Trailer Safety Chain

[pauley]

I have been useing the safety chain to pull the R-25 out of the water and then cranking the winch in "low" gear to snug it up to the trailer or hitting the breaks hard at 5 MPH to get the boat to slide foward on the trailer. The safety chain is bolted to the trailer with a 3/8 inch bolt thru the chain to a galvanised plate on the trailer with no washers , the hole in the plate is 1/2 inch and the bolt head was starting to pull thru the over size hole on the trailer :shock: . I put in a bigger bolt with washers and a nylock nut to fix mine ,yall might want to check the safety chains on your trailers

Pauley

 

[Stella Maris]

Pauley,
I have found that if I back my trailer into the water to the point that the water comes up to the top of the surge break (top front corner of it), I can float the boat all the way to the bow stop. I then winch in in tight and put the safety chain on it.

Doing this allows the boat to settle on the trailer in the proper position and there is no need to slam on the brakes to slide the boat forward. I am concerned with the amount of stress that you put on your hitch in using this method. I used to do this with my Catalina 25 however it was a roller trailer and took very little effort to move the boat.

I would strongly suggest that if you continue to pull your boat the way that you do, you use both the safety chain and the winch strap to hold the boat on the trailer.

We will have Solitude out this weekend and will post a picture of the trailer tongue so you can see exactly what I am attempting to describe.

Launching and retrieving your boat should not be so much work. If it is, eventually you tire of it and the boat does not get used.