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Trailer without rollers . .


Pete McCrary

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On 4/26/2019 at 9:51 PM, Ken_Potts said:

   I used to dry launch Southbound with only three or four rollers, carpeted bunks under the hull and a manual winch - It worked quite well for me.  I parked the trailer shallow enough to keep the rims dry.

I believe you, but then few trailered boats are that light, including the Mk 3s. And the only boat at my marina that was very light was mine.  As several have pointed out, ramp angles vary a lot.  One of the ramps I used at work was so steep I could submerge my trailer without even my hitch reaching the water's edge. Add LED lights and a good trailer rinse and I would choose submerging so I could float my boat on and off.  I don't like abusing my equipment, but if a little extra impact on the trailer makes my life easy then I can live with it.

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Trough DESIGN REFINEMENT:

 

Chessie's first cruise of the season cancelled after 125 mile trailering to the ramp at Long Cove in Rock Hall, Maryland.  The marine weather forecast was getting much worse -- and I decided to limit cruise to simply a launch, Honda-4 trial, and recovery.  Here's photo of trailer's pre-launch position on the ramp:


image.thumb.jpeg.7c6d683c6602762ed8cf16a1c7e1a9f9.jpeg

Wheel hub just above water level.  Notice that this ramp is quite a bit steeper than the one at Leesylvania.  Launch and recovery went very well, as before.

After 125 mile highway trip (some rain and/or wet surfaces), inspection of the empty trailer trough revealed considerable "road debris" in the trough. Mostly gritty stuff that must of been tossed up by tires on wet road surfaces.  I wiped it out with a rag and reapplied the paste wood-floor wax.  Next time I'll also carry a stiff brush to clear out the trough after each launch.  The load-bearing center channel seems to be holding up OK.

There was noticed another design problem.  When parked (and boat-on-board), the trough collects water.  Although I had drilled a "drain hole" near the middle of the trough's length, it was ineffective.  Probably because the keel's half oval was covering it.  Also, one drain hole would be [fully] effective at only one slope of the parking surface.  There should be multiple drain holes spaced at intervals.  And I would drill oversized holes -- filled with neat epoxy -- and then [at each position] two off-center drain holes.  Maybe the CADesign program could suggest sensible intervals considering the keel's profile.

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  • 3 months later...

To close out this topic I should report that the concept was a good one -- EXCEPT that the trough material that I used was not up to the task.  The keel's SS half-oval was too much pressure on the epoxy covered soft wood.  Also, the friction increased with use -- probably due to gradual collection of road debrie.  I could see no practical way to prevent it.

 

My solution was to fabricate a 12' U-Beam wooden trough with thirteen 5" x 3"-- diameter rollers based on a design suggested by Graham.  I've documented its construction and proof-of-concep on "Chessie's" build.  I think it's a superior solution to the problem of launching, recovery, and highway transport of a 1500 pound boat supported by only a few [like just 3] rollers.

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