Boat Trailer Maintenance tips

[lonertic]

Hi guys, my boat trailer is in need of some maintenance and whilst I can easily tend to those, getting & keeping the boat off the trailer is the hard part.. I've got a 6m fiberglass hull inboard, relatively small boat that's about 750kgs total weight... but sufficiently heavy that it can't just be manhandled off the trailer....

Has anyone got any experience or great tips about the best and most economic way to get the boat off it? and what kind of equipment would you need? I'm thinking along the lines of hiring 2 hydraulic engine cranes, one nylon strapped to the bow tow ring and another to the rear transom rings and gently lift it off the trailer, pull trailer away and drop the boat onto the grassy front yard... assuming it only needs to be off for a few days or a couple of weekends tops... it still sounds like a very stupid idea to me so I'm really hoping someone else has figured out a much better way to do this and willing to share - or even better, offer to help with  

[noelm]

Just connect up the car, tie the stern off to the fence, drive off a bit, place tyres under each side, drive a bit more until the stern is on the tyres, add a couple more and drive off, leaving the boat on the grass, putting it back on is easier, unhook trailer from car, connect winch and start winding, allowing the trailer to creep under the boat, not drag the boat along.

[frankS]

This was my specialty back in the day. Made and modified many trailers in my day. Still have the gantry IF you want to come to my place and dismantle it and you can borrow it to fix your trailer.

Other than that just do as NoelM suggests.

A few hours work to pull apart and another bit of work to re-assemble, but I won't be using it again.

Frank

[dmck]

6 hours ago, noelm said:

Just connect up the car, tie the stern off to the fence, drive off a bit, place tyres under each side, drive a bit more until the stern is on the tyres, add a couple more and drive off, leaving the boat on the grass, putting it back on is easier, unhook trailer from car, connect winch and start winding, allowing the trailer to creep under the boat, not drag the boat along.

I've done just this 4 or 5 times with different boats.   Its easy.... even easier if your trailer has an electric winch

[frankS]

I know not everyone has the luxury of a huge gantry in their back yard, but the benefits of this device allows me to swing a boat OR whatever freely in the air so I can wheel trailer clear of the boat and work on the trailer and do adjustments, I can wheel the trailer under the boat and check if all rollers etc are placed well and if not it's a simple matter of just rolling it out again and make adjustments.

I used to allow people to come to my place and work on their trailer etc but have put a stop to this as some people took advantage and I had boats and trailers left for weeks.

Frank

[lonertic]

@noelm thanks but I might not be able to do that at my place.. i have a relatively shallow front yard and where I was planning to put the boat is horizontally across, and I don't have the luxury of a wide frontage that'll fit the car, trailer and the boat sideways, at best it'll fit the length of the boat and trailer, meaning the trailer needs to be pulled out by hand... I can potentially do this at my parents place but that means the boat will be blocking their garage which they won't be happy about... also one of the things i need to do is change the trailer skids to rollers. At the moment it's sitting on wooden sleds wrapped in offcut carpet (i'm not sure if it's a previous owner thing or the fact the trailer was made in the 80's thing)... cos with the sleds as is, I literally cant even winch the boat onto the trailer unless it was completely boyant in water, there's just way too much friction... hence that was one of the few things I wanted to address with the trailer...

 

omg @frankS can I take you up on your offer? The ideal solution for me would be to find a time that's not too inconvenient to you and I keep the boat on the gantry whilst I get the trailer done.. so I just need to make sure i have all the parts/welder etc all ready to go so they can all be done in one go and minimize gantry-use time... 

Edited October 1, 2020 by lonertic

[lonertic]

oops sorry @frankS I think I misread your message. what I meant was, would I be able to use the gantry at your place but I think you meant to borrow the gantry and reassemble at my place.. 

[zmk1962]

See if you can pick up some ideas from these posts... cheers Zoran

 

[JonD]

I've always borrowed old tyres from a tyre shop and simply slid my boats off onto the tyre on the garden. It helps if you have somewhere secure to tie the stern to, then simply drive forward a little pulling the boat off and placing tyres as you go. 

[lonertic]

Hmmmm since a few people are doing the tyre method i might try and give that a go, main problem is my car can't fit sideways but I've got one of those motorised jockey wheels so I'll see if that's enough to pull the trailer off from under the boat...

[JonD]

If you are pulling the trailer with a motorised you will need to be careful the boat doesn't reach a point where it tips the back of the boat raising the front up lifting the jockey wheel high off the ground. Gradually pulling the trailer with a vehicle would be far safer. Getting it back on is relatively easy by winding it back on with the winch eithe attached or not to a vehicle.

Edited October 4, 2020 by JonD