Boat support with rollers and bunks

[Joshuabschmidt]

I have a 1980s backtroller sitting on a shore lander roller trailer. To me it seems like boat is not supported enough. Was thinking of adding some small bunks at the cross bar by 1st keel roller. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[JimS123]

A high quality "all roller" trailer will be designed so each roller carries no more than about 125 pounds per roller. I've seen some cheepie trailers that have too few rollers and each one carries as much as 175 pounds. Those are the ones that you see roller damage on the hull.

If you have full keel rollers as well, then the pounds per roller calculation isn't as significant, since the keel rollers take the primary load. (The keel is the strongest part of the hull.)

Check your hull for dents. If there aren't any under the rollers, don't worry. If there are, add more rollers, or lower the roller bunks to put more weight on the keel.

Ideally, you should be able to wiggle all rollers (except keel) by hand.

 

[racerone]

If you operate on bumpy roads those rollers will be trying the push into the boat.----Bunks or more rollers are best.

 

[Joshuabschmidt]

I only have two keel rollers. 1st one starting about the middle of boat which appears to have good amount of weight on it. The next one further up the boat appears to have some but not much weight. I can wiggle the rollers. The wobble rollers are straddling the strakes but pretty close to the edge of the outside and inside strake where riveted to haul. I can space them out more. Would that be beneficial? Would probably make loading boat easier as there would be more clearance. Outside roller would then be real close to outer edge of hull. Seems like that may also distribute weight better?

 

[JimS123]

The boat is almost 40 years old. Is the trailer original? If so, is the hull dent-free? Does it launch and load OK? If the answers are yes, maybe best to leave well enough alone.