Bunk vs Roller trailer ? Easy choice in NE

[spareparts]

every time I think about a roller trailer, I envision a couple of old farts(think Oz and Lee ) with some antique tri hull, arguing at the ramp, Usually one of them has his long pants rolled up above the knee trying to keep from getting wet(still gets soaked) while hooking up the rusty cable, while the other one(usually seated in the boat and with a beer) is telling him what he's doing wrong. After listening to the winch cycle for about 20 minutes winching the aforementioned floating water hazard onto the undersized break back roller trailer, they finally pull away from the ramp (meanwhile at least 20 other people have loaded and unloaded their boats in the adjacent ramp). About the time they crest the top of the ramp, you hear something break, the whizzing sound of a winch in high speed, and the crunching sound of water logged fiberglass hitting the asphalt. The following arguments and actions tend to be along the lines of a three stooges movie . This is a scene I've seen to often


In all seriousness, when I worked at the Sea ray dealership, I launched and loaded probably an average of four boats a day, With the bunk trailers, I was always able to safely launch and load the boat by myself. With roller trailers, we always had something go wrong, granted these trailers were used and abused, but they gave us a lot of issues. Rollers are very expensive, especially if you get the non marking kinds. the hardware on a lot of trailers is proprietary and expensive(odd brackets and pivots). We also had quite a bit of damage from roller trailers to the boat hulls, We ended up converting all of our rollers(except for the biggest trailers for 35'+) to bunks. The only reason we left the big trailers roller was they usually fit the hulls better and gave us clearance for the props. When I bought my V, it had a heavy duty single axle roller trailer under it. I don't know if it was the original one or not, but there was no way it would sit level and even on this trailer, I tried to adjust the rollers, but there was no way to get it to fit with out one set of rollers sitting on a strake. I gave the roller trailer to my father and bought a used galvanized tandem axle bunk trailer. the boat sits at least a foot lower, and sits even now, with nothing resting on the strakes.

As far as advantage to one style or the other, it boils down to what fits your boat, what makes loading and unloading your boat at your particular ramp easy and safe

[bgreene]

Oh yeh......welll I've had both roller and bunk in the past and when I decided to buy my first ever NEW trailer...............drum roll........I went ROLLER !!!

Hey.........whatever " floats your boat " ...... !!!

For the assorted conditions I find, assorted ramps, low and high tides...... the roller works better for me.

Destroyer - wow, good to see you all fired up on this thread ! Gotta love the enthusiasm !

[tartuffe]

^^^ Spare's post +1

Especially the part about taking forever. He's guiding his boat on and getting it all lined up blah blah blah, good luck doing all that when you are loading on the Intercoastal with a stiff wind, a tide change, and a 50' Jarrett Bay or the like cruising by at 25 knots heading back to the docks, not to mention the 10 fishing boats lined up behind you.

I'm sure rollers work great on Golden Pond but they ain't worth a squat in my world.
: booty::b ooty:

[phatdaddy]

here, this will save us a lot of keyboard time

http://www.thehulltruth.com/trucks-t...vs-roller.html

[RABBITFISH]

Just mt 2 cents..

See the attached photos, when shopping for parts I noticed that even though there were multiple rollers to support the boat I saw that where the cross members attached to the actual trailer frame the entire load rested on four bolted connections where they were allowed to pivot. Had one of these bolts snapped I can not begin to imagine what type of damage I would have sustained. The new bunk trailer I have now has over eight connection points to the trailer frame and I feel a lot better about the weight distribution on it...

[tartuffe]

That is one shiny hull

[bgreene]

Originally Posted by tartuffe

^^^ Spare's post +1

Especially the part about taking forever. He's guiding his boat on and getting it all lined up blah blah blah, good luck doing all that when you are loading on the Intercoastal with a stiff wind, a tide change, and a 50' Jarrett Bay or the like cruising by at 25 knots heading back to the docks, not to mention the 10 fishing boats lined up behind you.

I'm sure rollers work great on Golden Pond but they ain't worth a squat in my world.
: booty::b ooty:

Tell that to the guys who trailered over 1 hour to be at the ramp at 6am .....wait on line, then find they can't launch till the tide comes in !!!! That " Aint Worth Squat " in MY world !
..........Except for the roller guys who launched easily and caught the early bite on big Stripers.

[cterrebonne]

all our ramps down here are steep as you can make a ramp it seems. I prefer bunk trailers opposed to roller trailers. Main reason right now I wouldn't have to make a jig to put my boat on to repair the stringers. lol Roller trailers do come in handy when you have to crank your boat 6 inches closer to the bow stop.

[bgreene]

Sorry.......... I have to baby sit friend now........sitting at the ramp with his bunk trailer - only another 2 HOURS and we'll be able to launch it.

[macojoe]

I am not in the best of shape right now as you guys know, Kenny is now 76 years old with a bum knee. I have always had a roller trailer, and besides the first junk I got with the wellcraft I have had no issues!
I do not have or want any kind of brakes!! They all suck, and give more headaches then benefit!
When we get to the ramp Kenny gets the truck, I stay with the boat, Kenny backs in till I yell stop, then I drive it on trailer not with a ton of power, just enough to get it to go on trailer. Kenny then hooks the cable and hand winches it till he can get the safety chain hooked, no matter if its up tight or not thats as far as he goes, he then drives up the ramp, were I get out and winch it the rest of the way if any. While I am doing that Kenny pulls the plug and were are gone, all takes 5 to 10 min.no matter what tide or wind!