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View Full Version : Best way to get my tinny centered on trailer - winching off dry sand



Hodad3230
15-04-2009, 08:20 AM
Gday fellas I have real issues when I pull my boat in and I'm after some advice before I open the wallet. I usually retrieve where there is a little bit of surf, so I drag the boat onto dry sand with a rope, then back the trailer up to it.

The trailer is an old dunbier tilt with standard roller and skid set-up. I installed new skids myself, they are spaced almost as far apart as the trailer will allow. Not sure if this is part of the problem. Boat is a 4.45 tinny with an old 50 two-stroke on it. Often have lots of gear in it, pellet burley, ice, bag limit of gummys :P, 2 sets of freediving gear, fuel (usually come back with one tank full), etc, which I would prefer to leave in the boat till I get home.

When I don't get the trailer perfectly aligned, and often when I do, she wants to slip sideways off the rollers. Part of this is due to the beach being sloped, and, particularly at high tide, not being able to get the boat and trailer pointing directly up the incline of the beach. Not a lot I can do about that.

I was going to try to correct the problem by replacing the back two rollers with self centering ones (as she comes off the dry sand, and the keel starts to run over the second roller, the steep angle of the tilt section means that contact is lost with the back roller)

Next idea is to install a long set of skids running along the keel just outside the rollers, with a flare behind the back roller, that will effectively contain the keel to the rollers as I winch the boat on just like the polycraft trailers. Just not sure what if anything, this would do to my pressed hull.

Otherwise I was considering installing four ezi loaders (not the sprung ones - $$) at 90 degrees to the keel on the back two cross-members, but not sure about their strength given the weight of the boat and gear and the fact that it's a fair effort to winch the boat up off the sand using my 5:1 winch. (I have seen a trailer set up this way but just dunno)
http://www.whitworths.com.au/products/91060_lg.jpg

Not to mention that the hull is quite flat at the transom

Or the other option is to weld on some v shaped skids each side of the back two (or three or four) rollers, using box section that run the same away as the ezi loaders, but obviously can't move and would be heaps stronger.

It has also been suggested to me that I could just replace all the rollers with welded v skids at 90 degrees to the keel, but again worried about the effects on the hull. Maybe that could work well if they were sloped flat enough such that once the boat was on the trailer, the v skids only made contact at the keel and the normal side skids held the hull level.

Any thoughts? Just after the best solution, I can do the welding myself.
Cheers Ian

Gilli
15-04-2009, 05:27 PM
mate i have wobble rollers at the start of my trailer and it centers 99% of the time, ive done plenty of beach retrievals including in the rough.

Chimo
15-04-2009, 05:56 PM
Hi Ian

What about simply welding / bolting a couple of guide poles onto the rear sides of the trailer.?

Perhaps with rollers or as on a boat I had years ago, the upright on each side was a round pipe and I slid a loose fitting hose over top of the pipe that the side of the boat ie gunnel rubbing strip, was hard up against when the boat was loaded.

What hull are we talking about by the way?

Cheers
Chimo

GBC
15-04-2009, 06:36 PM
Have you tried taking the trailer off the car and winching it under the boat? Generally drives it in straighter.

Hodad3230
16-04-2009, 06:34 AM
Gilly, because it's a pressed hull (a stessco) I assumed wobbles are a no-no. Is that what you have under the boat in your avatar? No worries?

Chimo I had thought about those uprights, I could be wrong (often am...) but I reckoned by the time the gunnel makes contact with one the keel would already have gone over (or passed) the back two rollers.

GBC I used to do that with my old lighter trailer (it was one of those with just one central spine/drawbar) and that ended up bending the trailers chassis. I bought a tilt trailer because I thought it would make things easier and quicker. It has, mostly, but number one priority is to minimize time launching and retrieving. And my back is not what it used to be
On some very, very, very good advice from a mate, I bought the boat shortly before having my first baby... and now number two is about to pop out.... Used to have all the time in the world.

Thanks for the replys fellas
Ian

GBC
16-04-2009, 07:44 AM
Cheers Ian,

I'm not sure that modding the trailer is going to help your cause.
If the trailer is going to be connected to the vehicle, then any realigning will be forced through the boat hull, trying to screw the transom around in the sand, which I think will cause a whole new set of issues for you with a lightweight hull?

Hope I'm on the right track?

Perhaps if you hooked the tow eye of the tinny onto the centre rear of the trailer with a short length of chain and skull dragged it a few metres, the whole thing is going to be better aligned? Not an easy thing to do on sand up here, but your particular beach may enable it. Just thinking out loud here.

foggy
16-04-2009, 08:16 PM
[

I was going to try to correct the problem by replacing the back two rollers with self centering ones (as she comes off the dry sand, and the keel starts to run over the second roller, the steep angle of the tilt section means that contact is lost with the back roller)


Ian,

You answered your own question right there. Install the self centering roller at the back and then limit the amount of tilt by using a piece of chain welded the the bottom half of the trailer(where it tilts) and a hook on the part of the trailer that lifts up. Try it at different heights, using the links for adjustment, until you get it so you do not loose contact with the back roller. Once you have it right, weld the chain in that position and your done. Might work, don't know. Probably cost you nothing to try it.

Foggy

Gilli
19-04-2009, 12:30 PM
yeah mate all i have is a pressed hull and the wobble rollers are 100% fine. cant fault them, although they wouldnt work on a flat bottom hull, only V nose or complete V hulls.

murf
19-04-2009, 02:28 PM
don't tilt the trailer when retrieving

you can do as suggested above and limit the amount of tilt with the chain if the rear roller on the trailer does not go under the tow eye on the boat or it pushes the boat backwards when reversing the trailer under it

do not get one of those self centre Yalio type rollers you will regret it as it will chew up your keel you want a MAGNACETAL roller on the rear

I drag the boat (4.75m Blue Fin C/C) up the beach a bit with a strap and then reverse the trailer under until the boat starts to move backwards then it only takes a couple of winds and your away

cheers Murf

Hodad3230
19-04-2009, 03:46 PM
Thanks guys, I'll start with a chain to limit tilt, a new back roller, and then this arrangement (although I'll make the skids a bit flatter so there's no contact when the boat's all the way on the trailer) http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/Snapper_Kev/SkidGuides.jpg
Murf never thought of backing under the boat, thanks, I'll be giving that a go. And Cheers GBC that will help out big time with allignment. Got a new baby arriving in a few days, I'll be trying to get these mods sorted before the next fish in however many months.
Cheers all.