setting up my trailer

[geedubcpa]

The boat I am placing on the new trailer is a 16foot starcraft aluminum deep v - the boat had an 18 foot deep vee on it before I purchased it.

I have just purchased a drive on trailer - I wanted to find out about setting up the bunks and the rollers

Are the rollers all supposed to be at the exact same height - seems like a silly question but better to ask than not know.

I have read that most of the weight of the boat should be on the keel setting on the rollers with the bunks just keeping the boat from rocking. I am not sure this makes sense but wanted to find out what others know about this.

On the bunkers - I am placing them in the same spacing side to side as was on my old trailer.

Thanks for any input

gw

 

[bananaboater]

Re: setting up my trailer

I have read on this forum that aluminum boats should rest on bunkers that distribute pressure better than rollers. My rig has both and does show some minimal denting at the roller contact points. The keel is fine for rollers because of the extra aluminum there.

 

[Bondo]

Re: setting up my trailer

I have read that most of the weight of the boat should be on the keel setting on the rollers with the bunks just keeping the boat from rocking. I am not sure this makes sense but wanted to find out what others know about this.

Ayuh,... That's the Exact Opposite to what I do...

I like 90% of the weight on the Bunks...

 

[ezmobee]

Re: setting up my trailer

I agree with Bondo. The keel rollers are mainly guides, the bunks support the weight.

Here's my Starcraft trailer setup

 

[Pez Vela]

Re: setting up my trailer

Keel rollers come into play during loading and off loading you boat from the trailer. Because your boat will ordinarily come on and off at an angle, the center keel rollers are in place to prevent the boat's keel from scraping across the trailer's cross members. Once the boat is all the way on the trailer, the full weight of the boat should be supported by the carpeted wood bunks, and there is no need to adjust the center keel rollers any higher to carry any of the boat's weight. Just make sure the center keel rollers are higher than the cross member to which they are attached.

 

[bonz_d]

Re: setting up my trailer

I am under a differing impression. The trailer I use is shorter than the one ezmobee posted and is also a tilt bed trailer. The bunks on this trailer are half as long as those pictured also. The idea behind a tilt trailer is that when the bed is tilted the boat should roll off the trailer with little effort. So, if the bunks were longer and all the weight of the hull was on the bunks it's not going to slide/roll off. Defeats the whole porpose then. Also with my trailer the bunks are only supporting about 30% of the lenght of the boat, the rest is sitting on rollers. So the way my trailer is set up is the rollers that are under the area where the bunks are located are moved up tight to the keel so that when the boat is fully loaded I can just barely turn the roller by hand.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: setting up my trailer

It's a hotly debated topic bonz_d. Your type of setup (small boat on a tilt or roller trailer) could be an exception. We also aren't talking about a real heavy rig that's going to be possibly damaged by uneven pressure points.

 

[Pez Vela]

Re: setting up my trailer

My comments were limited to standard bunk trailers without rollers (except for the center keel rollers as shown on ezmobee's picture) because I was under the impression that is what the OP is setting up. There are any number of different trailer configurations to which my comments do not apply, such as bonz-d's tilt bed trailer.

 

[bonz_d]

Re: setting up my trailer

It's a hotly debated topic bonz_d. Your type of setup (small boat on a tilt or roller trailer) could be an exception. We also aren't talking about a real heavy rig that's going to be possibly damaged by uneven pressure points.

And I agree 100%. There are many different styles of trailers, as are there many different hull designs. Which is the point I keep trying to make in these types of posts. Not all trailers will match up ideally with all hulls or the enviroment in which they will be used. Back in the day when most boats were wood the strongest part of the boat was the keel and most trailers were keel roller with bunks. Which in my opinion your trailer happens to be. As opposed to an all bunk trailer which has no keel rollers or just one on the end .

In todays world with all the glass boats and after following the resto section of this forum, these new boats seem to have little in the way of keel strenght. Most don't even have a keel stringer. Which in that case I wouldn't use a keel roller trailer set up as mine is.

What really makes it hard from my point of view is one cannot tell how the hull is designed and where the strongest point or stringers are on a finished hull. As the most logical placement of the bunks or rollers would be directly under the stringers.

As it is I will soon be going to an all roller trailer with the same boat because I'm not as young as I once was and winching up on a shallow ramp is getting to be a real chore and don't want to be found dead at the ramp from a corenary.