I've been away from the forum for a while, but keeping busy with my Pocket Cruiser, which is just about ready to hit the water. My last major step is to buy a trailer. I'm getting a small Shoreland'r trailer from a local marine center. The salesman (who is more familiar with power boats than sailboats) recommends that I move the axle forward to lower the tongue weight. He says most trailers are built for power boats, which are heavier in the back end than sailboats (especially since I don't plan to mount an outboard motor).
Of course, I can check the weight after I buy the trailer and load the boat, but he's offering to move the axle forward before I take the trailer home. Holes need to be drilled in the frame to move the axle; it's not a simple job.
Any thoughts?
By the way, photos and essays are on my blog:
http://buildaboat.wordpress.com/
Paul
Others may have different views, but because these boats are so light overall, I would think that excessive tongue weight would not be an issue. Too much tongue weight is bad because it lessens the weight on the tow vehicle's front wheels, thus reducing traction/control. But too little causes the trailer to sway. Maybe a "middle ground" position would be to ask the dealer if you could bring it back for the modification later if it proves to be necessary. Until you actually have the boat on the trailer, it would be difficult to determine what the ideal axle position would be. Â
Moving the axle is easy, even if you have to drill some holes. The frame is mild steel and really easy to drill with a sharp bit.
The salesman is right about trailers being setup for powerboats, which is understandable, since it's over 90% of the pleasure boating market.
Don't move the axle too far forward, as Kurt mentioned, these boats are light and you need tongue weight just so they trail properly. I always use the grunt method. I lift the tongue and if I have to grunt, it's about right. You want 70 to 100 pounds on the tongue. This keeps the hitch "engaged" and the boat isn't hobby horsing up and down on the ball, while you're driving along. If it is, this herky jerky motion will wreck havoc on the hitch, the ball and the boat, bashing the bunks and keel supports into the boat with each yawing motion. So, enough tongue weight to keep the hitch securely planted on the ball.
The biggest mistake I see novices make is too big of springs. You should try to match the trailer load with the spring rates. Heavy springs will not let the boat "float" over bumps, they'll act like concrete arms, transmitting the road shocks to the boat. You want the boat to "float" on the trailer and the springs to absorb road bumps. Measure the distance between the top of the axle and the bump stop or frame, where it would bottom out if way over loaded. When the boat is on the trailer this distance should be half what it was without the boat on it. Most put the boat on the trailer and the springs hardly budge, which just means the boat is ridding on bricks, not springs. If the springs are multi leaf and you're too stiff, remove a leaf on each one. They're usually just clamped together and this is easy to do too, though you never know what you're going to get until it's all assembled again.
To move the axle, with the boat on it, just loosen or unbolt the spring carrier, which is usually two angle or "U" channel brackets that the spring perches are welded to. Measure from the leading edge of these spring carriers and make a mark on the frame, say 4". Using a come-a-long, attached forward on the trailer, like a cross brace or a hole in the tongue and looped around the middle of the axle, crank it up to the marks. The wheels will roll and it takes very little pulling tension to move the spring carrier. You don't have to bolt it down, now check the tongue weight. One grunt is good (two if you're a little guy). Or you can use a bathroom scale and be precise about it, which is way more anal then I need. If you need more weight, move the axle back, less weight move it forward.
A good used trailer can be had for a few hundred bucks. You'll probably have to put new lights on it, as these seem to die a quick, usually broken, rusted death, but this is easy and cheap. A new trailer rated in the 800 pound range will be about $500 to $1,000, depending on hows it made, how cheap the hardware is, how it's equipped and how bad the salesman needs the sale. I buy used trailers all the time and refuse to pay more then a few hundred on a light weight single axle. Wheel bearings and spindle replacement is often beyond the novice builder, but again these aren't hard to replace and a $2,500 aluminum 35', tandem axle, like the one on my Chris Craft can be had for 900 bucks, if it needs work. My aluminum tandem needed everything, brakes, bearings, rewiring and lights and a new winch tower (the Chris has over 5' of freeboard at the bow). I fixed and built all these things in a single weekend for a few hundred bucks. I could have immediately sold it for a $1,500 profit, but I needed it for the Chris.
If you plan on towing a lot and these aren't short hops, then set the trailer up right. If you live a few miles from the ramp, like me, then it's not so important, because the boat will not be on the trailer long enough to worry much.
You don't need brakes. Unless you live in the Rockies and plan on traveling up and down canyons, these boats are so light that a Smart car can tow them, without brakes.
Not a Smart Car - but a Toyota Echo ...
Thank you Andrew. If you have good quads, you could hook a trailered Weekender up to a mountain bike and peddle her to the ramp . . .
(05-12-2011, 09:57 AM)Paul Riccelli PE,NA link Wrote: [ -> ]If you have good quads, you could hook a trailered Weekender up to a mountain bike and peddle her to the ramp . . .
I am only dreaming of my Weekender at this point (or maybe a Super Skipjack), so the idea of trailers is very far in the future. But since I don't own a car, nor want one, I had actually assumed that I could install some sort of wheels, and simply walk her to the sea. It is only a few km (or a few miles), should be doable in a day... But all that is in the far end of the day dream, there are a few hundred details to be sorted out before I can even begin making sawdust. Maybe in 2016.
(05-12-2011, 10:24 AM)Heikki Levanto link Wrote: [ -> ]... But since I don't own a car, nor want one, I had actually assumed that I could install some sort of wheels, and simply walk her to the sea. It is only a few km (or a few miles), should be doable in a day...Â
First you should know if you can let her in the water or in a dry parking. The first case causes more maintenance costs, the second more troubles to launch.
In the second case, you should know if the crane in the marina is free or if you have to pay everytime you need it. In this last case it is better to have a good launching dolly (as I built) and use a ramp to get in/out water (as I do by myself everytime). Just only in this last case you could try to pull her on the launching dolly for few km, but not alone.
In all the other cases I advice you to find/rent/borrow a lorry, to put your boat on the deck lifting her with at least 2 or 3 friends and then reach the sea, where a crane can shift her from the lorry deck to the water.
Gianluigi
(05-12-2011, 11:40 AM)Gianluigi_Iafrate link Wrote: [ -> ]First you should know if you can let her in the water or in a dry parking. The first case causes more maintenance costs, the second more troubles to launch.
In the second case, you should know if the crane in the marina is free or if you have to pay everytime you need it. In this last case it is better to have a good launching dolly (as I built) and use a ramp to get in/out water (as I do by myself everytime). Just only in this last case you could try to pull her on the launching dolly for few km, but not alone.
In all the other cases I advice you to find/rent/borrow a lorry, to put your boat on the deck lifting her with at least 2 or 3 friends and then reach the sea, where a crane can shift her from the lorry deck to the water.
My dream is to be able to keep her in the water for most of the season, so that on any sunny day I can go straight from the office to the marina and sail a bit before going home. Ideally I could go and have my lunch on sea, but I don't think that is realistic.
I certainly plan to use a ramp, cranes take way too much organizing, even if they would be free, which they are not likely to be.
But, as I have said before, all this is empty speculation. I worry about such details when or if I have a boat to launch. Many things can change before I get so far...
Heikki, These boats are not designed fora mooring or a berth. They don't have self draining cockpits (a very important consideration) and their construction isn't well suited for extended life afloat, unless you have considerable boat building experience and are willing to make substantial changes to it's construction.. These are trailer sailors. Using a crane or travel lift is a ridiculous option considering how easy they can be launched with a small car, at a boat ramp.
Look for a club (not just a marina) that has a number of dinghy/trailer sailors in it. I know that there are a number around here - and they seem to be everywhere. One of them has an old lawn tractor that they put a hitch on that they use to launch with.
The fees usually aren't too bad and the clubs I am familiar with have a secure lot for storing the boats plus a club-house to change in and hang out at. Most of them also expect you to help with the maintenance of the club and such - which can be a nice way to meet people.
Theoretically I could launch and retrieve my Weekender without a vehicle. I put a large trailer dolly wheel on the tongue and have a second winch that I attach to the car to put the trailor farther in the water than I want to put my car and to bring it back out again. The unit moves around hard ground easily on it's own.