Advice for a new boat owner?

jkust

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Messages
4,942
Can I convert my trailer to rollers?

You can do a sort of quasi conversion with converting just the bunks to rollers but true roller trailers are a different animal with lots and lots of additional rollers. Don't worry, if you only go to one or two boat landing's you will be just fine. Prior to owning a lake house, we'd trailer to lots and lots of lakes and in MN many of the ramps are a joke and the roller trailer takes the worst ramp conditions (steep, shallow, narrow, windy, unmaintained, slippery, descheveled, etc) and makes it seem as though you are on the best ramp it is so vastly superior to my bunk trailers. Most trailers are bunk trailer because of course a roller trailer is more money when you are buying your package when new and people just deal with it and are fine. I can't tell you how many times the bunk trailer folks struggle to launch or retrieve, would see me launch and then comment about it. One of my bunk trailers is quasi converted and it is marginally better.
 

madmathew

Cadet
Joined
Jun 9, 2015
Messages
13
I guess as long as my wife and kids enjoy boating then I can make sure whatever boat we move up has a roller trailer.
 

444

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
704
For launch:
-Before your turn to pull up to the ramp, put all your stuff in the boat, put in the drain plug, put all your stuff in the boat, key in the ignition and remove your rear tie down ratchet straps.
-Back in far enough so the boat just starts to float. Get out of the boat, uncoil your winch a couple feet and unhook. Tie boat to dock, if inboard, turn on vent blower, pull truck away and park. Come back, get in boat, prime engine and start, warm up and take off. Don't hog space at the dock and don't drag your ass while at the dock if you can see there's other people waiting.
For retrieval:
Put your trailer in far enough so you can tie up the front of the boat, winch it all the way in and pull off the ramp. IMO you should not be dragging your boat across your trailer bunks with the winch, nor should you be power loading by gunning the engine to force your boat across the bunks. If you load/unload properly, a bunk trailer is very quick at loading/unloading.
 
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