Quote:
Originally Posted by Last Tango
+1 
By the time the boat reaches the bow roller the rest of the trailer rollers have squared it up.
Not a fan of keel rollers...more of a problem than a solution.
My recovery is at the end of Xk59D' second video on post #7. I leave the boat on a "hard idle" in gear to keep it on the trailer reach over the bow, secure the quick release chain fitting and put a couple of turns of the bow line round the top of the trailer ladder, kill and trim engine and the wife hauls us out. Really have never had to use the winch except for securing at "road prep".
Spend the time setting up the trailer, it pays off in the end. |
Keel rollers support the strongest thickest part of the hull, maybe it's because so many people here do such long distances ( often off-road ) that we tend to mostly use keel supports. I bought one boat which was on a trailer without keel supports, which at two years old was covered in stress fractures. The hull was a comercial build with a 10 year structural warranty, unfortunately because the hull wasn't supported by a keel rollered trailer the company had a loop hole to get out of the repairs. The warranty covered defects from ocean use not wrong trailer choice.
Another boat I purchased had carpeted skids, first launch I eneded having to back the car so far in the water my car exhaust was bubbling under water ( like in the video you posted with the stuck red rib). The boat had been used in its very short life on Fraser Island ( QLD ), the beach use had allowed sand to get into the carpet ( just like salt build up does ). This build up wore through the gelcoat, thinning down the glass and once again causing structural issues with the hull.
Both the above boats were repaired and alterations were made to the trailers, neither are owned by me anymore. I tend to go through lots of boats and average around 500-600hrs per year on my own boats as well as 300-400hrs on other comercial dive boats. We have around 400 boats launch from our local ramp daily, I can honestly say I've only ever seen one other carpeted skid trailer and this one also had to get his boat deep into the water to launch, they might be ok from new but once the salt builds up and the marine carpet crushes they simply don't skid off.
Teflon v skids were trialled on some boats but are now only seen on aluminium boats. As mentioned here many of us tow boats great distances, much of which is dirt roads that for corrugations that destroy trailers and boats if they are built heavy duty. In this video you can see even the aluminium boats use both keel and skids.
The reason I mentioned someone testing these items your side of the pond is because of the negativity some people have over something they've not used or probably even seen. I've seen hundreds of people struggle to drive boats on trailers, it's something that attracts quite a gathering at our local ramp due to wind and tidal effects and something that isn't an issue for us.
