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Centering hull on trailer tips please


Asmodeus2112

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I purposely put my trailer in "too deep". I don't want to have the possibility of hitting the prop on the trailer prop cage like I've heard happen to some other people. I would say 1 out of 10 times I have to back down the launch to get the boat centered (people in the boat handle centering by just grabbing one of the trailer guides and guessing where transom needs to be and push it to the correct area).

It's much easier to hit the prop cage when you are in too deep than too shallow. The bunks center you when you aren't in enough on their own and keep the prop safe.

I also don't like the "drive up the bunks" (aka powerloading) because the prop pushes all the dirt away from the edge of the pad. So when people show up with long trailers (me) they have the possibility of "dropping off" the concrete pad which blows tires (been there done that).

Couldn't agree more on the powerloading, but driving on doesn't require that you tear up the launch. However, it requires a little velocity or the willingness to crank with some effort. Personally I take the velocity approach, but can't say I'd recommend that to someone who hasn't loaded very often.

I do appreciate your launch comments and am glad that you added them. The rampant disrespect to the others who launch in the area and tear up the landing zone is frustrating. I launch A LOT as I have a bass boat and just recently sold my 30' Sundancer. All of which I trailer. The bass boat I've put in on some rather nasty launches and if everyone was powerloading aggressively by mid-summer they'd be shot. Add to that the possibility of sucking up decent size rocks when churning a 1235 in that shallow and dinging the brass it is good to make sure you don't need a whole lot of motor to get on the trailer. I still though would much prefer to have my trailer not backed in too far as it is by far easier to do on your own. 90% of my launching I do alone and find that even when I have help that doing it like you would when you are on your own is better.

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  • 3 weeks later...

1) I have a hard time believing that a heavy boat with strakes sitting on bunk and tied down is going to slide left/right to get centered. But I will have to believe what you guys say. Regardless, I wouldn't want all that weight on a strake edge corner on a bunk or getting centered by hitting bumps. This will add undue stress and eventually brake the bunk.

2) The slope of the ramp will determine how much under water the trailer needs to be. I launch at a place where the ramp is too short and deep and I have this issue every time time. Actually I had to put on 5 ft trailer guides because my boat would float over the previous trailer guides and I was worried my valet service employees would screw up and drive the boat out of the water while the 2x4 guide was under the boat. That would really suck....

3) The simple solution seems to be to move the trailer guides closer together. In my case I have way too much wiggle room and I do not see any negatives of moving the trailer guides close together such that the boat will always be centered enough and not sitting on a strake. I don' understand why they are so far apart, expect for maybe they do this so people can drive the boat onto the trailer and not hit the trailer guides. I am no fan of this and always walk my boat into the trailer, hence I think making the trailer guide width much smaller is the best solution for my case. Does any disagree with my unique case???

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i have started getting the boat within about 3 - 4 feet of being totally on, and then winching the rest of the way. Most of the ramps we use are shallow, and it is too tough to drive all the way up and be centered. winching the last few feet pulls the boat straight.

Also agree with the comments on too deep - if you are too deep nothing stops the hull moving forward and you are more likely to hit the trailer structure if you get a little sideways. I have a prop repair bill to prove this. :)

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That's a good point. Did the prop get bent because the boat was walked in and that little bump messed it up? Or it was going in fast and hit prop? I am wondering if I always walk my boat in and miss the front guide, if my prop may get messed up. It was quite windy the other day and this happened, but did not think about prop. Maybe a good idea to have another set of guides to prevent that? Or maybe some sort of spider mesh ?

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This was at a deep ramp, power load and the wind shifted and kicked the boat to one side. the back end was still floating so everything went right. PRop was spinning when it hit, but only damaged one blade.

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I also don't like the "drive up the bunks" (aka powerloading) because the prop pushes all the dirt away from the edge of the pad. So when people show up with long trailers (me) they have the possibility of "dropping off" the concrete pad which blows tires (been there done that).

Huge problem on our pond, and it frustrates the hell out of me. (I have even witnessed an outboard owner tuning his motor in gear on the trailer with the motor all the way down at the launch before, he did this for I bet 10-15 mins, I finally said something to him about it, and he had no clue what he was doing to the beach.) Ours is all beach and got so bad two years ago we had about 5-6 feet of water rite at the back of our trailer when unloading then about 8-10 feet behind that the dirt was pushed up into a pile that was knee deep, it got so bad we were dragging the prop in the dirt backing off. Me and my son finally had to spent an hour raking and shoveling dirt around one day. Sorry for the rant.

Our trailer is a home built trailer, we put poly plastic composite inside the fenders that only clear by about a half inch on each side, we back in to get wet, pull out untill the fenders are out a couple inches, drive on the trailer coasting on a couple feet then winch on with an electric winch. It took us a couple times at first to get it rite, but now that we have figured it out it works out great. Our launch is often uneven and pulling the trailer out a bit more and winching on further with the winch makes it easier for us. The electric winch has been one of our best upgrades! Only problem we have is the bunk rugs have started to scratch the hull some, we some times winch on 5-6 feet if its real windy and the launch is crowded and we get on a real uneven spot. I have some of the plastic "Marine Slides" that I have been going to try has anyone tried these yet?

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Pretty easy way to tell if your trailer is too deep. If you load the boat and can move the back end, you are in too far. The boat should not be floating at all, but resting nicely on the trailer. This way it will stay straight as you pull it out. If you do happen to be in too deep and are crooked to get it straight you have to push the boat back a bit, pull the trailer forward and drive it on. Sure beats fiddling in the water trying to muscle something around.

I don't understand this recommendation at all. Maybe on a very shallow angle ramp but on most ramps I'm around that would be impossible without an extraordinary amount of power loading.

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I don't understand this recommendation at all. Maybe on a very shallow angle ramp but on most ramps I'm around that would be impossible without an extraordinary amount of power loading.

I don't power load but come in at a fair clip. Perhaps a bit more brash in my approach as I've launched a boat a good 300+ times in the past few years. I've found no need to power load, but just go at a clip that brings me very close to the tie down. Back end can't move side to side at the point and only requires a couple cranks to get the boat up to the eye. The threshold between the back end floating and not isn't very far. A little further forward and it goes. The depth/angle of the ramp obviously makes a difference, but on normal ramps around here that is how it is.

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On a 2011 VLX with a boatmate trailer, if you're about an inch off of center towards the port side you will have the paddle wheel wedged on top of the bunker. If you let the road "center" your boat as you travel (and the boat is resting on the paddle wheel) it will damage the paddle wheel.

Great engineering, Malibu!

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I think you may need to look at your bunks (when the boat is off of the trailer) to see if they are curving or warped. I could never get my boat centered, even following all of these kinds of tips and it turned out that the bunks (simple 2x4's) were warped so the bunks were pushing the boat to one side of the trailer. Not too difficult to replace, but the boat has to be off of the trailer.

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if you want to float the boat onto the trailer here is a tip that will help. Sorry if someone already mentioned it I didn't want to read the whole thread.

Try centering the rudder. That way as you pull the boat out of the water the back end will track straight. You just have to keep track of how many turns of the steering wheel from full left to center, or full right to center. As I recall, mine is 2.5 turns.

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Today was the first day we've been out since I started this topic, had to replace steering cable, redo the trailer brakes, install head unit.... Anyway, we winched the boat up and it came out of the water slightly off to one side, but straight enough not to have a strake sitting on a bunk. After trailering home the boat was in the exact same place it was when we pulled it out, slightly off center. I'm happy to have loaded and pulled out in one attempt, so is the wife. I need to redo the bunks, so perhaps I'll see something warped or off when I do that.

Thanks for all the help, after a full day on the water nobody likes to mess around at the ramp!

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The off center boat is a constant problem for me. I always wet my bunks and pull the trailer out so about 7-10 inches of the front bunkers our out of the water (on avg. sloped ramps). I run the boat up and it catches and stops 3 ft. short of the winch. I then have to powerload (with a pretty good amount of throttle) the rest of the way up the trailer. Winching is not an option, the boat is too heavy and the winch can't budge it by itself. 70% of the time the boat has a strake sitting on a bunker and then we have to back it back in and do over. I've noticed with the boat perfectly centered there is about 1/2" of space between the bunkers and the strakes - a pretty precise fit.

I may try pulling the trailer out a few more inches and increasing my speed into the trailer during recovery to see if that helps but if it doesn't I probably going to have to move the bunkers out a 1/2 inch or so to give us more tolerance (I'll be mindful of the prop clearance if I do this).

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The off center boat is a constant problem for me. I always wet my bunks and pull the trailer out so about 7-10 inches of the front bunkers our out of the water (on avg. sloped ramps). I run the boat up and it catches and stops 3 ft. short of the winch. I then have to powerload (with a pretty good amount of throttle) the rest of the way up the trailer. Winching is not an option, the boat is too heavy and the winch can't budge it by itself. 70% of the time the boat has a strake sitting on a bunker and then we have to back it back in and do over. I've noticed with the boat perfectly centered there is about 1/2" of space between the bunkers and the strakes - a pretty precise fit.

I may try pulling the trailer out a few more inches and increasing my speed into the trailer during recovery to see if that helps but if it doesn't I probably going to have to move the bunkers out a 1/2 inch or so to give us more tolerance (I'll be mindful of the prop clearance if I do this).

When I winched mine up the last 4 feet or so I definitely thought that the strap could break. I was turning the winch with both hands. Ease of centering certainly varies from one trailer to the next as we never had this problem with our 2001 LX that we had prior to our current '99 LX. When I redo the bunks I'm going to investigate to see if there are any fit issues or adjustments that could be made.

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Last year when I first got the boat, I also had a consistant problem getting the boat centered on the trailer. This drove my OCD engineering mind crazy so I had to come up with a way to make it perfect the first try, every time. Here is what I did with great success.

With the boat (centered or not) on the trailer in my driveway I measured the distance from the boat guide poles to the rub rails on each side and totalled them up. For instance one side could be 6 inches and the other 4 inches for a total of 10 inches. I then cut a small chunk of 2 X 4 wood to half that size (5 inches in this case).

When loading at the ramp, I load as normal. Front bunks half way out of the water, drive up till about a foot from the winch, and winch the rest of the way. Then I have my wife or other person back me in till the back of the boat just floats and can move from side to side between the boat guide poles. I then hold my chunk of wood between the guide pole and rub rail keeing the boat perfectly centered as the trailer slowly gets pulled out. This takes seconds to do and the boat is dead center every time in one try.

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  • 10 years later...

Old thread but I'm bumping it up.

I'm having the same problem as the original poster.

I think the reason some people are having this problem is that the Malibu trailer bunks must NOT be deeper than maybe 2-3 inches under the water at most.  If they are any deeper, the stern floats and will not center properly.  I was confused by this at first because I assumed that if the bow was centered then the stern should be too.  But that's NOT the case because the bow may be in contact with the bunks but the stern may not be, allowing it to wander off course.

Now here's the 2nd problem -- if you have the bunks an inch or two above the water, the boat should center fine, but Malibu's winch is too weak to pull these heavy boats up all the way to the roller so that you are stuck in a Catch-22 type of situation.

In order to make it easier to use these light duty winches to pull up these heavy boats, a lot of people (myself included) will try to back down the ramp a foot or two in order to make the boat easier to winch up.  But you CAN'T do that in these trailers because if you do, the stern floats up, gets off center and you are crooked again.

So as I see it there are 4 possible solutions:

1.  Never put your bunks more than a couple of inches under the water, not even to make it easier to winch up the boat.

2.  Adjust the guide poles on the trailer to be tighter to the hull so that the stern can't float around side to side as much.  Unfortunately it seems as though Malibu has made it difficult or near impossible to adjust the guide poles on the trailer without some custom fabrication.  I guess a workaround would be to add some extra padding to one of the guide posts so that it forces the stern to line up better.  For example if your stern is usually off center to the starboard side then put a roll of foam around the starboard guide post so that the stern is forced towards the port side and better centered when the boat enters the trailer.

3.  Buy a stronger winch so that you don't have to back the trailer as deep in the water.  My winch is only rated for 1500 lb which is a joke for a 6000-7000 lb boat.

4.  Power load the boat every time with the bunks a couple of inches above water line.  Be careful with this approach.  In some jurisdictions power loading is illegal.  Another caution is that if your wheel/rudder is not lined up center, powerloading could put you crooked on the bunks or even damage the bunks/hull if the captain gives too much power.

 

 

 

 

Edited by platon20
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A dual speed winch makes loading with the trailer shallow much easier.  On a steep ramp, having the trailer tongue a bit lower is helpful.   When loading, keep the trailer shallow so the front of the forward bunks are just above the water.  After the boat is on the bunks and the winch strap is connected, back the trailer in a little deeper until the boat can be winched up to the roller.  Hold onto one of the side guides to center the boat as the trailer is slowly pulled out of the water.  When loading by myself on a steep ramp, I tie a line to the rear cleats and guide poles to center the boat before slowly pulling the boat and trailer out of the water. 

Edited by csleaver
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5 minutes ago, csleaver said:

On a steep ramp, having the trailer tongue a bit lower is helpful.

I found that even on my 06' having the tongue 2'' lower than level helps with keeping boat centered while loading.  I do not care for the looks but makes life easier and I never drag the prop guard.  Has not affected the way it tows with the expedition or the f350.  It sounds like you have an exaggerated example of this but every little bit helps. 

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Have my trailer about 'level' when towing (hitch is a 4in drop)..steep ramp..I back in so when my wife glides in, I have to winch about 2 ft. Self centers itself everything. 

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We have steep ramps everywhere in CA.  Usually, I inch it up the last 1ft and then move all the people to the rear and as centered as possible.  With the nose up on the roller and weight in the back, it tends to find the middle a little easier. Have the tow rig driver pull the boat out really slow (this is the key part) to allow it to settle in the center. Occasionally, it will be sitting on a chine, just back it up until the rear starts floating and repeat pulling it out really slow.  Also make sure you the truck and trailer are square to the water, pulling at an angle will make things challenging.

Also, If its not centered properly and you are in the parking lot, just get your crew to bounce the trailer and push the boat over.  It will find center pretty quick.

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My '15 centers on the trailer 90% of the time, but by '03 was all over the place, so here's what I did: I bought about 10 ft of bungee cord and tied a loop in the center, I would put that loop over the low tow point between the engine cover hatches. I then took each end and tied a loop, with the bungee as tight as reasonably possible, on each guide post. When putting the boat on the trailer, one person would stay in the boat to drive it to the trailer, then put the bungees on the center tow point and the guide posts. The tensioned bungee would hold the boat in place as the truck pulled the boat and trailer out of the water.

The only problem I ran in to was the guide posts floating up when the trailer was in the water. The person in the boat would have to push them down after attaching the bungee cord loops so the placement was still accurate. My guide posts were above the gunwale so the boat wouldn't throw off the side-to-side distance. The boat was centered 95% of the time using this trick.

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