Trailer Mods

[kydocfrog]

I just picked up a trailer on ebay that I will go get this weekend. Things progress. Whe I get the trailer back, CG II is painted (white, large hunter green sheer stripe, yet to be finished bright rub rail) and ready to flip.

I would be interested in seeing any pictures posted by folks who have done a keel guide mod or other adjustments to small trailers to cope with the Weekender underbody.

Thanks in advance.

DocA in Kentucky

[Frank Hagan]

The keel is the strongest part of the Weekender hull, so most of us just make a center channel the keel can rest on and add bunks adjusted to support the bottom on port and starboard.

This is overkill ... you definately don't need the flared out section toward the rear of the trailer. I put it there to guide the boat onto the keel support, but it never got used. That part of the keel support is WAY under water when you are putting the boat back on the trailer. So a simple channel up the middle of the boat is fine.

Then, buy adjustable bunk brackets from West Marine or a trailer store to mount 2 x 6 bunks horizontally, like the middle ones in this picture:

On mine, I only needed 4' bunks to steady the boat. If you look closely, you can see the bracket just to the left of me in this picture, and in front of the guy in red (the first black thing is a guide on roller, but the next thing you see is the bracket holding up the bunk under the boat):

[capt jake]

I made a dandy modification for guiding the keel onto the trailer. We have used it several times and it works slick. I don't have any pictures but I will try to get some for you tomorrow.

You definitely need something to guide it on, that or stand in the water behind the boat and guide it on as soembody else drives the truck. ;) DAMHIK.

[Stump]

There you go, giving away my secrets :wink:

[capt jake]

OK, as stated before, there is a need to have some way of centering the boat on the trailer as it will be floetin all over without it. The keel box like Frank refers to is one approach, but I was after something with an 'open' bottom for drainage as well as not hindering loading on ramps with diffferent inclines.

This is simply 2 pieces of 2x8, wrapped with marine carpet and attached to the stub of the toungue. It is at just about the deepest part of the forefoot but does not go all the way up to where it would hit the bottom of the hull. When we load the boat it can be quite a ways off center until you guide it into these two guides. The boat then centers itself quite well. They are 'fairly' snug, or should I say that there is little room between them. The carpet is just barely touching the keel.

Another tidbit is to separate you bow brace (or whateveer they call it) from the winch. I found that if the winch was located with the brace (as most are) it was a pain to get to and depending upon the incline of the ramp, the bowsprit may cpontact it while retriving.

I have since fashioned one brace for the bow and one for the winch. The one kicker here is that when I lowered the bow brace (to help clear the sprit and dolphin striker) the geometry is off when you bring her out of the water. In other owrds, yoiu can't pull the boat (with the winch) all of the way tight to the bow brace. Remember that when the boat comes out of the water the transom will go down, thus raising the bow (on the trailer) sliightly. This puts a huge load on the brace. I winch it up to within about 2" (yours may vary depending upon design); pull the boat out of the water to the point where the transom is just barely in the water. Then go back and winch her up the rest of the way prior to complete pull out.

I found the trialer to be one of the most modified items in this project. In it's inception, it reminded me of the worst plumbing repair. Meaning many trips to town for other parts. ;)

[Bill Paxton]

If you check the photos in my Gallery you'll see the mods I made. They make life so much easier.

http://www.messing-about.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=54&cat=500&thumb=1

[kydocfrog]

The gallery still seems messed up. When I click, I get a "you do not have permission" message. Going in through the gallery, virutally nothing opens either.

odd.

DocA

[kydocfrog]

Ah. Just figured it out.

DocA

[Florin {VACATIONER}]

I didn't have to make any mods to my trailer since I've built it myself. I didn't see any good reason why the keel should support the boat, so I just made a keelbox like you guys call it out of 2x6 or 2x8 (can't remember now) and covered them with marine carpet, and all it does is guide the keel when loading and holds it centered side to side while trailering. There is no flare at the end because like someone else mentioned before that part will be way under water when needed anyhow. All you have to do is center the boat with the keel lined up in the keelbox and once she's started in she'll slip right in. We've only had to try twice the other day when the water was really murky and couldn't see the keel and the box.

I also didn't see the point for any guiding boards at the sides because they would only touch the sides of the hull in one spot, so we skipped this step as well.

Since I built my own, I didn't have adjustable bunk brackets, so I measured the contour of the bottom of the hull and cut and welded the bunk supports. It worked fine. Now I have to lower the bunks by 6" so I'll have to cut them off, shorten them and re-weld. Not a big job, probably 1/2 a day's worth, but at least I know they're welded on there and they're not going anywhere.

Also about the keel brace in front of the winch... I deliberately didn't put one on at the beginning because I wasn't sure where it should go and how long it should be before I balanced the boat on the trailer. Then we realized that there is no need for one. The boat is sitting on the contoured bunks and is held centered by the keelbox. Then we have the winch line holding it... then we have a couple of 2" ratcheting nylon straps holding the whole thing together on the trailer. I really think anything else holding it down would be overkill.

There is about 1" gap on either side of the keel and the keel box... this makes loading and unloading very easy since there is absolutely no friction there.

One more thing...

Bearing buddies!!! I can't count on my fingers anymore now how many times I've seen the poor souls parked on the sides of the highway in the middle of nowhere with a trailer wheel fallen off because they never serviced the bearings on a regular basis (or never).

I've picked mine up for $40.00CDN and took 5 minutes to install. Then you pump them up with grease every now and then, and they're guaranteed to never give you troubles. I highly reccomend them.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Florin