Trailer winch questions.

[MCNPathfinder]

Hey everyone, kind of new to boating, but you'll find me in the Johnson/Evinrude area mostly. Well recently I just purchased a new boat. It's a 22' Cobia (I think a sub-division of Yamaha?) It has a 350 V8 in it, inboard/outboard. It's got a fairly large cabin in it too, so it's not really a small boat. Anyways, it sits on a double-axle trailer, and what I'm wondering is how much force can you put on those retrieval hooks on the front of the boat? You know what I'm talking about? The little hooks that you hook the trailer winch on to for pulling the boat onto the trailer? Forgive me, I don't really know the terminology, and I would have searched, but again I didn't know the proper terminology. I mean are those hooks pretty strong? I just don't know whether it's okay to really wrench on the winch to get it up on the trailer, or if I should be backing up farther into the water. Also for storing purposes, is it going to break eventually if I have that much force pulling on that hook constantly. You know what I mean?
Thanks for all the insight in advance.

 

[62 ROYAL SCOTT]

Re: Trailer winch questions.

Hell-o pathfinder ,i notice nobody said anything to your ?? I've always call it a [ eye hook ] from what i've seen you could winch the boat right off the ground and they won't break. Just winch your boat as you normaly do and when the boat is loaded give it a extra notch.also when you store it back it off a notch. -----happy boating----

 

[JimS123]

Re: Trailer winch questions.

Its called a bow eye. Its purpose is to retreive a boat on a trailer, and can also be used for mooring purposes.

Stand the boat on end and go ahead and pull the boat in the air. Shouldn't be a problem. The winch strap or cable will break before the bow eye pulls out.

Many years ago I was rear ended at a signal while pulling the boat. The trailer was literally broken in half, and the hitch on my car bent like a pretzel. The winch stand was broken off the trailer tongue, but it was still firmly attached to the bow eye.

One caveat though....if the boat is all rotten or has been damaged in a collision, then the bow eye may not be secure any more.

 

[Silverbullet555]

Re: Trailer winch questions.

You can pull pretty hard. Depending on your ramp, it might benefit you to back in a few more feet as well so you don't have to winch quite as far.

 

[chriscraft254]

Re: Trailer winch questions.

Its the Bow Eye and stern eyes that your referring to, Should be one on the bow and two on the stern. many boat companies use these to raise the boat in and out of the water with a crane and straps. I wouldn't personally but they do. They are very strong but differ from boat to boat. Its all dependent on how well the boat was made, these are usually built into the hull with very large backing plates that are built into the boats fiberglass etc. I have seen one of these bow eyes pulled right out at a ramp but it was do to the backing plate had completely corroded. These should be checked periodically for corrosion, access is not that easy on some boats though.

 

[Volphin]

Re: Trailer winch questions.

If you have to winch that hard, you are not deep enough. Always have the wench do the winch.

V

 

[spdracr39]

Re: Trailer winch questions.

The winch strap is the weakest link. Back in a little further or you will eventually break it. It's only water it won't hurt to get your feet wet

 

[JimS123]

Re: Trailer winch questions.

If you have to winch that hard, you are not deep enough. Always have the wench do the winch.

V

If it winches in too easy, you backed in too far. 99% of trailer retreival problems are related to backing in too far.

I wouldn't think of letting my wench winch. She bought me a powerwinch for Christmas one year, so she always gets treated right.