Vacationer, bowsprit, striker, chain . . . trailer?

[Tom Holder]

As in how do you get it one the bloody trailer? Doesn't it interfere with the winch? or do you have to remove the chain every time you pull it from the water?

Please advise.

[Arnie Eaton]

You know that is a good question!. I have'nt given that much thought but I should. About ready to get mine on the trailer soon so will think hard about that very thing. I did offset my foreward hatch so I could slide the sprit back to the mast if I have to. That was so I could pull with my suburan. Now I have a truck so don't have that to worry about.

[Mike Pennington]

Tom,

My trailer is almost too short, however with a tongue extender it will be fine. New trailers for the length required by the Vacationer are expensive due to the trailer builder is assuming such a large boat will weigh more. So said the nice guy I talked to at E-Z loader trailer company. I was lucky and found an older trailer I refurbished. I have about $600 into it. I have to use my pick up of coarse because of the bow sprit. Last year I put a nice little ding in the top part of the rear hatch on my wife's new RT Durango, I figure the RT part stands for ten extra grand by the way.

So yes, you will need a looooong trailer :roll: Mike

[Tom Holder]

OK then. Let me see if I have this straight - every boat I've ever had goes on the roof racks so I'm trailer illiterate (unless it's plowing ground or hauling livestock).

Basically, the trailer tongue is extended the extra few feet and since the winch is very close to the hitch, the chain won't get close enough to hit it. I had it in my head that the boat has to be snugged right up tight to the winch based on some of the pictures but that's more of a byproduct of tongue length than anything else.

Sound right?

[Jim Stumpf]

This was a serious problem for me at the begining of the season. When launching (and retrieving) the stem would roll down the bow roller untill the bow eye and then the striker would seat into the bow roller. By the way I had mounted my bow eye on the lower chain anchor point on the stem. I would have to lift the boat over the roller which got old very quickily.

To fix the problem I added a u shaped box from the middle cross member of my trailer to the a frame at the front of my trailer to create a chanel for the keel to ride in, I added a roller inside of the chanel to keep the keel from dragging. What this does is keep the stem from dropping as the boat leaves the trailer. I would imagine that every rig is set up a little differently but this worked for me. I have a Karavan trailer with two keel rollers, 1 midship and 1 aft. At each roller there are 2 bunks 1 satrboard and 1 port. The bunks are about 4 ft long and pivot fore and aft to accomodate the shape of the hull. As noted above I needed an additional roller way up forward to keep the front of the boat from dropping when launching and to shove it up in the air when retreiving. I can post pictures if anyone is interested.

Jim

Vacationer Rudunyet

[ken connors]

that sounds like a great solution. pics would be greatly appreciated. ive got a trailer but need to reconfigure the old rollers to fit the vacationer. thanks

[Bob Taylor]

Only when I use a VERY steep ramp do I encounter problems with the chain and striker interfering with the winch. The bow sprit extends over the top of my van when towing but doesn't ever get close enough to hit the roof. I'll see if I can get you a photo of my setup, it seems to work well, so far!! Oh yeah, I HIGHLY recommend lift rollers!!!