Bunk material and paint

[Sharpie223]

To get it out of the way at the start, I have searched the topic a bit and never really found long term conclusions. Anyway...

My trailer currently has carpeted bunks which I plan on replacing. My boat is an aluminum starcraft and will be painted with epoxy primer and 2k polyurethane. Currently thinking of a line of rollers on the bunks and positioning these under the "side keels" (don't know the vocab for this, but it's the riveted on spars between the keel and chines on each side). If there is good evidence that hdpe/uhmw or pvc or other plastic glides won't scratch/abrade/wear through paint, I would like to stick with simple bunks. Some launches will be rather shallow and won't allow for floating the boat on, so it will slide on the bunks. Does anyone have any long term results of various bunk materials against painted aluminum?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Bunk slides (uhmw made for bunks)

Use standard lumber AND NOT TREATED LUMBER

 

[Sharpie223]

I was planning to use standard lumber, the bunks are simple to replace if needed, but also I don't see treated helping any with cracking from swell/dry cycles.

So you use UHMW on painted aluminum? How long have you had that setup and has it caused any wearing of the paint?

 

[Scott Danforth]

I was planning to use standard lumber, the bunks are simple to replace if needed, but also I don't see treated helping any with cracking from swell/dry cycles.

So you use UHMW on painted aluminum? How long have you had that setup and has it caused any wearing of the paint?

I use bunk carpet on the fishing boat

Used bunk slides on a buds boat

If you float on it won't wear. If you drive in, or crank on, it will eventually wear

Go with rollers if you don't want wear

 

[JimS123]

I had a Starcraft with a factory baked on enamel. That finish was certainly more durable than anything that was applied after-market. That said, the carpeted bunks eventually wore off the finish.

Adding bunk slicks made launching and retrieving more difficult. I don't know why because they worked fine on my other boats with fiberglass hulls.

Replacing the bunks with full roller bunks fixed the launching issues, and solved the paint problems.

Regardless, if I were to repaint a hull, knowing what I know now, I would strip the paint to bare aluminum below the waterline, polish it with aluminum jelly and only paint the topsides.

 

[airshot]

My Islander has been on a roller trailer since 1983, barely some rub marks on the paint, most of that was a roller went bad and put some black marks on the painted hull, to lazy to crawl under and clean it off!! My 16' Sylvan has a cream color painted hull, no marks from the rollers since 1992 but the two bunk slides ( now removed) did cause some scuffing. I will take rollers anyday