Getting my trailer working properly

[PeterKroll]

My trailer has two normal in-line rollers (cotton reel style, front and middle), a pair of wobble rollers at the back, and two skids about a meter long.

It's a bit of a struggle to get the boat into the water by myself, and I'm wondering if replacing the skids with a couple of sets of wobble rollers would make it easier to get the boat off and on the trailer.

[Chimo]

How about just winching it off?

[Moonlighter]

If you set the trailer up properly it should be fine. I take it we are talking about an alloy boat?

That being the case, the trick is to set the rollers up so the front one is higher than the middle and then the rollers at the back a bit lower again. In other words, when you are on a level piece of ground, the boat should slope to the back by about 75mm to 100mm.

With the centre line cotton reels and transom rollers supporting the boat, adjust the side skids so they just touch the hull evenly. They shouldn't carry the weight, that is the job of the centerline supports. The skids are there just to keep it all balanced from side to side.

Set up like that, it should slide easily off and on.

[FNQCairns]

The boat floats I take it...are you going in deep enough? so many variables

[PeterKroll]

Moonlighter, thanks for that. I think I'm going to have to get out the cutting wheel again, as the roller brackets look to be rusted to the frame. Looks like I'll have to do some replacing to get it all aligned and working to the optimum.

[PeterKroll]

FNQ, everything works, just not as well as I'd like.

Reading Moonlighters post, it looks like the boat has too much weight on the skids, where it should be using the rollers more.

That's kind of what I thought from the research I did on other boating forums. I guess I try to get what I have to work correctly before I worry about modifications.

[PeterKroll]

and, yes, the boat is aluminium. Sheet, rather than plate. It's only a 3.9m. And while I can lever it off easily enough, I want it to be as good as I can have it, within the bounds of cost and reason.

[Moonlighter]

The strongest part of pressed alloy boats is the keel, so that is why you want the weight of the boat to be taken on the keel.

i don't like the twin rollers at the transom either. Better to have a hard blue cotton reel there too. Seen too many tinnies where pulling them up with those twin rollers pushing all that weight either side of the keel has caused splitting. If it was me they would be gone. You want the new cotton reel to replace them to be positioned as close to the transom as possible to support the weight of the engine on the transom.

On larger tinnies say 4m and above i would put twin cotton reels in place of the singles along the keel line if you are replacing them - might as well do it right if you are replacing them!

And yes, the job of the side skids has nothing to do with carrying weight, their job is stability only.

All the cotton reel rollers and skids should be the hard blue poly ones. Rubber is for glass boats, as are the red poly ones.

Cheers

mL

[PeterKroll]

Can you clarify what you mean by twin cotton reel rollers? If they are to go under the keel, I can't picture how they would be useful.

I appreciate you taking the time to help me.

[Moonlighter]

You can replace the single bracket for the "cotton reel" rollers with twin ones, something like this, there are a couple of versions available:

http://www.biasboating.com.au/6_Double_Rocker_Bracket_p/3838.htm

This effectively doubles the number of rollers supporting the keel. Spreads the weight, thus everything rolls easier.

And for the end roller you can use one of these to help keep the boat centered when retrieving:

http://www.biasboating.com.au/6_Blue_Polypropylene_Self_Centering_Keel_Roller_p/3849.htm

[PeterKroll]

Looks like the way to go. I'll do that over the next couple of weeks. There's going to be some sparks flying, I'm pretty sure I'll have to cut the old rollers off. I've been soaking the bolts with penetrating oil for the last couple of weeks, but they still look like clumps of rust. I'll give it a go with the heat torch first, see what happens. At least it's a cheap mod.

Thanks for the advice.

[Horse]

Also make sure the centre rollers are actually rolling. The galvanised spindles tend to rust up pretty fast. I replaced mine with stainless rod and it has lasted well

[PeterKroll]

Horse, it seems like a small extra expense to make sure everything keeps working. Thanks for the advice.

[PeterKroll]

Some photos. Don't know if they will tell anyone anything.

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[PeterKroll]

Trying uploading again. 98930