Why I am switching from rollers to bunks.

I have always liked the way my trailer has performed. I never considered switching from rollers to bunks until now.

I had a leaking rivet on both sides of my boat. Same rivet on both sides. I had always considered it was a goofy flex point in the boat. Here is the rivet after repair.



When I was able to flip the boat upside down and spend some time looking at it it became clear the rollers are what caused this leak. Here, lets go to the other side and it will become obvious.



If you look right below the rivet I replaced you can see the wear marks from the rollers. That is the last set of rollers on the trailer. So, I have the closest rivet to the rollers leaking on both sides. Coincidence? I don't think so. I am going to replace with bunks so that I can extend the bunks to the front of the boat another 6-8" and bring them in front of this set of rivets.

Now, would bunks have caused this same rivet to leak if they stopped at the same place? That I don't know, any thoughts? I can't extend my rollers so bunks will replace them.

I have always been leary of rollers, heard too many stories of hull damage from them. I think you are going in the right direction.

Never thought too highly of setups like that myself.
Generally, I save roller trailers for bigger & heaviers like a 20 ft. glass with a big OB. Even then, not with a roller setup like that. I like the ones that adjust to the hull automaticly with loose pivots.

Tin boats (unless really huge) I'll go with bunks everytime. Still, prefer the bunks that pivot fore & aft with pivot forward of center so they hang down naturally in the back. When loaded, I like 1-2"(minimum) of bunk showing behind the transom too.

Feel your intentions are good.

This is a mod-v not a jon so the tilt back bunks wouldn't server much purpose. The boat runs up on the center splake all the way up on the three center rollers and it's not until the boat is almost at rest that the boat is resting on the bunks. I built the bunks yesterday. I extended them 3" back and 16" front so they will be nice and long and I think they will work better then the rollers.

Take a look at the first sentence of the "bunk design" paragraph of my trailer tips article. I've been saying it for years. Roller trailers are worthless.

bassboy1 said:

Take a look at the first sentence of the "bunk design" paragraph of my trailer tips article. I've been saying it for years. Roller trailers are worthless.

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Wouldn't go that far. :LOL2:

Bigger, heavier boats at shallow ramps and winching by hand is a good spot for rollers (IMHO).

Floatsum said:

bassboy1 said:

Take a look at the first sentence of the "bunk design" paragraph of my trailer tips article. I've been saying it for years. Roller trailers are worthless.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't go that far. :LOL2:

Bigger, heavier boats at shallow ramps and winching by hand is a good spot for rollers (IMHO).

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To some extent. I, however, would rather have a longer tongue to get the trailer deeper, than have rollers, which pose a risk to hull integrity later. Aluminum boats just aren't made to support the weight of the boat on small contact points of the skin. The bunks span internal structure of the boat, which transfer the pressure further across the boat. Just my opinion of course.