Trailer adjustment
 

As some of you guys pointed out my boat sits pretty bow down when its on my trailer. What concerns me the most is how close the keel comes to the end of the tongue on the trailer. It literally rests on it and there is more than one chip in the fiberglass around that area.

As you can see the front cross support that holds the first set of rollers is set at its lowest position. I am considereing moving it up but but its been this way for 23 years and I am wondering if maybe they new something I didnt when they set it up this way.

Maybe the keel will hit the cross support before it catches the rollers?Maybe I wont be able to adjust the bow support properly and it will interfere with the the bow eye?

Anybody got any experience in adjusting these things.?

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/DSCF2304.jpg

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...0/DSCF2209.jpg

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...6/DSCF2845.jpg

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...6/DSCF2846.jpg

In your 3rd pic; you could cut off (shorten) the center stringer (where the bow almost hits now) closer to the winch area and still be able to attach the cross brace to the outside frame rails. If you cut about 3" forward of the U bolts looks like that would give you plenty of clearance.

Those tongue ends are made to fit various length trailers so they could be shortened to fit your boat needs.

might just be the angle, but the rig looks tongue heavy. could you slide the winch post back 6 inches and that would give you more clearance. if not , how bout putting a piece of starboard to deflect the occasional keel hit.

Hey
 

On my Trailer I install "Keel Rollers" it reduces stress on the bed or rollers in your setup , I have four Keel rollers like this on mine. My boat rolls off and on with ease not a single issue period
http://shop.easternmarine.com/index....categoryID=204
Also I did notice as mentioned it seems like your Boat can be shifted back on the Trailer !

You may be able to move your front rollers closer to the center of the trailer to raise the bow.

Looks to me that the whole trailer is just to short? The rear rollers should be right at the transom, yours looks to short and the boat over hangs. This is why the bow is so far foward and hitting.

Short of getting a different trailer the cutting of the tounge is about all you can do.
Or you can get a bolt on roller (a wide one) and add it to the tounge so that when the bow gets there it will go on a roller and lift a bit.

Good Luck

your trailer is to short for that boat you need the transom supported or it will cause stress and cracks in the transom.

you guys might be on to something there. I just checked the gallery and although there are a handful of trailers with the transom hanging a foot or so off the last roller, the vast majority are supported to the very end. I pguess I should look into doing something about it. I know the last owner had the boat almost 20 years but he lived very close to the water and did not tow it as much as I will be.

There is room on the frame to slide the whole last set of rollers back to probably get the last set of rollers pretty close to the transom. The darn things are infinitely adjustable between moving front to back, and in and out...hurts my head figuring all the possible combinations.

looks to me in the 3rd pic,you mite be able, to relocate the front cross bar to the upper bolt holes an giving you the clearence you need to make the other adjustments needed

http://www.loadrite.com/Support/Main...t_Trailers/76/

Information from LoadRite on how to adjust a trailer. They recommend max 8" from last roller to the transom. I think I have more than that.

That was my original solution off the top of my head. My working solution at the moment is raise the front cross support, add a keel roller and move the bow support toward the hitch to get the boat further forward and support the transom better.

that trailer looks simular to the one I had under my V when I bought it. I couldn't get it to fit in a way that satisfied me. I was going to convert it to bunk style( which I prefer, don't need rollers around here) But I couldn't figure a way to adjust the board placement to where it wasn't sitting on a strake. I have converted several trailers like yours to bunk style by simply removing the rollers and the support arms( the curved aluminum arms), leave the swiveling bracket to attach 2X6's to. Just cut those small rusted u bolts and uses the holes for your lag bolts to go thru. Use two sets of boards, one set for the front, one set for the rear. You can get away with the boards over hanging the bracket by at least a foot, so it can lengthen your trailer overall lenght by just using the boards. It is going to drop the boat on the trailer, so you may have to push the boards in closer to the center to keep the boat off the frame and fenders. Go ahead and prepare to replace every U bolt you touch, they usuallly break before coming off. You may also have to reposition the axle to get the weight right. I wish I had a pic of a trailer that I changed over, its easy to understand how I changed it if you could see one. When I worked at the SeaRay dealership, I changed probably 20 roller trailers( all old yard trailers) over to bunk style using this method. The roller trailers were causing damage to the new boats when we launched and loaded the boats, besides having to clean the roller marks off. Think about it hard before you do it, measure everything before you start to see if its going to fit, if you don't need a rolelr trailer for your ramp, this could be a viable alternative

If you bring it up more you will really need to make sure you do somthing as you will now be right on top of that tounge!!
And don't forget the more you push forward the more weight on your truck!!
To fix that you will have to move the axle forward also to take the weight off the front and more to ther rear.

i would make it a bunk trailer just take the rollers off measure the boat on trailer and make your bunks out to the current transom actually i'd make then about 6 to 8 inches longer then move the boat back some so you will have a better balanced load.

Here are my thots. I have a Load Rite 2 Axle under my Wellcraft 250 but it looks an awfull lot like yours.

1. Although the trailer does look a little short it looks like you can open you hatch okay. How much clearance do you have in that respect? The rear most rollers should be a little closer to the transom. If you can then move the winch stand up and move the axle up.

2. How close are the inner rollers to each other on the forward bunk? Mine are around six inches apart. Pinching them together will raise the bow. My guess is this is you biggest problem.

3. How far apart are the rollers on the rear bunk. Spreading them will drop the stern. For every inch that you drop the stern you will likely gain the same in the front as the hull pivots on the front bunk.

4. As a last resort I would raise the front crossmember to the next notch but I don't recall seeing one that way.

5. All of my trailer hardware looked like yours. This means that you need to grind, torch, replace everything that you need to put a wrench on.

Here are my thots. I have a Load Rite 2 Axle under my Wellcraft 250 but it looks an awfull lot like yours.

1. Although the trailer does look a little short it looks like you can open you hatch okay so maybe not. How much clearance do you have in that respect? The rear most rollers should be a little closer to the transom. If you can then maybe move the winch stand up and move the axle up too.

2. How close are the inner rollers to each other on the forward bunk? Mine are around six inches apart. Pinching them together will raise the bow. My guess is this is you biggest problem.

3. How far apart are the rollers on the rear bunk. Spreading them will drop the stern. For every inch that you drop the stern you will likely gain the same in the front as the hull pivots on the front bunk.

4. As a last resort I would raise the front crossmember to the next notch but I don't recall seeing one that way.

5. All of my trailer hardware looked like yours. This means that you need to grind, torch, replace everything that you need to put a wrench on.