Check your Trailer!!

[captain's cat]

Check your trailer carefully, this could happen to you!

You can read about it here:

http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?t=10897


Not a pretty sight but, luckily, not much damage!

Charlie

 

[j&lgray]

This is an interesting story. The owner of the Rosborough posted 16 photos and quite a long narrative on the Rosborough owner's web site of the adventure. I have the same trailer that he does with one huge difference: my trailer has bunks and his trailer has rollers. I have had, and loved, a trailer with rollers for 10 years because the boat goes on and off the trailer very easily. Couple that with a electric winch (which we had on our previous boat) and you can retrieve that boat pretty much in any conditions and at any sort of ramp.

My look at his situation was that his Rosborough (they weigh more than the Ranger 25) could slide on the rollers when on the highway and his fixes and those of the trailer maker will have to address those because the forces pushing and pulling on the trailer are huge. Somehow, his safety chain that connects the boat to the trailer became unhooked and that is very odd indeed because the chain and hook is heavy.

If you have a bunk trailer (like ours) the amount of sliding on the trailer is very much reduced from that of one with rollers. In fact, the friction on the bunks is so much higher, that we have to float the boat on and off of the trailer simply because it does not slide. We have 5,000 road miles under our Ranger 25 and trailer and gone over high passes, down canyons and even slid on black ice in Wyoming jackknifing off the freeway in a 180 degree spin. The boat never moved on the trailer and it was secured with two transom tie down belts and the bow winch with safety chain.

But the important message remains: check and know your trailer, from the brake fluid, the grease in the bearings and the lights.

 

[captain's cat]

Don't forget all the bolts too! This from another C-Brat with a big C-Dory...

"Speaking about trailers...prior to retrieving my boat at the end of this past season I decided to take a wrench and socket to every single bolt/nut on my brand new trailer. 30% of them were not tight and 5 were not even hand tight!

I will say the worst accidents I have seen always involve roller trailers. I mentioned this in another thread but there was a 30' twin engine Grady White sitting on the hard at the top of the ramp this past year. Ouch..."

Charlie

 

[rt11002003]

One can't be too careful when handling boats and trailers. Several years ago I owned a Merit 25 sailboat with a roller trailer.

I'd finished a bottom job and my wife was helping me put the boat back into the water. I'd gotten to water's edge, actually the trailer was in/over the water to the trailer wheels. I disconnected the rachet on the bow line winch which was the final act before immersing the trailer. About that time my wife started to cross under the stern of the boat. She got my attention (distracted me) by her maneuver; as I was reminding her to never go under the boat, it started to move on the rollers. :shock: Fortunately, she stopped and backed up because I wasn't able to stop the boat from sliding off. Messed up the rudder and rudder post, the keel and part of my new bottom job.

I must have done that procedure at least twenty times in the past with never a problem. The weight of the boat should have been on the keel and the keel was on a keel support on the trailer and nothing should have moved until the boat started to float. My only answer to why it happened was that the yard worker hadn't put the full weight of the boat back on the keel and trailer after lowering the roller support arms to paint under the rollers, probably raised the arms a little bit too much. Obviously, it wasn't a good launch procedure I was using. I should have checked those arms and the keel weight before the launch, after someone else had worked on the rig. And, I should have never released that rachet until the boat was afloat. 😳

Gene

 

[notaclue]

😱 EXCELLENT POINT GENE.. THE FIRST TIME I LAUNCHED NOTACLUE IN THE SACREMENTO RIVER ON A GENTLE RAMP I USED THE SAME PROCEDURE I HAD USED FOR 40 YEARS LAUNCHING OUTBOARDS.... ONE GUY GETS IN THE BOAT .. UNHOOK THE WINCH STRAP,,BACK UP THE BOAT UNTILL IT FLOATS AND YOU ARE DONE... NOT QUITE.. i was at the helm ready to start the, motor when to my horror i realized the boat was sliding off the trailer and we were still 5 feet from the water the guy backing me in saw what was happening and nailed it ..[first time i have ever seen tires smoking putting a boat in!!!. the moral of the story?? these boats are very heavily back loaded on the trailer. it takes very little slope to get them moving. never as gene pointed out, never remove your winch strap until your are safely floating.. my first mate insists that i was born with a horseshoe up my.......well, never mind .... steve ,,,i got lucky and caught a clue,,,