Bow eye hanging up

justsomeguy · Aug 31, 2015

First off, you don't want to lift the boat by the bow eye. Looks to be a fairly shallow ramp, however, requiring backing the vehicle further into the drink.

This might need a reconfig of the winch's support structure.

Any photos of the boat out of the water on the trailer?

31seahorse · Aug 31, 2015

Hello repawn, The picture does not show any simple way to adjust the trailer winch stand. If there is a way to raise or lower the winch try that first. Second choice, raise the forward end of the trailer bunks a little bit. Even half an inch will change the height of the bow eye when it reaches the "Y" stop. If you can't raise the forward bunk support try lowering the aft bunk support a small amount. Getting the boat to ride well and load easily is a bit of trial and trial again.

added: Any change in boat position will effect both ends of the boat. you might solve one problem and create one or two more. Use great care. Also, I see you have deployed the tongue extension. I never had one of those, but it must be helpful in getting the boat out farther from the water's edge. Use care walking/standing on the trailer frame and tongue. I put a board onto the center of the traileer under the keel so I have a decent width to walk on to puch the boat back or pull it onto the trailer. A treated 2X6 or 2X8 is my choice or a at least a piece of treated 5/4 X6 decking.

watercolors II · Aug 31, 2015

fix trailer

First step back and look at your setup with the winch and the trailer bow chock.

When your pulling in your boat with the winch and the boat’s bow eye has to ride up over the bow chock on the trailer doesn’t make any sense? Would it not be easier to pull the hull up to the bow chock where the eye is just touching the bottom of the chock! The strap or line from the winch pulling UP to the trailer’s bow chock.

The winch should lift the bow up to the winch. A winch that pulls down on the bow in the boats final position creates a problem of the bow pulling away from the bow chock when the unit is pulled out of the water, the stern settles down on the back of the bunks lifting the bow up when pulled from the water.

Ideally, the trailer should be deep enough to float the hull up to 2 or 3 feet from it’s final resting place on the trailer. The winch should lift the bow up and sink the stern of the boat these last 3 feet (the hull should mirror the trailer sitting under the boat on the sloping launch ramp). Pulling and lifting the bow up to the bow chock on the trailer will place the hull in the same position every time. Lifting the bow those last 3 feet is only a couple hundred pounds on the bow eye because the stern will sink, the bottom front of the hull will have less weight on the front end of the trailer bunks during sliding the hull forward. (winch pulling down will add more friction to the hull on the bunks and add more stress on the hulls bow eye).

see attached photo!

watercolors II · Aug 31, 2015

The front end of the bunks should be 3 to 4 inches under water for most setups I’ve seen. Your setup might be different so, the depth of the trailer for recover should be almost the same depth for an easy launch of the boat. With the back end of the trailer deeper in the water than the front as I said before the stern will be floating above the rear of the bunks so, the only hangup is the weight of hull sitting on the front bunk ends. Someone sitting on the transom will sink the stern and raise the bow higher out of the water.

Pickup trucks, you can back into the water till the water is above the center of the wheel, SUV’s do not have a high axle breather tube up high like a pickup so, stay below the center part of the wheel.

Zed · Aug 31, 2015

Watercolors! said:
Pickup trucks, you can back into the water till the water is above the center of the wheel, SUV’s do not have a high axle breather tube up high like a pickup so, stay below the center part of the wheel.

Only in fresh water. Those of us in Saltwater need to keep the salt way away from brakes and bearings.

Zed · Aug 31, 2015

repawn said:
it is a shallow ramp - and looking at this pic I realize we could go back a lot more and we did move the truck back further - still took a bit of work to get it off and on the trailer.

View attachment 91287

Yeah but lucky you! You have a dock. I have no such thing, only the ramp out on a lonely beach.

Crazy Dave Condon · Sep 1, 2015

One question here which is nagging me. Could it have been loaded too far on the trailer. Generally the bow eye for trailerable boats should be below the trailer bow chock or the black rubber fitting. Do you have a photo of the boat sitting on the trailer from the side or a good side view. IF so please post so we can see if there is anything going on here.

Crazy Dave Condon · Sep 1, 2015

The boat appears to be sitting correctly. Can you tell if the amount of weight on the tongue is about 10 percent of the total weight of boat and trailer?

I could not tell if the bow eye is above or below the winch tongue bow chock or not.
Please advise on both questions.

Crazy Dave Condon · Sep 2, 2015

First, I would suggest adding an additional middle bunk board support if none is there for safety. As for the trailer winch tongue support, I would suggest either raising the trailer winch stand support so the bow chock clears the eye or relocate the bow eye so it is below the bow chock. Either way it needs to happen so you do not have issues with loading and unloading

Feel free to contact me via the forum email.

Crazy Dave Condon · Sep 3, 2015

you are wlecome

Doug J · Sep 16, 2015

repawn said:
Thanks for the advice - I know I need to make a change - just trying to come up with what the change should be - here is a pic of it on the trailer

View attachment 91285
- I had to sort of lift the boat while winching it to get it to go back to the bow stop - at least I was able to get it back on the trailer

I was thinking I could mount a bow stop higher up and or have one of those dual bow roller stops that the winch could pull between the upper and lower stop.

I believe the easiest solution is what you already stated; The dual bow roller setup. Install two long plates, appropriately sized with v-rollers at both ends. The winch cable runs between the two.

Crazy Dave Condon · Sep 19, 2015

Doug J;

Good idea but when using that you have to make sure the bow eye does not hit any metal of sorts from the winch stand as I have seen some bow eyes way too long that got tangled up. If a standard bow eye, I would suggest Doug J's suggenstion to best resolve that and probably that was the case originally. Who knows.

davidmhull · Sep 22, 2015

Good day Repawn. Out boats are very similar if not the same. I had the same problems you are having so I redid my post. I do not have a picture of the final results but I have marked the locations of the bow stop and winch. I had to replace the winch and add a bow stop as my trailer did not have one at all and getting the shoal keel to nest in the trailer was very iffy without knowing where to stop. I have launched my boat quite a few times now and have learned quite a lot. Some of the ramps I use are steep and others quite shallow. I have an extension but have not had to use it yet.

Bow eye hanging up

.

.

.

.

Attachments

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Attachments

.

.

Attachments