trouble retrieving newbie problem

[rayaa3]

I'm a fairly new boat owner.

I have a 20 ft 1998 io smoker craft deck boat (2800lbs) on a single axle trailer (orig to boat) that I tow with a 2008 f150 crew cab 2wd.

I have been towing using a 2in ball with 0 drop, comes straight out of hitch reciever.

Launching goes OK... I usually have to get the tires submerged and manually push off the trailer pretty hard.

Retrieving is a PIA.

I am struggling with getting the bow over the roller. I even go as far as lifting the bow a few inches with muscle and having the wife winch up Powering on is out of the questionI just hit the roller on my rub rail. I have tried going deeper... which makes my guidons useless (submerged) and ends with me on the trailer slightly **** eyed. I have tried shallower and I get on the trailer easy but struggle with the roller being inch or two above my bow.

So trouble shooting I am thinking of a hitch with 2in drop. This would drop my roller relative to the boat in the water, but raise the end of the bunks and possibly challenge launching....am I on the right track.

Help a humble rookie out please.

Ray

 

[SteveMcD]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

A 2" drop might not help much. It may translate to 1" at the roller. Anyway, dropping the hitch seems to be a cheaper crapshoot than redesigning the trailer. If you know how much more you need to get over the roller, and use the axle as the pivot point, you should be able to calculate or measure the drop you need.Good luck.

 

[rayaa3]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

There is not a lot of play in the position of the winch or bow roller. The trailer is the one originally sold custom for the boat. I am thinking that the last owner did not have any such problems so it mist be something about my rig.

I know he used a drop hitch not so sure about how much drop, but he was in a Chevy 1500 crew cab with 4wd.

The 4wd he had sat higher than my 2wd which is why I started with a no drop hitch. I towed the boat to storage last night with a 2 in drop hitch. If no one has any other advise, I will have to try that at the launch, and see.

 

[Bondo]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

Ayuh,.... Put taller guide-ons on the wagon, 'n back in deeper...

 

[Dreg]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

Not sure how guide on poles would fare over bunks on a deck boat rig, but thought I'd throw it out there. And depending on the rig, it seems fairly standard to have the tires submerged if you read around a bit. I usually have to go until my fenders are just under and the front of my bunks are just poking out of the water, but again, a deck boat is certainly larger than my 16' tinny lol

 

[81 Checkmate]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

Dont know if this will help:

I had trouble the first year with my boat loading too, bow was always alot lower than the bow roller.

I tried a 2" drop hitch, didnt work. Tried backing in further, didnt work., tried lifting the bow, didnt work, what a pain in the a!!! Change to a V bow holder! Stiil a pain.

Then i did a lot of reading on hear.

Try this next time.. back the trailer in the water and have the water just hit the top of the fenders or so, pull the boat up with trailer trim up, Put winch strap on and start winching as you are winching you will see the bow start to rise. If it isnt enough have your wife pull foward abit and it will rise, then winch it the rest of the way and the bow will rise right above your roller.

You will get it to a point were you know exactly were to put the trailer in the water.

I can almost power load my 21' now..... but still to chicken to do it.

Good luck!

 

[rayaa3]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

wanted to follow up on how this went...

2 inch drop helped a little bit on the height of the boat...still can't power on, but winching up the tip of the bow is just about even with the roller (instead of actually under it) which means the roller can roll it up pretty easily with just a tiny bit of encouragement.

In terms of depth, what worked best this weekend was the guide ons just above the water, tired solidly submerged. I don't think I could have had the trailer any more shallow and this worked out.

 

[Maclin]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

If you have a helper driver then you can have the trailer shallow then winch a little, backup a little , winch a little, backup a little, winch a little...

 

[ondarvr]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

The normal cause of this problem is backing in too deep.

 

[coastalrichard]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

Edit: delete

 

[drrpm]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

It sounds like you just need to back it in a little deeper. The correct depth will vary a bit depending on the boat and trailer. I need to back mine down until the tops of the fenders are at water level. Then the boat will drive off with a little push and drive on easily.

 

[coastalrichard]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

I've noticed quite a few "trouble reteiving" threads so I started to do some research. I found numerous posts in engineering related forums by folks that worked for firms that did alot of ramp construction. I learned that an optimum ramp will have a slope of from 10* to 15*. Too little slope and many tow vehicles end up putting the rear axle in the water which often leads to expensive automotive repairs. Too steep and some vehicles did not have the power to haul out. Interestingly though, is that a steep slope also put the trailer at too steep an angle to efficiently load the boat because the bow gets caught under the bow eye. Could this be what's causing your issues? Can you utilize a different ramp that is know to be properly sloped?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

I've noticed quite a few "trouble reteiving" threads so I started to do some research. I found numerous posts in engineering related forums by folks that worked for firms that did alot of ramp construction. I learned that an optimum ramp will have a slope of from 10* to 15*. Too little slope and many tow vehicles end up putting the rear axle in the water which often leads to expensive automotive repairs. Too steep and some vehicles did not have the power to haul out. Interestingly though, is that a steep slope also put the trailer at too steep an angle to efficiently load the boat because the bow gets caught under the bow eye. Could this be what's causing your issues? Can you utilize a different ramp that is know to be properly sloped?

Good research, the steep ramp and backing in too deep is the issue, they compound each other, backing in deeper makes it worse. This assumes the trailer is set up correctly for that boat.

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

Maybe you could try a receiver with a 6" drop like I did it really lowered the steep angle of the trailer and by dropping the front of the trailer down more it made running up on the trailer a lot easier. I have an old 2000 F350 and they set up high in the back too. I don't think the steepness of the ramp is as important as the steepness of the trailer you are trying to load on to. My 4 wheel drive really helped pulling back up the slick ramp. The rear tires on the big truck just love to spin on ANYTHING in 2 wheel drive.

 

[rayaa3]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

I'm satisified with my current fix (2" drop, and winch, only power on to within 3ft of bowstop).

For the sake of discussion...going deeper makes it easier to line up to bow stop but then the trailer sits on the bunks funny/wrong

The only reason to tshoot further is if I want to power on. Which I don't care about.

It is interesting that this weekend I observed that the previous owner of the trailer/boat adjusted the trailer so the boat fits slightly more foward on the trailer.

The transom sits about 6-8 inches 'up' the trailer from the end fo the bunks. When looking at the bow stop/which arm it looks like I can see where it originally sat (discoloration in paint) and it has been pushed 3" forward at some point in it's life. Not really sure why someone would have done that. But thought it was interesting.

The trailer is the original match to the boat (Smokercraft deck boat, smokercraft custom painted trailer) - so presumably it would have been well fit when it was originally bought new - and would not require adjustment.

However, if there is anything that this forum demonstrates is that boat owners are tinker-ers...sometimes to fix an issue, sometimes we seem to want to fix things that aren't broken We call it 'accessorizing' 'modifying' or even 'adjusting' - but for sure, we tweak way too much stuff

So now I'm trying to figure out if I want to untweak whatever the previous owner was up to moving the boat further 'up' the trailer.

It's a 14 yo boat and trailer, so I was going to replace bunks at some point anyway, maybe I'll re-adjust it then.

Ray

 

[BoatDrinksQ5]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

I can imagine by moving the winch setup forward it was to add weight to the tongue? Possibly was getting some poor trailering? Bounc Could bring boat to weigh station to see what tongue weight vs total trailer weight is. ?? 10% is good IIRC ??

 

[gpfishingdude]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

That sounds like what I had to do the first time I tried loading this boat I just got- loading short and winching up. After using the 6" drop receiver the boat just slid right up to the bow stop. It made centering SO much easier too because the back end didn't have to be as deep in the water to try to load up. If you get a chance to borrow a 6" drop receiver you might try it, I couldn't believe the difference it made for me.

 

[coastalrichard]

Re: trouble retrieving newbie problem

Some good stuff developing in this forum @ "Adjustible height ball hitch..." Check it out.