Adjusting Trailer Bunks to Avoid Thru-Hulls

Thanks for posting those pics Donnie!

You know I was watching the forklift operate the other day and it occured to me the same issue must be faced with having a boat forked up out of the water.

I have never seen a fork operator pay a whole lot of attention to exactly where they lift so I am sure these thru-hulls get lifted on all the time by forks. This could be potentially be more of a problem because many of the forks I have seen have a hard rubber cover on them which would offer virtually no flex whatsoever like a trailer bunk would.
No problem! We are working on installing a second set of bunks in place of the forward keel roller as I type this. It looks like when the trailer is at a steep angle, the boat should hit the new bunks earlier than the keel roller and lift the bow. We will find out tomorrow:smt038
 
Donnie's bunks on his trailer are in the same place my bunks are located on my trailer and boat lift. Just outside of those "strakes".

I'll be interested to see if the second set of bunks takes care of it for you. Please post pics of what you come up with if it works!

Tom
 
Success:smt038:smt038:smt038:smt038 I'll get some more pics but this is all I have time for right now! I just went to the boat ramp. I unwound about 8 foot of strap. I Backed down and let her come off the trailer on her own. The flat part of the anchor just grazed the roller but I was in real deep...the fenders were several inches below water:wow: I then pulled truck up with boat still connected to winch until front side of fender was out of water about 3". I started boat and drove her up. As the anchor went over the roller, it had more than 6" of clearance:smt038:smt038 Very happy! I installed the bow roller back in place just for more support.
6b3b48d1.jpg

b72de100.jpg

9edb9815.jpg
 
Great to hear! So it looks like you basically added another set of smaller bunks from the crossmember where your current bunks ended up the crossmember where your roller attached, right?

If/when you get a chance, a pic of the trailer without the boat on it would be great to see better detail. I may do this mod myself at some point this year.

Tom
 
Great to hear! So it looks like you basically added another set of smaller bunks from the crossmember where your current bunks ended up the crossmember where your roller attached, right?

If/when you get a chance, a pic of the trailer without the boat on it would be great to see better detail. I may do this mod myself at some point this year.

Tom

That's exactly what we did!
 
i would love to seea pic of the winch post connectrd with the boat on the trauiler.
mike

Are you talking about mine? I will try to pull it out sometime this week. I need to bring it to the shop and clean it up. I will take some pics of the trailer without the boat. The front bunks are awesome as our water level is very low here in Central Florida and I can load her without the fight! I'm sure there are some improvements that can be made to what we did, but I'm pretty happy with where we wound up!
 
Donnie, My trailer also has the same forward bunks, it's a NEXTRAIL made in Ocala.
 
Thanks for posting the pics! MM

Yes, thanks for the pics! I'm going to work on setting up this modification this week while the boat is on the trailer for a few days... I'm tired of fighting to get the anchor chute around the winch stand.
 
Yes, thanks for the pics! I'm going to work on setting up this modification this week while the boat is on the trailer for a few days... I'm tired of fighting to get the anchor chute around the winch stand.

Gunn, I'm posing pic's of my newly installed keel bunks next week. I was advised by the trailer folks at "The Hub" in FL to put in a 10 foot bunk that extends from my current keel support to the middle of the main bunks to provide as much lift as early as possible. It worked perfect in my first off-load and i am excited to load to see if that solved my issue detailed in the thread link below. MM


http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/45490-Anchor-hits-bow-roller-and-winch.?highlight=anchor
 
Gunn, I'm posing pic's of my newly installed keel bunks next week. I was advised by the trailer folks at "The Hub" in FL to put in a 10 foot bunk that extends from my current keel support to the middle of the main bunks to provide as much lift as early as possible. It worked perfect in my first off-load and i am excited to load to see if that solved my issue detailed in the thread link below. MM


http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/45490-Anchor-hits-bow-roller-and-winch.?highlight=anchor

I think I heard that somewhere before...lol! I'm not sure there is a " one size fits all". We tried several combinations and with my keel and bottom design compared to the trailer crossembers I didn't need to go back that far. If my keel would hit that far back that would mean the ramp would be flat enough for me to load without the bunks.

I think if you came off good you will go on even better! Congrats!
 
I think I heard that somewhere before...lol! I'm not sure there is a " one size fits all". We tried several combinations and with my keel and bottom design compared to the trailer crossembers I didn't need to go back that far. If my keel would hit that far back that would mean the ramp would be flat enough for me to load without the bunks.

I think if you came off good you will go on even better! Congrats!

Donnie, Thanks for posting your pics they were a great help! I actually had the guy I was working with come to this site to see my pics. Do you know of them (The Hub), they are both a Contental and Majic Tilt dealer that do mail order. i got my load guides from them, they were a Contental part. Thanks again. MM
 
Donnie, Thanks for posting your pics they were a great help! I actually had the guy I was working with come to this site to see my pics. Do you know of them (The Hub), they are both a Contental and Majic Tilt dealer that do mail order. i got my load guides from them, they were a Contental part. Thanks again. MM

No, I havn't heard of them. I will check them out. We have a ton of trailer suppliers around here. I use B&G trailers in Deland. 10 minutes from my house. Being in the RV biz (as i keep saying..lol) I have access and accunts all over! When I was trying to resolve my issue, no one offered the solution. I have been seeing more and more center consoles with front bunks so we actually made a card board cut out and then tried it and changed it up til it worked!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,946
Messages
1,422,760
Members
60,929
Latest member
Henchman
Back
Top