Has anyone noticed that the sea ray trailers that come with the sea rayder are completely useless? Every picture I see online shows the boat sitting on the trailer supports, which takes chunks out of your keel every time you hit a bump. The bunk brackets and winch tower are not adjustable!! So as time goes by and the brackets sag, your keel ends up riding on top of the cross support of the trailer, which takes chunks of gelcoat right off. I've seen this on bigger sea ray trailers too, they use fixed brackets and keel rides on top of the support. So how do you fix it?
Start by buying a pair of 12" bunk brackets and 3" U bolts. Using these, you will be able to lift the front of the boat (using a jack and some 2x4s) until the keel is about 2-3 inches above the center support. If you're swapping bunks, you will need to put the rear up onto jack stands as well to raise the boat completely off the bunks. Always use wood between the boat and the jack and the jack stands, and never lift the boat by the ride plate. Only lift by the flat fiberglass section in front of the ride plate. You also want to space the bunks further apart in the front because the factory distance causes bunks to ride on the ridge of the bottom of the boat every time, making it uneven. In the past it would take me like 5 or 6 tries before getting the bunks just right between those ridges. When you put the new brackets on, you will solve this problem. Since the winch tower is not adjustable, the keel bracket is now above the roller, so you will need to order a new winch tower, arm, and roller. Also you will need some marine-tex epoxy to fix up the holes from beaching and from the keep riding on top of the trailer all this time. This stuff works really well and if you're not sloppy you can make the finish good as new without too much sanding. I also recommend some sort of keel guard so that when you beach the boat, you won't ruin your keel again. And to top it off, I also got rid of the carpeted bunk boards and got ultimate bunk boards which make launching and trailering completely effortless
Before installing keel guard, make sure you repair all the damaged areas using marine-tex. Also make sure marine-tex is fully dry, sanded, and cleaned and follow keelguard instructions from there. Before patching up with marine-tex, use a wire brush to clean out any dirt that may be lodged in the damaged area
Old useless bunk brackets and cracked bunks held together with old carpet:
New winch tower and arm with 4 inch polyurethane roller. Old roller cannot be salvaged since it was riveted on. Old winch arm is not adjustable. I was able to salvage the old winch though. I set the roller a few inches above the bracket so if you crank hard while loading, you're not pulling boat down towards trailer (which bend the frame and bunk bracket), but pulling it up onto the bunks and towards the roller. Make sure not to put the roller too high because you don't want the boat lifting off the bunks. Also, move the spare over to the right side (unless you're in England). If you get a flat, you want the spare to be on the side of the road that will not have cars going by
New ultimate bunks (NO MORE CARPET, EVER!!!), bunk brackets lifting boat 2" above center support (incl keel guard). They are the grey 7' ultimate bunk boards, were about $120 incl shipping
Keel guard, got a bit messy with the 3M 5200, didn't get a chance to trim the excess yet (more concerned with protecting keel than perfect looks)
Closer look at keel height above support bar with some of the gelcoat that came off during towing still visible in the plastic cover
Hope this helps someone out
Completely unrelated, I think the admins who come in and get all bent out of shape over someone posting to an old thread are trolls! I don't really care how old the thread is, most of the things that helped me out were other people's comments on old threads. So please, if you see someone replying to an old thread, just leave them alone because that's a lot more helpful than killing the thread and leaving it unanswered
Start by buying a pair of 12" bunk brackets and 3" U bolts. Using these, you will be able to lift the front of the boat (using a jack and some 2x4s) until the keel is about 2-3 inches above the center support. If you're swapping bunks, you will need to put the rear up onto jack stands as well to raise the boat completely off the bunks. Always use wood between the boat and the jack and the jack stands, and never lift the boat by the ride plate. Only lift by the flat fiberglass section in front of the ride plate. You also want to space the bunks further apart in the front because the factory distance causes bunks to ride on the ridge of the bottom of the boat every time, making it uneven. In the past it would take me like 5 or 6 tries before getting the bunks just right between those ridges. When you put the new brackets on, you will solve this problem. Since the winch tower is not adjustable, the keel bracket is now above the roller, so you will need to order a new winch tower, arm, and roller. Also you will need some marine-tex epoxy to fix up the holes from beaching and from the keep riding on top of the trailer all this time. This stuff works really well and if you're not sloppy you can make the finish good as new without too much sanding. I also recommend some sort of keel guard so that when you beach the boat, you won't ruin your keel again. And to top it off, I also got rid of the carpeted bunk boards and got ultimate bunk boards which make launching and trailering completely effortless
Before installing keel guard, make sure you repair all the damaged areas using marine-tex. Also make sure marine-tex is fully dry, sanded, and cleaned and follow keelguard instructions from there. Before patching up with marine-tex, use a wire brush to clean out any dirt that may be lodged in the damaged area
Old useless bunk brackets and cracked bunks held together with old carpet:
New winch tower and arm with 4 inch polyurethane roller. Old roller cannot be salvaged since it was riveted on. Old winch arm is not adjustable. I was able to salvage the old winch though. I set the roller a few inches above the bracket so if you crank hard while loading, you're not pulling boat down towards trailer (which bend the frame and bunk bracket), but pulling it up onto the bunks and towards the roller. Make sure not to put the roller too high because you don't want the boat lifting off the bunks. Also, move the spare over to the right side (unless you're in England). If you get a flat, you want the spare to be on the side of the road that will not have cars going by
New ultimate bunks (NO MORE CARPET, EVER!!!), bunk brackets lifting boat 2" above center support (incl keel guard). They are the grey 7' ultimate bunk boards, were about $120 incl shipping
Keel guard, got a bit messy with the 3M 5200, didn't get a chance to trim the excess yet (more concerned with protecting keel than perfect looks)
Closer look at keel height above support bar with some of the gelcoat that came off during towing still visible in the plastic cover
Hope this helps someone out
Completely unrelated, I think the admins who come in and get all bent out of shape over someone posting to an old thread are trolls! I don't really care how old the thread is, most of the things that helped me out were other people's comments on old threads. So please, if you see someone replying to an old thread, just leave them alone because that's a lot more helpful than killing the thread and leaving it unanswered
