loading boat on to trailer issues!

[Debt-icated]

My wife and I are experiencing some issues while trying to load our 240 DA on to it's trailer from the water. (EZ loader Bunk Trailer) We have only loaded the boat onto the trailer twice, and both times have been terrible. I can not seem to get the boat to get centered on the trailer. I have previously owned a 220 SD and never had this type of problem. Are these boats just hard to get centered or am I just not doing something right. I thought I had the trailer in to far deep the first time we loaded it, but this weekend while loading i know the trailer was not to deep. Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[GJarrett]

I've got a 230DA and you are not alone. When I first got it, it always took several tries to get it centered on the trailer. These boats are very topheavy - think of how high your cockpit sits above your relatively narrow beam for that height and how far above the waterline that 240 floats while hovering to and fro above the trailer. I've trailered a lot of boats in my life but have never had anywhere near as much trailer-centering problems with any of them as I've had with our high center of gravity 230DA.

We've gotten pretty good at trailering it now but it is a matter of experience and figuring out exactly how far to back down the ramp and splash the trailer, what the current/wind conditions are, etc. Trust me you'll get better but the first summer you'll have a time with it and be embarrassed while you spend time on the ramp with people watching and waiting for you to finish. Sometimes I'd spend more than one time loading it up, driving a few feet up out of the water to see where it was resting on the trailer and seeing it was offcenter, then lowering it back down to reset it, then doing the whole thing all over again.

You'll get all kinds of offers of help at the ramp to get you out of there, mostly from boat owners with bassboats or bowriders that have absolutely no clue that what they think works has anything at all to do with what will work on your boat that is a heckuva lot bigger and heavier than anything they've ever piloted onto a trailer. As one single example of many I've had to resist in the face of overly-helpful bassboaters, I would strongly resist the urge to follow advice to "powerload" your 3 1/2 ton 240DA up onto your trailer that it is not quite lowered down far enough into the water.

Remember.... it is YOUR boat and you spent more on it than the helpful dude waiting to see you clear the ramp makes in three years. You'll get better at it but it will be a learning curve and during that learning curve you'll need to have thick skin if the ramp is crowded - keep things in perspective. Or go find empty ramps, LOL. That's not too much of a joke and I'm semi-serious; our first year with the 230DA I actually took the trouble to find a ramp that usually wasn't very busy our first year so I wouldn't be under time pressure while loading and unloading it from the trailer. The good news is that the learning curve won't take that long and in no time you'll start surprizing yourself when you pull the boat up out of the water and see "hey it's centered!" :smt001

 

[GJarrett]

I just realized that I posted without suggesting any kind of "magic bullet" solution. That's because I haven't learned one, and we've had our 230DA for two years now. If anyone has learned a neat shortcut or trick I'm all ears to learn it too. :smt001

 

[boatrboy]

My trailer has side poles which I have set to allow 6 inches clearance at the stern. This helps a lot with the line up. I too always walk my boat onto the trailer and once the bow is connected, you could slide the stern to center it to the poles. Works well for me.

Mark

 

[Sundancer]

If it's not centering and it's a well adjusted trailer, then you are probably backing the trailer in too far. I usually back the trailer all the way in to wet the bunks and then pull it back out until the front 2 - 4 feet of the bunks are OUT of the water. I only have to winch it the last 4 feet or so the way the bow slips in and that cranking assures the boat centers itself on the bunks. We had some issues for a while, but it was due to the bunks being out of adjustment. The trailer was 19 years old, so we took it back to EZ Loader and they rebuilt it and it's in GREAT shape again. We trailer every weekend and have done so since we got our first boat around 1985 or so. It's a matter of judging the ramp angle and how much bunk you think you'll need to center it. After a while, you will get the hang of it.

 

[GJarrett]

It's a matter of judging the ramp angle and how much bunk you think you'll need to center it. After a while, you will get the hang of it.

That's what we've learned and what I was referring to as our "learning curve". I've learned about how far to splash the trailer depending on the angle of the ramp but it took me awhile to hone that judgement at different ramp angles until I had some experience on those different ramps. I've also got the PVC centering poles on both sides of the stern about 6" out and they are a great help to eyeball if you're set about right as you are pulling up out of the water.

 

[chuck1]

Even after years of trailering. I still have problems sometimes with our 240SD. We have some real steep ramps up here in the Mountains and when the lake is down the stern will be floating. Real fun when you are doing it single handed :smt021

 

[Nehalennia II]

............ but this weekend while loading i know the trailer was not to deep. Any suggestions?
Thanks

what was it that told you that you know you're not too deep?
By looking at your picture if you keep the top of your trailer fenders 2-3" above the water you should be able to power on your trailer all the way to the hook, no cranking, no fuss no muss. I have a roller trailer and before that a bunk, same boat. With the bunk it sits a little lower but less trailer in the water, with the Roller I need to typically (depending on the angle of the ramp - More angle= less trailer in the water) get the tops of the fenders wet. This will allow the bunks or roller to guide it where it needs to go.....ALIGNED.

Best of luck. Try a few times when you're not eager to get anywhere. Like January :huh: