My Trailer Floats

[POPS PLAYPEN]

I have a 28' cruiser with twin v8 engines, sitting on a quick load 3 axle trailer with wood bunks. when i am trying to load the boat the trailer floats and makes it very hard to load. it has the tall guides at the stern but if the wind is blowing or other boats beside me it gets very difficult to load. Is this trailer designed to float or is something wrong. we looked like idiots last weekend trying to load this boat. I have had boats all my life but not this big.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: My Trailer Floats

you might try not going so deep, and get the bow on it, then have someone back further down the ramp. 6 tires full of air, and wooden bunks, are a lot of floatation. aluminum trailer?

 

[POPS PLAYPEN]

Re: My Trailer Floats

Yes, It Is An Aluminum Trailer. Just Kind Of Strange If You Have Never Had One Do That.

 

[Bondo]

Re: My Trailer Floats

Ayuh,.........

That tends to be a Problem with the Aluminum Wagons........

 

[CATransplant]

Re: My Trailer Floats

I believe that I'd add just enough weight to the trailer to make it not float. Odds are it's just barely floating, so it wouldn't take much to settle it down. If you add the weight in the general vicinity of the axles, you won't upset the balance of the trailer at all.

What to use? I don't know, but you'll want to watch electrolysis, I suppose.

It'd drive me nuts to have a floating trailer.

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: My Trailer Floats

...First if your frame is a welded square tube style, make sure the tubes are vented so the frame is not its own float chamber. Is it homebuilt?.
Second, I would take it to a light manufacturing shop and have the wooden bunks (if thats whats causing it to float) completely or partially replaced with metal ones (aluminum, whatever). You can attach carpeting or runners or UHMW wear strips of whatever you like to those.
It may be hard to tell how much weight you would have to add to the existing arrangement to get it to sink...but you could try. Find some heavy weights and back the trailer down the ramp a bit and add them on. If it takes more than a couple of hundred lbs at the most...this isn't the way to go. You are going to eventually create a braking problem.
Get rid of whatever is floating the trailer or have lightning holes (2"Dia. or whever) drilled through it . (by 'it' I mean the wooden bunks....definitely not the frame!!!!)
good luck

 

[reelfishin]

Re: My Trailer Floats

I believe that I'd add just enough weight to the trailer to make it not float. Odds are it's just barely floating, so it wouldn't take much to settle it down. If you add the weight in the general vicinity of the axles, you won't upset the balance of the trailer at all.

What to use? I don't know, but you'll want to watch electrolysis, I suppose.

It'd drive me nuts to have a floating trailer.

I agree with that idea, I had a tubular aluminum trailer that would float. It only took adding a few pounds to keep it down. I added two large zinc anodes and it cured the problem. I my case is was only about 10 pounds or so that made the difference. I wouldn't drill or modify the frame, if the trailer functions fine otherwise, don't compromise that in any way. Unless the wood bunks are really huge, they probably aren't contributing all that much. On mine, the problem started when I changed from galvanized steel rims to lightweight aluminum rims. the tires and some buoyancy in the sealed tubing was what was floating the trailer. Even without the weight, mine would settle down if backed in slowly, but would drain water for 20 minutes after pulling back out. I did drill larger drain holes in the tubes, mostly since I was running in saltwater and wanted to be able to flush out the frame.

 

[jeeperman]

Re: My Trailer Floats

If you need some weight, check around your area for a diecast shop that does zinc. You can get some zinc ingots that are heavy as hell but slim enough to rest inside the I-Beam rails.
And they will act like giant anodes.