Winch to eye relationship
- Thread starter dscribner
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is your towing eye at the other end of tha winch strap if so it looks ok to me...if it is too high it will work against you in loading your boat on the treailer...i am assuming it is where i ask ...if so it should be fine....the only other thing you may want to do is raise the mast shoe above the eye and then run your strap below the trailer mast shoe....
regards
woody
regards
woody
I think that if you're not experiencing any problems loading and unloading your boat from the trailer, you're best to leave it alone. My winch stanchion can give me problems at times when I go to take my boat off the trailer. I have a bow anchor roller on my boat and I always need to remove my anchor from the roller first, or it will get caught on the stanchion roller.
With that said, my strap coming off my winch is even with my bow eye, but my trailer is a flat bunk trailer, not a roller trailer.
Usually the bow eye is quite a way above the water line. From the picture you have posted I would say that the winch is very low. It looks like you have a yellow strap going up to the bow eye. If that is the case then it is absolutly too low. The winch should be about 1 to 2 inches above the eye. Additionally the type of assembly that the winch strap feeds through makes a difference. Do you have a double (2) rubber V blocks that the winch cable feeds through? A good picture of the trailer and boat together would help alot. Close up.
If you could tell me where the bow eye is in relation to the area between your water line and the paint stripe just below the deck edge rail, that will help alot. Also a bow roller would be a good addition to support the bow and to take pressure off the front rollers on the main support assembly.
I will be leaving tomorrow until thursday night but with the requested info others might be able to help before I return. I have built and modified trailers for sailboats and feel comfortable with what I'm passing on to you. I keep my 23 foot boat on a trailer and launch and retrieve everytime I sail as do all my friends. We sail 3 to 5 times a week and because of the way we have set-up our trailers you don't get wet either way.
If you don't launch the boat everytime you sail or don't haul very far then you can get away with errors in the trailer system. If you sail as we do then fix the trailer right. All these repairs are really not costly and you can do alot yourself.
Good luck, Ray
If you could tell me where the bow eye is in relation to the area between your water line and the paint stripe just below the deck edge rail, that will help alot. Also a bow roller would be a good addition to support the bow and to take pressure off the front rollers on the main support assembly.
I will be leaving tomorrow until thursday night but with the requested info others might be able to help before I return. I have built and modified trailers for sailboats and feel comfortable with what I'm passing on to you. I keep my 23 foot boat on a trailer and launch and retrieve everytime I sail as do all my friends. We sail 3 to 5 times a week and because of the way we have set-up our trailers you don't get wet either way.
If you don't launch the boat everytime you sail or don't haul very far then you can get away with errors in the trailer system. If you sail as we do then fix the trailer right. All these repairs are really not costly and you can do alot yourself.
Good luck, Ray
Hiee,
I'm not sure if I was seening the eye or not, but thinking that I did as there is a slight bright spec in the photo and appears to be about where I would expect the eye to be. That being said then the winch is way to low and your probably fighting yourself on loading it each and every launch. I'd hesitate a guess that you should raise it from 12 to 14''.
Brina
Never before seen a bow-eye bellow the waterline. I'm sure you may be well aware that sailboats are floated unto their trailers and not winched on, but nevertheless bow-eyes are prone to stresses which may cause water sealing problems. It seems that the trailer may have been modified to accept the boat but the winch pedestal was not replaced with a taller one.
Second that. I have never seen a bow eye that low either and think that it should deffinately be moved up. I'd go for someplace between the bootstripe and the top of deck at the bow. That of course would mean modifing the winch tower to add height to it.
Brina
The bow eye is the factory one but it is not near the water at all. The bottom paint is actually at the top of the factory boot stripe. The new boot stripe is even higher, PO. The question is, how high should the winch barrel be above the bow eye? A couple of nuts loosened and I can raise it. The trailer was modified to accept the boat . . . by me, which is why the winch is too low. And I do winch it on, some anyway. The rollers allow that. Also, I built a roller bed for the keel so the only non-moving item the beat touches are the carpeted keel guide. The boat floats until the last two feet.
can you thread the winch strap between the bottom and top rolers on the winch mast...if so set the rollers so that the top roller is above the bow eye and the bottom roller is below the bow eye....
regards
woody
It looked good to me in the first place,other than the apparent bow eye water line issue that you cleared up. I think you've made a better refinement by bringing the winch strap over the top of the barrel. Can you now, with still water,float the bow to the top v roller and clip in the strap without cranking?
I can't float her completely on. I still have to crank the last two feet maybe. When we launch, I have my wife back until the truck tires are in up to the wheels. It takes a big push to get her off the trailer, then some cranking to get her back on. We're used to it though.
winch height
The winch strap should be level with the bow eye or slightly above when the boat is in it’s final resting place on the trailer.
Think of the trailer on the angled launch ramp and the boat is floating level on the water above it, the stern is not touching the rear set of trailer rollers. That last two feet you’re winching the boat forward may look like you’re lifting the bow, but you’re pulling it down and lifting the stern further away from the rear rollers. When you pull the trailer up the ramp the stern settles down on the rear rollers thus adding additional pressure on the front rollers and bow eye. This is when the bow will actually lift away from the bow chock when pulled out of the water, when this happens owners talk about a second winch or come-a-long, soaping the bunks or slamming the brakes on in the parking lot to slide the boat forward.
If the winch is level or slightly above the eye you’ll be lifting the bow up and sinking the stern and starting to mirror the trailer on the angled launch ramp.
Winching the boat onto the trailer with rollers is fine, a trailer with bunks winching creates way too much stress on the bow eye because of the friction the bunks make, that is why boats have to be floated on to bunk type trailers.
The winch strap should be level with the bow eye or slightly above when the boat is in it’s final resting place on the trailer.
Think of the trailer on the angled launch ramp and the boat is floating level on the water above it, the stern is not touching the rear set of trailer rollers. That last two feet you’re winching the boat forward may look like you’re lifting the bow, but you’re pulling it down and lifting the stern further away from the rear rollers. When you pull the trailer up the ramp the stern settles down on the rear rollers thus adding additional pressure on the front rollers and bow eye. This is when the bow will actually lift away from the bow chock when pulled out of the water, when this happens owners talk about a second winch or come-a-long, soaping the bunks or slamming the brakes on in the parking lot to slide the boat forward.
If the winch is level or slightly above the eye you’ll be lifting the bow up and sinking the stern and starting to mirror the trailer on the angled launch ramp.
Winching the boat onto the trailer with rollers is fine, a trailer with bunks winching creates way too much stress on the bow eye because of the friction the bunks make, that is why boats have to be floated on to bunk type trailers.
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