Trailer rollers or board ?

[NAY]

 
I recently bought a 1978 16' com-pac. The rollers on the trailer are not wide enough and will need replacing or a board installed in their place. Has anyone gone from rollers to a board and not been satisfied? I will be sailing alone most of the time so ease of launch and retrieval is important.
Buddy     

[skip1930]

Rollers. Keel touching any two out of the four is good enough.
Pull the winch tight and she'll raise off of the back roller.
Take the pressure off and she'll lay on the back roller and lift off the front roller.
At least that's the way it works on my CP-19.
If you use a board you'll have to re curve or re position the hull bunk heights.

skip.

[mandolinut]

I went with the board. My previous rollers were all bent from the load of the keel  and the bumps in the road.  I left one roller aft to help with loading the boat on the trailer. Works like a charm and leaves an even distribution of weight from the keel to the board (pressure treated wood of course). I notched out the sides of the board to correspond to the angle of the ribs of the galvanized trailer. I felt the weight would be more evenly distributed on the single board,.

[skip1930]

" rollers were all bent from the load of the keel "
Then too much weight of the boat on the rollers and not enough on the hull bunks.

skip.

[mandolinut]

Thanks for the post Skip. How can a person tell if the hull bunks are adjusted high enough? There is pressure on both bunks, but as you pointed out, the roller axles should not have been bent.

[skip1930]

I set mine up with shop rags laying over the carpet at the start, middle, and end of the hull bunks. When it takes a great amount of pull [not yanking] to remove the rags that's when I figure the hull bunks are set. I use my floor jack to adjust the vertical heights of the trailer hull bunk supports.

The other good thing about using rollers is a 10 inch long 2" x 4" can be placed under the keel and the whole boat lifted clean off the trailer, allowing the trailer to be skinny-ed fwd or back and when adjusting the vee block and winch as well as the boat's location on the trailer. You can't do this with a solid wood base for the keel to touch.

skip.

[jpfx]

board on mine, 2 side that take  minimal weight but provide stability, one central that the bilge keel sits on.

[Pacman]

I used a pressure treated board and I am satisfied.

When wet, it is very slippery so the boat can go on and off easily.

When dry, it provides some friction that helps keep the boat from moving fore and aft on the road.

Best of all, the weight is evenly distributed and there are no points of high load on the keel.

The literature that came with my NACRA catamaran was very clear that only boards should be used and that rollers could damage the hulls because the weight was concentrated on the hull at the points where it rests on the rollers. 

NACRA even went so far as to disallow warranty claims for hulls that had been transported or stored on rollers.

However, our C-16s are very durable and most people don't seem to have problems with rollers damaging the keel, possibly because it is filled with concrete.

In my opinion, the best reasons for using a board are the way the boat slides on to a wet board and the way the boat sits still on a dry board on the road.

[skip1930]

Pacman. ..." When dry, it provides some friction that helps keep the boat from moving fore and aft on the road. "

The fwd curve and the upward rear turn of the hull bunks form a cradle and the hull sits in that cradle when the hull bunks are properly 'rolled' using the verticals to hold the shape of the wood. So the boat sits in a hole on the trailer.

As you said with a solid concrete keel encased in a layers of woven 20 oz fiberglass cloth, resign impregnated...she's strong like bull. No worries about 'concaving' the flat keel with any rollers or boards. Heck you could set her on welded re-bar and bounce down the road with no damage. Well that may be a bit of a dramatization. But you get my drift.

Glad your happy with your board. And your not dealing with much weight with a CP-16, same construction on the larger CP's. And were not entertaining warrentee questions as on NACRA catamarans.

skip.

[JTMeissner]

With so many posts, I figure I might as well join in since I haven't seen this particular issue addressed.

I currently have rollers, on a MagicTilt trailer from about 1982, for our MKI CP 16.  I don't really have any issues with launch or retrieval, mostly due to the light weight of the boat, but sometimes retrieval becomes a little harder than necessary.  If things line up just right with the slope and depth of the water at the ramp, the keel sometimes floats over the rear or middle roller but then "noses into" the next roller against its vertical front surface.  This has forced me to sometimes readjust the tow vehicle deeper in the water to float the boat higher and over this "bump."

Regardless of the fixes for this particular happenstance, I think the solid board makes the above scenario impossible. 

I would then lose the ability to put a single jack under the keel at the center of gravity (between the first and middle rollers) and lift the entire boat off the trailer, which is how I fixed/replaced rollers previously.  Always a compromise...

That's a project for later, maybe.  Plan is to get out on the water and enjoy the 80+ degree weather down here this weekend.  My girl and I made replacement drop in board and cabin top slide guides over the last few weeks; we need to see how those fit.  We're also test fitting some Bimini ides as per another thread.

Fair winds,
Justin

[Billy]

I had rollers on my trailer for my 19 and they bent do to the load on the pin inside the roller. Also the front of the keel would go down b/w the front and second roller and not allow me to pull the boat all the way onto the trailer when retrieving.

A trip to the factory revealed that they use a board on all their new boats. So instead of replacing the bent rollers I used a 2X12 PT board. It works great. It also gives me a place to stand when retrieving the boat.

The only benefit I see to rollers is as Skip mentioned above. The ability to lift the boat off the trailer. Which I haven't had to do.....yet.

I was always afraid the boat would roll off the the rollers and the trailer while backing down the ramp. I disconnect the tow strap before I back down.

[skip1930]

I don't worry about the boat 'humping' up over the rollers. The ramp I use is deep and I float the bow into the vee block, winch her down, rely on the drive way markers on the outside back edge of the trailer to gently touch the sides of the hull and to 'hold' the boat dead center over the trailer rollers and pull her out. The hull simply settles into the trailer hull bunks. Drop the stick and drag her home. The trailer has the extended tongue. I cut the keel bunks off as they are a pain to deal with.

skip.

[Billy]

eventually I will cut off my keel bunks/guides too. They are a pain!

I wonder if I will need some similar guides to your driveway markers as well. Can you please elaberate on how they are installed. I remember you posting a pick a while back.

[Pacman]

My trailer guides for the keel are curved PVC schedule 40 tube.

They are mounted just a few inches above the keel plank at the front of the keel and almost snug against the keel to ensure the cenetring of the boat on the trailer.

At the rear end they are spread apart to allow the boat to have a wider "target" for the initial approach and they are higher at the rear than at the front so they are parellel with the surface of the water when the boat is on the ramp.

That angle prevents the keel from floating over the PVC tubes and getting things out of shape. (I have seen boats get on top of the keel guides on set-ups like the one in Billy's trailer.  Not a pretty sight when pulled out.  Low guides like that will not keep the boat straight during pull-out.)

My set-up is cheap, simple, and works very well to center the boat as I guide it forward onto the trailer.

[mandolinut]

At Pacman.    Could you explain how the pvc guides are attached to your trailer? I like the idea.        Thanks,