What to do with boat when working on trailer?

[scottishguy]

Advice given in another thread suggested that instead of buying a new trailer I should fix up the one I've got.

If I was to go down this path, I assume I would have to remove the boat from the trailer. What would I do with the boat? I don't have the luxury of a mooring and I don't have access to a crane.

[Jeremy]

you might be able to drop it onto some old car or truck tyres in your front or back yard, or otherwise take all your tools down to the ramp and beach the boat for a couple of hours.

Jeremy

[ShaneJ]

Depends on what kind of boat you have. I have a 4.55 TABS and I just dump it on the grass if I need to work in the trailer.

[Angla]

Advice given in another thread suggested that instead of buying a new trailer I should fix up the one I've got.

If I was to go down this path, I assume I would have to remove the boat from the trailer. What would I do with the boat? I don't have the luxury of a mooring and I don't have access to a crane.

I went down to the local tyre shop and borrowed 12 old tyres for a while.

I then had a long enough area to release the boat onto the tyres slowly while undoing the winch. It took about 10 minutes to get it totally off the trailer by myself.
Give it a go if yours is similar or smaller.

Cheers
Chris

[Splash]

how hard is it to winch the boat back on trailer from resting on tyres?

Does the ar se end dig in alot?

SPlash

[The Prawn King]

Let the trailer be pulled back under the boat as you winch it back on

TPK

[Out-Station]

Tyres work well, a few smaller ones along the keel, make sure one of them covers the arse end from digging in, few fatter ones along each side further out. Push the boat back of the trailer untill the ase drops back onto your first tyres, then just leave the winch in nutral and drive forward very slowly, stopping and putting the next tyres in as you go.

Same when you pick it up, winch the trailer back under the boat, picking it up as you pull the trailer and car back, use a bit of reverse carefully.

Main deal is you move the trailer, not the boat when your doing this. Helps if you have a big tyre up fron't under the keel to keep the nose up a bit when you go to get the trailer in underneath on the pickup.

Cheer's Scott

[oldboot]

Unless you a have a quite large boat... dumping off on the lawn is a doddle......unfortunately soo many houses don't have enough lawn for a poodle to piddle on.

to get the boat off.......push the boat off the trailer till the stern is on the ground then gently and slowly pull the trailer out from under.... be realy carefull when you get to the bow section....getting someone ( or a few mates if it is a larger boat) to steady the boat may be helpfull..... a couple of tyres will keep it upright.

getting it back on is a bit more difficult..........last time I pushed the trailer up under the bow....by hand and propped the drawbar up good and high
put good big chocks in front and behind the wheels.

Then start winching.....when the boat has a good bit of weight on the rear of the trailer.......pull the prop from under the drawbar while you can........keep winching.......as the weight of the boat comes further forward the draw bar will come down all civilised.

You do need to put a bit of care into it and the lay of the land and size of the boat can make a bit of a difference.

getting the boat on and off is reasonably easy.....getting everything adjusted is the tricky part.

your friend here is the humble scissor jack.. like comes with japanese cars.... you can pick these up from the wreckers......I have half a dosen of the things and they are handy for so many things.

set up the trailer flat and level on flat and level ground....then get your jacks under your various support points and twiddle away.....4 jacks is real good it gives you so much control.

If the boat is on the trailer straight & square and it is evenly supported it shold slide off slick as snot off a door knob.

Prior to us doing a job on the bor'inlaws boat.....he had to push it all the way off.....first time at the ramp after the re set......he almost had to swm for it;D

Just go down the ramp and watch.....so many trailers are nothing like set up right.

cheers

cheers

[PADDLES]

i chucked mine on a hardstand at spinnaker one christmas for a couple of weeks whilst we were shut down at work. i could work on the trailer at my leisure whilst i had the time off and also had instant easy access to the boat over christmas. it was still heaps cheaper than a new trailer.

[GBC]

And when you disconnect the trailer from the car to wedge it under the bow and start winching the boat back on, watch out for gravity once she comes off the ground or the trailer might run into the brick breezeway at the back of your house with the boat only half on - or is that my house:-X :-X