New Boat Trailer Setup

[cmhyland]

Hello All,
We picked up this boat a few weeks ago and finally got a chance to dip it in the lake this past weekend. We tend to fish smaller bodies of water with basic unpaved and shallow launches. As I suspected this boat sits much higher than it needs to on the trailer making shallow water launches harder.. Your car ends up in the water. I suspect the dealer never really did any proper setup, just through the boat on the trailer and sold it... So the question is is it as simple as measuring the room I have between hull and trailer and adjusting height for allowable space?


Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
Chris

 

[LDUBS]

To me, any time spent adjusting the boat to the trailer is time well spent. It just makes life easier at the ramp.

If you lift the boat up a few inches, you can adjust the bunks down where you want them. At the same time tweak the bunks so they fit perfectly with your boat's bottom flukes or strakes (whatever they are called). From the pic's it looks like how much you can lower the boat may be limited by your trailer fenders. When I went through this same adjustment process, the chine of my boat was too close for comfort to the fenders. I added wheel spacers to address the concern.

The following may be overkill because your boat looks pretty light. If your boat is too heavy to lift, there is an easy process to raise you boat an inch or so off the bunks. Lower the trailer tongue all the way to the ground. Put a cradle of some sort under the transom. I made the one shown below out of scrap 2x material (hey, it ain't a beauty, but it works). Whatever you use, just make sure it will reliably hold the boat. Then raise the trailer tongue and the rear of the boat will lift off the bunks. Put something under the bow stem then lower the tongue. Bingo! The boat is suspended right above your trailer. Makes it easy to precisely place the bunks where you want them.

Cheers!

 

[cmhyland]

Thanks LDUBS,

Does the boat have to sit level on the trailer? Can the stern be too inches lower that the bow making it easier to float off?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[LDUBS]

Thanks LDUBS,

Does the boat have to sit level on the trailer? Can the stern be too inches lower that the bow making it easier to float off?

Thanks,
Chris

I'm making a guess here, so keep that in mind. By level I assume the trailer frame is level when attached to the tow vehicle and you mean keeping the bunks kinda/sorta parallel to the trailer frame so the boat doesn't have a tendency to slide off. In a perfect world I would think it is preferable to have the boat sit level (or "even) on the trailer so as not to put additional strain on the tie downs. Additionally if you lower the transom and raise the bow, you may want to adjust the winch height (hopefully your winch post isn't too short).

Having said all of that, for my Mod-V boat the bunks are not "level", meaning parallel to the trailer frame. Neither is the keel or the water line. The chine is kind of parallel to the trailer frame until it sweeps up to follow the hull lines. But the boat looks and feels like it is sitting without a tendency to slide one way or the other. Considering the issue you are trying to resolve, I would give it a try to see how it looks and if it is still stable. You might not even notice 2" visually. If you do decide to try it, it is critical you maintain the proper tongue weight and the boat must be secure to the trailer. Have a safety chain in the bow eye along with the winch hook.

Again, I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. Maybe someone else here can weigh in on this.

 

[JL8Jeff]

It looks like you could go down a hole or 2 on the bunk brackets to drop the boat a couple of inches. But that trailer doesn't really look wide enough for the boat, it almost looks like a jet ski trailer. I would check back with the dealer to see if they would exchange it for something wider. My boat fits between the fenders so I could drop the bunks down pretty low.

 

[AquaKing]

I agree that the trailer appears to skinny for that wide of a boat. And because of that your sitting really high and would need to back up way to much in a lot of scenarios to launch quickly. The bunks also appear short for that boat?


It appears you can lower the bunks quite abit and maybe you won’t rub on the fenders? However No amount of adjusting is going to fix your boat riding over the tires. If they won’t swap trailers I would pick up another one and sell this one.

 

[Superlucky]

Hi

Since this is a new boat the first thing that I would do would be to read all of the brochures that came with the boat. Every new boat that I have purchased has had detailed instructions for trailer adjustments. It should tell you where the boat supports are supposed to be and how long they should be. If you were not given this information I would contact the boat manufacturer.

Remember, that when you lower the boat, any motor hanging off of the back will be closer to the ground while trailering. This could lead to scraping the skeg of the motor. (If you leave the motor down)

Good luck with your purchase!

Bill

 

[cmhyland]

I agree that the trailer appears to skinny for that wide of a boat. And because of that your sitting really high and would need to back up way to much in a lot of scenarios to launch quickly. The bunks also appear short for that boat?


It appears you can lower the bunks quite abit and maybe you won’t rub on the fenders? However No amount of adjusting is going to fix your boat riding over the tires. If they won’t swap trailers I would pick up another one and sell this one.

Thanks Aqua King,
The trailer is the Venture 1300 which is the 2019 version of the 1325 in your insert. I have owned this exact boat about 15 yrs ago and that one sat above the wheels like this does. I dropped the bunks today one set of holes which dropped it about 2 inches. It looks like it may be able to do down another two but we'll try it like this a while...

Thanks,
Chris

 

[AquaKing]

I agree that the trailer appears to skinny for that wide of a boat. And because of that your sitting really high and would need to back up way to much in a lot of scenarios to launch quickly. The bunks also appear short for that boat?


It appears you can lower the bunks quite abit and maybe you won’t rub on the fenders? However No amount of adjusting is going to fix your boat riding over the tires. If they won’t swap trailers I would pick up another one and sell this one.

Thanks Aqua King,
The trailer is the Venture 1300 which is the 2019 version of the 1325 in your insert. I have owned this exact boat about 15 yrs ago and that one sat above the wheels like this does. I dropped the bunks today one set of holes which dropped it about 2 inches. It looks like it may be able to do down another two but we'll try it like this a while...

Thanks,
Chris

Hey Chris!

I'm glad dropping it worked without issue! If your keeping this trailer, as you suggested perhaps drop the rear bunks lower and push the bunks towards the fenders. I will warn you however.. you don't want the front of the keel smashing into the rear cross-member on the trailer when loading. My trailer has plastic protector to let the boat slide over until it hits the bunks. If this will work then I would suggest adjust your winch and center bumper accordingly(Looks to far back to me?).

These things will help you when you go to launch so your not fighting pushing it off or trying to the get on the trailer with the subie. It will also lower your center of weight if you put camping gear in the boat and make towing on the highway much more comfortable.

Disclaimer: I'm not a professional this is just my personal opinion. Photos below are my setup.

Dana

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

Another idea is to raise the hitch height, so the stern is lower. Then you don't have to back in as far. I have done this & have no problem towing/tracking on highway. Extending the trailer tongue helps too. I hate having to back in so far that the brakes get wet.