My sailboat trailer has six vertical post bunks with 12"x12" carpeted pads and when I back the trailer into the water the middle and stern bunks usually rotate in the water and are not in the right position to properly load the sailboat. Does anybody have a solution to this problem because the water is a mite bit cold to swim this time of the year. The sailboat is a shoal draft 25' Day. I have to get it out of the water because the keel is in the stuck up position and does not sail good in windy conditions like this. Thanks for any help or guidence.
Keeping trailer bunks from moving???
- Thread starter SteveSam
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Mine do the same thing. I finally decided yesterday what to do. I drilled the brackets that hold the wood blocks. I will run a 3/16 cable through the upper most part of the brackets from the rear most pad to the front of the trailer. I have a front post that is almost deck height. I will cover the cable with PVC pipe. The rear most pad will have a double cable to keep the pad from pivoting. I hope the cable will keep the boat from going between the pads on a windy day-this happened before. I had thought of replacing the pads with bunks from stanchion to stanchion but decided getting the bow correct may present a problem.
You need a locking bolt or nut!
I’ve seen a number of sailboat trailers constructed as you describe yours. They all were built with this square pad support system so they can be easily adaptable to different hull sizes and configurations. This adaptability allows these individual pads to be adjusted in 3 directions at the same time, up-down, left-right, and the pad at any angle.
The pad usually has a single pivot bolt that can be tighten to hold it at the desired angle as these other fellows have stated. Now, this is what I’ve seen this set up do is that the support post spins left or right and the mfg. never included a locking device for this. The left or right adjustment allows for precise fit of the pad to the hull in the horizontal position.
All of these multi single pad units on these trailers are just like ground hull support jacks that you see at the marina in which a square pad is bolted to the end of a heavy duty piece of all-thread that screws down into a threaded tube post.
When this all-thread does not fit tight down in this tube they will spin when you tow the trailer without the boat on it, spin from the water pressure when backing the trailer into the water or twists out of position if the hull touches it long before the hull is properly centered on it.
As said above the mfg. doesn’t seam to supply a locking device for this threaded device, so there’s a couple things you can do; an easy temporary fix would be to wrap some plumbers teflon pipe tape on the threads to eliminate some of clearance in the threads of the all-thread and the threaded tube. A more permanent fix would be to screw on the all-thread a large nut before screwing down into the pipe to act as a lock nut, drill a small hole clear through the pipe and all-thread to hold a clevis pin or to drill a small hole into one side of the pipe and thread-tap this hole to hold a small locking bolt. Using the pin, locking bolts or nuts would be tighten to secure the final position after the boat is properly placed on the trailer.
I’ve seen a number of sailboat trailers constructed as you describe yours. They all were built with this square pad support system so they can be easily adaptable to different hull sizes and configurations. This adaptability allows these individual pads to be adjusted in 3 directions at the same time, up-down, left-right, and the pad at any angle.
The pad usually has a single pivot bolt that can be tighten to hold it at the desired angle as these other fellows have stated. Now, this is what I’ve seen this set up do is that the support post spins left or right and the mfg. never included a locking device for this. The left or right adjustment allows for precise fit of the pad to the hull in the horizontal position.
All of these multi single pad units on these trailers are just like ground hull support jacks that you see at the marina in which a square pad is bolted to the end of a heavy duty piece of all-thread that screws down into a threaded tube post.
When this all-thread does not fit tight down in this tube they will spin when you tow the trailer without the boat on it, spin from the water pressure when backing the trailer into the water or twists out of position if the hull touches it long before the hull is properly centered on it.
As said above the mfg. doesn’t seam to supply a locking device for this threaded device, so there’s a couple things you can do; an easy temporary fix would be to wrap some plumbers teflon pipe tape on the threads to eliminate some of clearance in the threads of the all-thread and the threaded tube. A more permanent fix would be to screw on the all-thread a large nut before screwing down into the pipe to act as a lock nut, drill a small hole clear through the pipe and all-thread to hold a clevis pin or to drill a small hole into one side of the pipe and thread-tap this hole to hold a small locking bolt. Using the pin, locking bolts or nuts would be tighten to secure the final position after the boat is properly placed on the trailer.
Put a small eye screw in the back edge of each mid block and the front edge of each rear block then connect each pair with a bungee or two. (remove bungees while on road to avoid wind wear on hull)
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