My Craigslist A25

[ednlorna]

dkirsop, I originally requested the metal fabricator weld the roller supports to horizontally adjustable u-bolt brackets, but he decided to weld directly to the pivoting beams. For strength he said.

I don't doubt a direct weld is stronger, but it is what it is. He left me few options at that point! Insist on what I originally ask for and continue to pay the marina while I waited, or go with what I got.

The vertically adjustable nested roller supports are welded in place. They will work if I can shorten them by 8 inches and drop the keel down to where the keel is resting on the three keel rollers.

I believe if I can use jack stands to raise the hull a foot and a half to where the steel inner section of the nested adjustable roller shaft assembly can be removed from the outer section, then both can be shortened to make the total height the proper length. I can use a cutting wheel to shorten them.

Right now, the minimum height is 15 inches, this needs to be reduced by 8 to 12 inches.

Also, if you look at the placement of the roller assemblies, there is not much room to work with as far as moving them outward.

[ednlorna]

Willie C, I need to scrape that hull, but I thought I'd install a bow eye first.

[DesertAlbin736]

Now THAT'S a bottom worth scraping! Let the fun begin!

DSCN3614 (1280x960).jpg

UGH! Been there, done that! It's a rite of passage ya know, and no fair hiring someone else to do the work.

Don't worry, clicking on those sideways pictures turns them right side up.

Yeah, don't mount your rollers on the axles, those axles bounce up & down with the springs.

Looks like what you need to do is get rollers that bolt onto the cross members with adjustable uprights like this:

Roller.jpg

Then cut down those posts that the rollers are mounted on & meet somewhere in the middle. You just have to take into account the drop at the aft end of the keel & keep it high enough off the ground that you don't bottom out in dips. Have the rear most cross member Vee'd like kdirsop's if you have to.


One thing we lucked out on (& paid a premium for) was the well designed trailer our boat came on. Next year it'll be 20 years old & since it's aluminum not a spot of rust on it.

[dkirsop]

Recognizing that your fabricator did you no favours, I encourage you to take a long hard look at relocating the keel rollers to the main frame cross members. Right now they are directly connected to the axles and if left there they will hammer the bottom of the boat every time the trailer goes over a bump. Also, this will be compounded by the fact that the rest of the boat is supported by the trailer frame which is in turn supported by the suspension system. The corresponding action from above will be for the boat to "bottom out on the keel rollers" which in effect will double the force of impact.

Looking at your photos I think there is a chance that you can move the keel rollers to the frame members and avoid the above situation. You will still be able to lower the boat as per your plan. The boat might sit an inch or two higher than you are planning but it will be better than having the keel constantly hammering the hull every time you tow it. Your rig is similar to mine but my cross members have a dip where the keel rollers are. If you want I can send you photos of my boat and how clearances and positions line up.

[DesertAlbin736]

If at all possible I would consider trying to have things set up something like this or as close as possible to this design as you can find and afford, especially if it's going to be used for over the road travel & more than just a yard trailer. Our suspension system is torsion bars with swing arms, not leaf springs, but even so nothing else attaches to the axles. Note in the middle photo where the last cross member is and the open section between it and the back end of the trailer. In the top photo the bunks were lowered to allow sliding the trailer out. Once the trailer was back under the boat & keel resting on the rollers (and kept from tipping by the the gantry crane) it was leveled up by using a floor jack to raise each bunk board support post & secured with galvanized 3/8th-16 set screw bolts, allowing the bunk boards to follow the contour of the hull as shown in the bottom photo as it normally sits.

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The first, second, & third box channel cross members are straight across, the rest are shallow vee's. Each cross member except for the very first one in the front have pairs of rollers on rocker arms. Bunks vs hull rollers are a matter of preference, but here you see the hull is supported from the transom all the way to about a foot ahead of the windshield. By the way, this trailer was built in Florida by Performance Trailers in 1999, but that company was family owned & folded when the proprietor retired & liquidated it. The previous owner who commissioned this trailer from the factory in Florida then transported the boat on it all the way to Ontario province, Canada. From the stickers on the trailer it was sold by Tropic Trailers, which is still around, so if you're not satisfied with the trailer & the setup you have now maybe you should give those guys a call. They have two locations, one in Fort Myers, the other in Marianna up in the panhandle.

http://www.tropictrailer.com/

[kerrye]

Yes, rollers should not be on the axles. I'd buy a couple of new adjustable height rollers and mount them to the trailer frames. I put two on mine. A pretty easy job. It wouldn't be impossible for you to get the boat off the trailer with blocks, cut down the roller posts and put the trailer back under it. But I think you could also block up the boat using piles of 8x8's at the keel and some jackstands and cut off the roller posts to the right size without removing the trailer. Or just the jack up the boat far enough to relief the weight on the roller posts one set at a time and then put the boat back down to work on the other set of roller posts.
A bow eye is important for getting it on a trailer. Mine had one installed by the PO which was just backed with some washers (actually a thin flat plate between the U bolt) which was totally inadequate. I put a few pieces of Ipe about 10' long together and cut them into a V so the fit up in the bow then put a long U-bolt bow eye through the hull and Ipe making the whole affair much stronger.

[kerrye]

Another thought: Roller assemblies are not typically mounted on posts welded to the frame. They are u-bolted around the frame members. If you cut those posts just above the weld, you could then u-bolt them around the frames at the right height. This would mean you would not have to raise the boat high enough to remove the inset out of the post.

[kerrye]

Desert has a really good point about bottoming out in dips. It is a very serious concern of mine because it will be the rudder that hits and all hell will break loose. I think I'd consider keeping the stern at the existing height or at least very close and raising a keel roller to hold the keel at that position and then drop the front set of rollers down. It will put the boat in a nose down orientation but it will make trailering on uneven ground safer. When I mentioned that the PO of my boat had to do a lot of adjusting to get his new trailer to fit, he modified it from the initial build which had the boat in a nose down orientation to his modified position which holds it level. This was a mistake in my view. It put the rudder much too close to the ground. If you look at shaft drive trailerable ski boats which have a prop where we have our rudder, they will often run a bar back from the trailer and under the prop to protect the prop from dragging thru a dip.

[WillieC]

I have a donut anode on my rudder skeg. That is the low point. Ask me how I know. It takes quite a licking and keeps on ticking. And the skeg didn't even bend!

Of course the angle of the dangle could put the aft end of the rudder in a precarious position. Even coming out of the Safeway parking lot to the road was too much of an angle. But my sacrificial anode sacrifices in more than the dielectrical intent. Makes a hell of a racket, though. Hmm... I should push the rudder to full stop when trailering just for that extra 1/4" of clearance... or find another store.

Our trailer is set up about as low as you can get it. Fairly level, but the bunks (not rollers) cradle the hull nicely. There are two on each side. Because of the roundness of the hull, I need a fairly steep ramp to launch, in order to slip the hull over the aft rise of the bunks. Fortunately our private ramp fits the bill, just needs a high tide.

Here are some more pics for yet another way to do things.

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[kerrye]

Here you can see a picture of mine prior to purchase. It has a block of wood under the keel at the back crosspiece of the trailer frame. I put a roller in place of the wood and another roller at the next forward trailer cross brace.

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[kerrye]

You can see how high the stern was in this original configuration of the bunks when the PO first got his new trailer

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[kerrye]

This shows my front V bunk

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[ednlorna]

Wow, great advice, guys!

DesertAlbin736 and dkirsop, I never thought about not mounting the keel rollers to the axle! I suppose I was lucky in my 40 mph night flight from the marina pirates!

That tip alone has prevented much grief, thanks!!! DA, I will bookmark Tropic Trailer for future reference. Right now. I'm going to try and make what I have work.

As far as making at home trailer repairs, I was looking at purchasing some type of home sling, such as:

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/u ... pid=336156

but all you guys that advise about bottle jacks, blocks and boat jack stands, thank you! That definitely seems much more reasonable. I'm pretty sure I can handle installing some U-bolt mounted trailer cross beams myself for the rollers.

kerrye, I see what you are suggesting about a nose-down orientation. WillieC thanks for the tip on the donut zinc on the rudder skeg. The skeg is currently detached from the rudder on my Albin.

How high off the ground do you guys reckon the donut zinc on the skeg should be when properly fitted to the trailer?

Best Regards,

Ed

[ednlorna]

Here is a shot of the current skeg/rudder position on my trailer:

[ednlorna]

kerrye, I like your suggesting about cutting the roller bunk supports and remounting with U-bolts.

Do you suppose I could use an a cutting wheel? I have no experience using a cutting torch or welding.