Boats & Motors
Shorelandr Roller trailer problem
5/31/09 @ 9:48 AM
I have a 17 foot lund on a shorelandr roller trailer.When the bow is positioned in the front roller the rear of the boat is 2-3 inches off center.When the rear is centered it's just the opposite,the front is off centered.I had a dealer measure all components and all were within a quarter of an inch of where everything should be.Anyone ever have this problem and any suggestions?It doesn't seem to matter if i power the boat on or winch it.I've made sure that the trailer is level and not in the drink too far.Any help out there??Thanks!
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If your keel chine isn't centered on the roller on an aluminum boat that can cause as many problems as a misconfigured trailer. It will make the center roller effectively too low or too high becasue of the shape. I'd imagine that could put lots of undo pressure on the boat. They do make 'self centering' center rollers that could solve that problem. The rear rollers obviously don't matter too much.
Look at this from Cabela's:
http://www.cabelas.com/spodw-1/0022862.shtml
I've got a 16.5' Alumacraft on a Shorland'r roller trailer. I was off by an inch or two on the middle roller for a few months- the keel was not in the groove or even close. I was livid- brother and I were trying to wiggle the boat back to center to no avail. On my trailer there is a lot of flex in the trailer when the boat isn't on it. I fixed it by jacking up the aft of the boat(floor jack and a 2x4 right by the keel chine)- the trailer snapped right back to center. Seems like the trailer will get cockeyed without the boat on it if it's driven for a bit. The boat seems to be the rigid part of the package.. And if I remember correctly, the last time I trailered the boat before it happened, it was in the wolf river, so that may not have helped with the current and all. It's all straight now, so... not sure.
I have a 17 foot Lund on a Shorelander trailer as well. All I can tell you is I've stopped worrying about being 2 to 3 inches off center, or I'd drive myself crazy. Seems like I could never get it on perfectly straight, which I think is common with roller trailers. I've just accepted that close is good enough, and not to worry if it's off by a slight margin. If it's off more than a couple inches, then I'll rework it, but I can't imagine when it's only off a couple inches that there will be any hull damage. Heck, I bought my boat new six years ago, and the hull looks as good today as it did when I bought it, and I launch and load my boat 25 to 50 times a year. One of the things I did was buy some heavy duty roller guides from Cabelas for the back of the trailer. I positioned them close enough together that when I pull the boat onto the trailer each and every time, I know I'm "close enough" to not have to bother with letting her back off and winching it on again. One thing I also do to make sure it's straight if I know I'm not going to be using the boat for an extended period of time, is to have someone at the rear of the boat with a rope on the rear tie off. As I'm cranking, if I see it's going to be off a little bit, I'll either tell the person to give a pull on the rope to bring the back end their way more, or give it a little kick or foot pressure to move it away from them, all the while I'm cranking. That seems to help. People with bunk trailers probably laugh at this trouble, but the flip side is I get to laugh at them when they have to sink the back of their truck to get their heavy boat off their bunk trailers. Guess it's a trade off.
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