So about the MacGregor bump....

StinkBug · Jan 1, 2013

I've read a lot about this technique, and honestly after the first couple times loading my boat I simply decided that the trailer design is just plain wrong. With the way the bow chock is up above the winch there's no good way to get the boat tight without a lot of work, or the aforementioned bump. I ended up chopping up the winch mount to give it a straighter pull, and moving the rubber V-bumper below the bow eye. Now I just winch the boat loosely to it and when I drive up the ramp the fit gets tighter, not looser.

here's what it looks like now.

MrBill_FLL · Jan 1, 2013

^nice design.

suggest 1 mod. add a ring/anchor point straight down from the bow eye, and a 'safety chain'. (possibly in addition to a 2nd at the V).

one reason for the V is to stop the boat in a panic stop from moving forward over the trailer and on top of the tow vehicle. (at hwy speeds).

if you were going to loose the boat off the trailer, IMHO, its more likely to go forward than back.

my .02....

Chris & Lenore · Jan 1, 2013

I bought a can of "liquid rollers". If the boat is not far enough forward, I can push it into place with one hand. Best solution ever!
Just don't unhook the bow eye before backing down the ramp when launching - the boat will slide off before it reaches the water.

Chris

finding41 · Jan 1, 2013

holdech said:
Just don't unhook the bow eye before backing down the ramp when launching - the boat will slide off before it reaches the water.

Chris

I hope you didn't find this out the hard way!

I found that if I stop when I'm part way out of the water I can crank it in some more. It got it tight last time.
I have to play around with the distance out of the water and see what works best for me. (I've only pulled it out 3 times.)
I tried the MacGregor bump the first time I hauled out but a combination of gravel parking lot and anti-lock breaks makes it tough if not imposable for me.

justsomeguy · Jan 1, 2013

finding41 said:
I hope you didn't find this out the hard way!

I found that if I stop when I'm part way out of the water I can crank it in some more. It got it tight last time. snip-

I've found this method helpful, too. It seems that when you can keep decent tension on the winch line, the boat doesn't settle back near as much.

Mike B1026 · Jan 1, 2013

Getting back to Doc's question... just pull your boat out of the water, drop the mast etc. and when you get to safe place in the parking lot, tap the brakes a bit. You don't have to lock up the brakes. After a couple of times you will learn how hard to hit them. The faster you are moving, the less you will have to push on the brakes. I would guess usually 2 - 5 mph? Maybe I'm lazy but it seems a lot easier than re-engineering the trailer.

Chris & Lenore · Jan 1, 2013

finding41 said:
I hope you didn't find this out the hard way!

I found that if I stop when I'm part way out of the water I can crank it in some more. It got it tight last time.
I have to play around with the distance out of the water and see what works best for me. (I've only pulled it out 3 times.)
I tried the MacGregor bump the first time I hauled out but a combination of gravel parking lot and anti-lock breaks makes it tough if not imposable for me.

I didn't find out the hard way but saw a video of someone that did - not pretty!
But the stuff does work - you can just pull the boat out with it 3 or 4 feet "back" - and just crank it into position with one hand.
Besides, we are cruisers (as in a lot of "stuff" in the boat). Too much slides around doing the "bump"!

Chris

centerline · Jan 1, 2013

the so called "macgregor bump" is about the harshest way to get the boat where you want it on the trailer. it is hard on the trailer and everything in the boat. probably wont hurt the boat too much unless you have a catastrophic failure of the bow stop/winch pedestal.
you can add strips of starboard to the bunks over the carpet so it slides easier and then it will be far simpler to use the winch to pull it up....
BUT.... the simple modification of moving the bow stop roller to a position below the winch can help a lot also.
when I got my boat i found the boat only had about 25lbs of tongue weight when it was loaded on the trailer and against the bow stop, and then when the boat was off the stop after pulling it out of the water, it was almost perfectly balanced..... so I moved my axle back 13.5 inches (to the very end of the trailer frame) and this gave me about 200 lbs of tongue weight.... 250 when all my gear is loaded in the boat in its proper place.... and now when I pull the boat out of the water, if it hangs back a few inches, I dont worry about it. it rides fine like that. the boat sits very firmly in place on the carpeted bunks and it wont take corners any better against the bow stop, and the bow stop has no bearing on whether it slides off the back of the trailer..... the bow stop is mostly a reference point on where the boat rides best and to keep it off the winch in an extreme braking situation...
if I were to get into a panic braking situation it will move forward against the stop and thats fine, it wont hurt anything anymore then than if I did it in the parking lot... and if I should ever ass end something so hard the boat comes over or thru the stop, well then I will have all sorts of other, more severe problems to worry about..... but the trick is to secure the boat at the bow, and a safety strap across the middle to the rear of the trailer and then drive sensibly and safely.... and it doesnt have to be against the stop.

Sumner · Jan 1, 2013

I didn't like the 'bump' and also think if the bottom had barnacles it won't work anyway. Bill is right about the V being high to keep the boat from coming forward but also the geometry is wrong. I do his suggested mod with the chain if the V is low on the bow of the boat.

I wrote about why I think it happens in the first place (like the post above wrong geometry)....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-trailer/trailer-mods-17-a.html

... and...

... what I did to fix it here.....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor-trailer/trailer-mods-17.html

Sum

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Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

topcat0399 · Jan 1, 2013

I for one find I have to use the "bump" every time I load. Once I start up the steep rustic ramps around here I cannot stop half way - its all or nothing with my 2 wheel drive truck.

I'm not very concerned about damage - Its a slow roll and not that hard of a stop does the trick.

ymmv

happy sails

walt · Jan 1, 2013

Curious.. Where does the information come from on the lower stop being not safe in a crash? I cant really see that myself and the attached picture is of a Seadoo inboard jet boat that is just slightly lighter than the 26S and it actually has a lower bumper than either stinkbug or what Ive got and the boat has a lot more angle on the bow. The boat must be flying over the tow truck every time they come to stop..

What I have is close to stinkbug, no more mac bump hassle.

Sumner, your pull strap angle looks a little extreme, any issue from that? Did you ever get to try out on the water that moving bumper mod?

MrBill_FLL · Jan 1, 2013

Hi Walt, I think most of the members have straps for the winch, and they get UV damage. (I have an old t shirt covering mine, and slack when not towing.)

I think we all have a safety chain which doesn't have uv problems. (for the boat sliding back)

my suggestion was a 2nd safety chain down low to keep the boat on the V in a panic stop. -from going forward.

I'm sure there are youtube videos of panic stops and cars on trailers, or boats on trailers launching over the tow vehicle.

maybe the strap will hold... but I like a chain for that scenario.

.02

walt · Jan 1, 2013

Aha.. yes a safety chain would be a good idea.. I thought it has something to do with a lower stop

MrBill_FLL · Jan 1, 2013

http://forums.macgregor.sailboatown...attachmentid=59817&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1357039745

in this pic, the bow eye is above the v, so I'm not seeing what would stop it from launching on top of the tow vehicle. a chain couldn't hurt.

*now that I look at that pic again....
isn't the bow eye going to contact that V when it goes into/out of the water?

+ I wish I had a arc welder... and a metal chop saw. :cry:

centerline · Jan 1, 2013

MrBill_FLL said:
http://forums.macgregor.sailboatown...attachmentid=59817&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1357039745

in this pic, the bow eye is above the v, so I'm not seeing what would stop it from launching on top of the tow vehicle. a chain couldn't hurt.

*now that I look at that pic again....
isn't the bow eye going to contact that V when it goes into/out of the water?

+ I wish I had a arc welder... and a metal chop saw. :cry:

if you have the back of your boat tied down properly, as some states require, it wont/cant launch itself over the winch stanchion.
ive never seen a boat go over the winch, but ive seen more than a few that ended up nearly on their side on the trailer from hitting a bump while cornering hard.... because they didnt see the need for a rear strap.

Sumner · Jan 1, 2013

walt said:
...Sumner, your pull strap angle looks a little extreme, any issue from that? Did you ever get to try out on the water that moving bumper mod?

The strap is....

... the same place that it was before I made the V moveable (see above). So it is all the same except that now the V moves. I did rotated the winch body/mount 90 degrees so that instead of mounting on the bottom of the V support, like above, it mounts off the back of the ladder now.

When we bought the boat the winch was actually turned the other way around and the strap was pulling from the bottom of the winch. I didn't like that.

Unfortunately as you know we haven't been back on the water with the Mac. I don't see a problem though as the only thing that has changed is the V is now moveable.

Our old strap, that came with the boat/trailer, did break coming out of the water in Florida. I didn't think it looked that good when we drove down so I had a new strap with us. I put it on and pulled the boat out. Even with the new strap I think the chain, like Bill said, is a good idea and we use one,

Sum

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]============================[/FONT]

Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

walt · Jan 1, 2013

It looks like your boat sits higher on the trailer than mine maybe from the sub frame you put on. I guess that’s why the angle looks higher.

Chain.. good idea. Looking at this picture a little closer shows a chain plus the strap

centerline · Jan 1, 2013

Doc_holiday said:
Someone mentioned tongue weight. I knew I didnt have much once the boat was loaded but it was getting dark and we had a 2 hour ride home.

When we got home, i unhitched the boat from the van and parked it, then the admiral and I raced in to use the facilities while my son grabbed a ladder to give us easy access to unload the boat. I came out to find him in the cockpit and the tongue of the trailer pointing to the North Star and the stern sitting on the driveway. The boat and trailer were one because of my straps.

It took all if about 10 pounds of force to pull the tongue back to earth. I decided at that point to shore up the stern with a cradle device from my shed so we could unload the boat. I'm pretty sure this 8" of space between the v and the now was to blame.

I can see now why the high V on the stock trailer won't work right without cranking it as the boat is slowly pulled from the floating position. I am sure it has a lot to do with how steep your ramp is. Once the boat is in the trailer and on the flat, it ain't moving forward without a lot of work.

all you need to prevent it from tipping backwards is about a 6 inch block under the rear of the trailer... you dont need to block the back of the boat. before I moved my axle I would crank my tongue down a bit and put a block under the rear of the trailer and then crank the tongue back up to snug the block.... but since I moved the axle I dont have any problem with it. we can both be in the cockpit working and no worries of it overhauling and tipping backwards....

So about the MacGregor bump....

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