My trailer bunks are low enough that the keel sits mostly in the keel slot, and the eye-bolt is inaccessible; with the boat on the bunks, I can lower the keel enough to put the weight on the trailer, but not enough to get to the eye bolt and clevis pin. Or - more likely - I'm not smart enough to figure out how, and just overthought the whole thing
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I have the same condition on the trailer, another method is to float the boat and put on your dive gear!My trailer bunks are low enough that the keel sits mostly in the keel slot, and the eye-bolt is inaccessible; with the boat on the bunks, I can lower the keel enough to put the weight on the trailer, but not enough to get to the eye bolt and clevis pin. Or - more likely - I'm not smart enough to figure out how, and just overthought the whole thing
If your boat sits just a bit higher (or your keel rest is a bit lower), you can probably do it without lifting anything.
@Gene Neill: So, were you able to change your cable right on your trailer? Curious minds want to know.
I left the winch cover off when I rebuilt the boat. I did not like not being able to easily inspect something that mission criticalYes, but I had to support the transom and jack up the trailer tongue. I already had sawhorses and a cradle-thingy built, so it took me all of an extra ten minutes or so.
THEN I pulled the winch's access panel off, and got a good look at my winch for the first time in a couple years.
New winch is on order.
I wasn't as purposeful about it; I pulled my panel off a few years ago, and it just never made it back on. We use the space for a little trash can and water-bottle storage. It's ugly, but that's not the only ugly bit of our boat (or the skipper for that matter).