Florin {VACATIONER} Posted July 4, 2003 Posted July 4, 2003 I think we're done agonising over the trailer now. We just picked up a 2000lb axle and tires, and coupler, winch, jack, fenders, lights kit, etc. for our new custom built trailer today. There's no going back now. We got the 92" wide axle, which should more than accomodate Her Majesty. Anything more and it's not legal on the street. All we have left to do is get the tubing stock and get cracking on building the thing. We've spent waaayyyy too much money in the past week, we'd better get building soon. Shopping is sooo much fun. Here comes the fiberglass dust... yuck! Cheers Quote
Mike Pennington Posted July 5, 2003 Posted July 5, 2003 Florin I hope your going to build a box for the keel to slide up. I just took a gouge out of the Wolf's keel three feet long when it slipped off the roller while loading. It looks like I'll be flipping my boat the begining of the winter for sure. Mike Quote
Florin {VACATIONER} Posted July 5, 2003 Author Posted July 5, 2003 Mike, I will build the keel box for sure on the trailer. To me that goes without saying. I've owned a few stinkpotters that came on roller trailers and just the fact that they were all a bugger to load up on the trailer because they couldn't be aligned easily had me convinced that in this situation a keel box would make this task a walk in the park.... well, maybe... I've heard it's still hard to line up the keel with the box on the trailer just as the front of the keel comes onto the trailer when it's windy... We may have to build some sort of side-ramps at the rear of the box to make this job easier. The box is definitely going to be built, it's a good idea. Thanks Mike Quote
Knut Posted July 5, 2003 Posted July 5, 2003 I have got a keelbox on the trailer for my Weekender and it is a very narrow one, just wide enough for the keel with about a finger's width of total clearance. You might expect that this would cause problems in loading, but no it works fine. I have noticed that some trailer designs have a pretty wide keelbox and with a sort of widened trumpet form at the rear end (probably meant to guide the boat into the keelbox proper. However, the reality at the ramp is different (than the thinking that seems to be behind such designs). Just consider what happens when the boat comes in over the trailer. The water is horizontal (I hope) and the ramp is normally sloping at about 15 degrees. (Make a sketch!). When the trailer is down at the normal depth where the boat will float off by itself (happens in my case) and the boat is coming in for loading, the deepest point of the keel will contact the keelbox about 3-4 feet from the full forward docked position. Any guides mounted at the rear end of the trailer will be way to deep down to make contact with anything. The effect of this is that a simple keelbox with limited clearance (maybe some extra clearance in the top pf the box!!) works very well. To center the boat I simply side-push it when over the trailer just when the deepest part of the keel touches the TOP of the keelbox sides and then I move it manually less than a foot forward to enter the keel into the keelbox opening. From there I use the winch to pull it the last 3-4 feet. Easy. With a Vacationer I would have considered vertical, flexible poles along the rear of the trailer, high enough to help guiding the boat reasonably centered over the trailer and then fine tune like described above when it has floated far enough forward to contact the keelbox. I can easily load the Weekender myself and alone and I am pretty sure the Vacationer should not be more of a problem. After all, it probably draws only 2-3 inches more. Quote
Frank Hagan Posted July 5, 2003 Posted July 5, 2003 I have noticed that some trailer designs have a pretty wide keelbox and with a sort of widened trumpet form at the rear end (probably meant to guide the boat into the keelbox proper. However' date=' the reality at the ramp is different (than the thinking that seems to be behind such designs). Just consider what happens when the boat comes in over the trailer. The water is horizontal (I hope) and the ramp is normally sloping at about 15 degrees. (Make a sketch!). When the trailer is down at the normal depth where the boat will float off by itself (happens in my case) and the boat is coming in for loading, the deepest point of the keel will contact the keelbox about 3-4 feet from the full forward docked position. Any guides mounted at the rear end of the trailer will be way to deep down to make contact with anything.[/quote']You are absolutely correct! I took great pains to make a wider entrance at the rear of my keel box on the trailer, and it is totally unnecessary. When I get time to re-do the trailer, I'm not only going to do away with it, but also will make the keel box narrower. Having the extra width doesn't do you any favors either (mine is about twice as wide as the keel.) Quote
Robert Cox Posted July 5, 2003 Posted July 5, 2003 The keel box on my trailer doesn't even go to the end of the trailer. I drew up the trailer with the boat in Auto-Cad and then placed a imaginary waterline at 15 degs. to see how the outfit would look at a boat ramp. The keel at the deepest point wasn't going to come into contact with the trailer until the boat was more than half way on. I agree with Knut though, that something to keep the boat centered until the keel is in the box would be nice. If you look closely at this pic. you'll see the keel box. It stops about 18 inches behind the fenders on the trailer which is approx. 36 inches from the end of the trailer. Bob Quote
Guest Levi B Posted July 5, 2003 Posted July 5, 2003 Glad to see you fellers have it figured out. It took me 2 years to realize my keel-box was way too wide and I was forever playing around trying to rock the 2000 lb. sloop to center it on the trailer. I ended up narrowing the box and sawing off 3 ft. of the box at the rear and putting the "vee" slot near the center of the trailor so the keel would contact the vee and then on into the box which fit the keel like a carpeted "glove." I think the average sailor never really realizes the angle of the trailer to the water when using a ramp and guess what...it took me 2 years to wake up. When I sold the boat the buyer asked me about the keel box location. I said, "Try it, you'll like it!" I think he did. [/u] Quote
Florin {VACATIONER} Posted July 6, 2003 Author Posted July 6, 2003 That makes sense guys. I think I'll stop worying now. The poles on the side are nice, the only problem I can see is them beying as useless as the trumpet on the keelbox; by the time the hull comes in contact with the poles on the side, the keel is already in the box, so there's no real need for them, except for when you wanna tie a flag to them... Just the way I see it :-) Florin Quote
MikeStevenson Posted July 7, 2003 Posted July 7, 2003 Our keelbox (I like that term; we never came up with anything other than "the slot thing on the trailer") is very narrow. Probably about the same "finger-width" clearance. It works great. Sometimes one can get the keel up on a side, but swishing the bowsprit around a bit will drop the keel in the slot. Someone was asking about the Wooden Boat Trailer plans a week or so ago. I was sorry to have to tell him that we didn't have any more of those plans, and that the modern road rules probably wouldn't smile favorably on wood trailers anyway. It's too bad, as the idea was pretty good. And not our own I might add, so I can say that... Mike Quote
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