow cleat. 'Power loading' will, in most cases, be unnecessary. No, really. After several adult beverages, lie on ground under vessel, after first placing some cardboard or carpet, or a sleeping bag (if beverage intake has been substantial), and closely inspect bunks, the covering attached to the bunks, and the hardware attaching bunks to trailer( so that broken u-bolts do not turn vessel into U-boat).
 
Jimway said:
How did you check the tongue weight? How long are the bunks? Are they bolted on or welded in place? Is the winch tower bolted or welded in place? The boat can also be moved forward and rearward on the trailer to adjust tongue wieght and to facilitate loading and unloading (or 'launch' and 'recovery' as the trailer guy puts it). I suggest parking vessel on it's trailer, in the driveway. Obtain foldup chair. Obtain adult beverage. Observe the way the vessel sits on the trailer. Imagine the water level, angle of vessel to the water level, and the angle of your most used launch ramp. Next time you launch boat, make notes of how far you submerge axles before stern begins to float after first installing bilge plug and uninstalling 'TT's (transom tie downs)(playing with TT's is acceptable, in my opinion). As long as the launch ramp isn't a cliff, The trailer fenders will be just awash when the stern becomes buoyant, but not always as each trailer/boat combination can be different. If you start moving stuff around on the trailer, and the stuff is held onto the trailer by u-bolts (not U-boat), you will probably need to go to the boat store and get some new hardware at some point in the near future cause you're probably going to scuff up some of those old u-bolts when you 'try' to loosen them. It would probably now be time to rebuild your adult beverage. The winch cable, rope, strap, bailing wire, should be pulling at parallel to the bunk support line for a speed type of hull, so that the bow eye is pulled right to it's place at the winch. If you have to lift the bow into place at the winch, try raising the winch up. Don't forget to raise up cool drink also. When properly set up, you will be able to push vessel off of trailer after first attaching lanyard to bow cleat. 'Power loading' will, in most cases, be unnecessary. No, really. After several adult beverages, lie on ground under vessel, after first placing some cardboard or carpet, or a sleeping bag (if beverage intake has been substantial), and closely inspect bunks, the covering attached to the bunks, and the hardware attaching bunks to trailer( so that broken u-bolts do not turn vessel into U-boat).
Click to expand...
Spot on advice Jim!

Take some pics of the boat on trailer and post them here to give us a better idea. They are worth more than 1000 forum posts sometimes when figuring things out.
 
Jimway said:
How did you check the tongue weight? How long are the bunks? Are they bolted on or welded in place? Is the winch tower bolted or welded in place? The boat can also be moved forward and rearward on the trailer to adjust tongue wieght and to facilitate loading and unloading (or 'launch' and 'recovery' as the trailer guy puts it). I suggest parking vessel on it's trailer, in the driveway. Obtain foldup chair. Obtain adult beverage. Observe the way the vessel sits on the trailer. Imagine the water level, angle of vessel to the water level, and the angle of your most used launch ramp. Next time you launch boat, make notes of how far you submerge axles before stern begins to float after first installing bilge plug and uninstalling 'TT's (transom tie downs)(playing with TT's is acceptable, in my opinion). As long as the launch ramp isn't a cliff, The trailer fenders will be just awash when the stern becomes buoyant, but not always as each trailer/boat combination can be different. If you start moving stuff around on the trailer, and the stuff is held onto the trailer by u-bolts (not U-boat), you will probably need to go to the boat store and get some new hardware at some point in the near future cause you're probably going to scuff up some of those old u-bolts when you 'try' to loosen them. It would probably now be time to rebuild your adult beverage. The winch cable, rope, strap, bailing wire, should be pulling at parallel to the bunk support line for a speed type of hull, so that the bow eye is pulled right to it's place at the winch. If you have to lift the bow into place at the winch, try raising the winch up. Don't forget to raise up cool drink also. When properly set up, you will be able to push vessel off of trailer after first attaching lanyard to bow cleat. 'Power loading' will, in most cases, be unnecessary. No, really. After several adult beverages, lie on ground under vessel, after first placing some cardboard or carpet, or a sleeping bag (if beverage intake has been substantial), and closely inspect bunks, the covering attached to the bunks, and the hardware attaching bunks to trailer( so that broken u-bolts do not turn vessel into U-boat).
Click to expand...

Tips my adult Beck's beer to Jim...cheers.... (hic)
 
Gimme Fuel said:
Spot on advice Jim!

Take some pics of the boat on trailer and post them here to give us a better idea. They are worth more than 1000 forum posts sometimes when figuring things out.
Click to expand...

My $.02
1. My Sonic (6Klbs) has only 2 bunks
2. My Check, after I changed from rollers to bunks, can be lifted with 1 finger (so I'm not sure you should listen to me)
3. Tampa bay suks - atlanta just scored again....
4. You can't look at how it aligns/fits on the ramp, every ramp has a different angle
5. The boat should not extend past the bunks, but look at #2 above
6. Pic's Pic's Pic's (in support of GF post above)
 
Au contraire mon frere. Since that is where the boat, trailer, and tow vehicle are going to launch and recover the vessel, alignment/fit at the ramp, is precisely what we are interested in, is it not? Pictures can be sometimes overrated, it's the story that counts. 1000 posts around here will take you from a leaf and moss filled artifact through the smells of rubbing compound, wax, motor oil, hydraulic fluid, gasoline, and fresh vinyl and new canvas, and deposit you right on the water, in a machine capable of leading the pack. At the ramp this very summer, I happened to notice a couple having trouble launching their new cabin type vessel. I also noticed that the tongue of the trailer was almost dragging the ground. Quick as a Southern Comfort is poured in these parts, I inverted the receiver insert to raise up the trailer tongue to level the trailer. This few inches difference translated into the boat sliding right into the water.
 
I would try to do something with your receiver and hitch like jimway mentioned. I have owned 3 different boats that I have all pulled with the
same 3/4 ton I have now. Each boat required a different hitch to get the
desired ride and all seemed to make a big difference on tongue weight.
I probably have 4 or 5 sizes of hitches all for different trailers.
Try this first before rearranging the trailer chances are it was correct from
the factory.
 
Net results...
starboard bunk had to be moved into centre an inch. Port side bunk had to come in 2 inches to get the bunks to line up along the face of the chines and centre the boat on the trailer.

winch tower and front stop...moved forward 5 inches and stop mounts removed and installed inverted so it sat lower on the bow and the boat no longer has to ride up the roller to set in place.

Bogie assembly moved back 3 inches to get another 100 lbs or so onto the tongue and receiver.

Hooked it to a new tow vehicle and now it rides very well...no bounce on the ball, no flex of bunks...a good length of hull supported along the pad and up the sides of the boat.

As soon as I can log into photo bucket I'll post some pics.

Thanks for the help... Tips my glass of JD to y'all...eh
 
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