How to get my boat on the bunk trailer?

[Ccook]

Get bunks wet. Move trailer out of water so you have drive up onto the trailer.The winch will bring the boat tight onto the wet bunks without having to move it very far. Will send a video

 

[Ccook]

 

[bigbruce]

You didn't try this? Just spray it on, and you won't have any problems with sticky bunks. I spray it on every year or so, and I have the same can I bought ten years ago when I bought the boat/trailer. Be careful unloading as always; don't unhook boat until its in the water.

View attachment 96172

Where can you get this stuff? Amazon says it’s not available.

 

[Red Monster]

Where can you get this stuff? Amazon says it’s not available.

Bunk Lubricant Liquid Roller | West Marine

Check out our Bunk Lubricant Liquid Roller and more from West Marine!

www.westmarine.com

Marykate Liquid Rollers – Trailer Bunk Boards Lubricant – boater-supplies.com

LR may be discontinued, but West Marine seems to sell it.
I see there's another product around called Slydz-on that sounds similar.

Caliber Slydz-On Spray On Bunk Lubricant, 16oz

FEATURES Easy loading of your boat or watercraft. Reduces cranking torque required by as much as 275%. Safer unloading and loading by dramatically reducing stress on the trailer crank mechanisms, ropes and hull bow hooks. Allows you to unload and load yo

www.royaldistributing.com

I'd love to find another can of LR because mine's almost empty.

 

[Fishing?]

I have the same trailer (Carnai trailer) with a 232 Grady White similar size. My strategy when I had carpeted bunks was to dip them all the way in the water to reduce the friction, then pull the trailer out of the water so the front 1/3 of the bunks are completely out of the water. Trim your main motor up a little bit and then drive the boat right onto the bunks. The boat will center but you won't be all the way up. At this point power is your friend. Hit the throttle and drive the thing right to the winch strap. You should feel your boat bump the 2 bumpers/rollers at the winch strap. You shouldn't even have to get your feet wet doing it this way. I recently rebuilt my entire trailer because it was 2007 and was falling apart. I replaced the bunks with attached pictures with some plastic I picked up from Robertson plastics in Surrey (routered and countersunk). The plastic slides have reduced friction and now it's much easier and don't have to use as much power but I still use the same method. Takes less than 5 minutes to load this way from dipping trailer to hooked up and out of the water. The boat should center itself everytime as long as the trailer isn't too far into the water. Good luck!View attachment 96146

Definitely worth a try.

Ever figure out why the swivel cross beams?

 

[tightlines]

Definitely worth a try.

Ever figure out why the swivel cross beams?

I always thought it was to allow the boat to be more efficiently supported by the trailer axles and not the bunks. When loading, the bunks seem to center the boat and as you move farther onto the trailer the boat effectively sits down (pivots) into the trailer, taking pressure off the bunks and reallocating majority of supporting role to the axles. Not an engineer though!!

 

[noluck]

I always thought it was to allow the boat to be more efficiently supported by the trailer axles and not the bunks. When loading, the bunks seem to center the boat and as you move farther onto the trailer the boat effectively sits down (pivots) into the trailer, taking pressure off the bunks and reallocating majority of supporting role to the axles. Not an engineer though!!

it i just a self adjusting trailer.

 

[grey-cie]

You didn't try this? Just spray it on, and you won't have any problems with sticky bunks. I spray it on every year or so, and I have the same can I bought ten years ago when I bought the boat/trailer. Be careful unloading as always; don't unhook boat until its in the water.

View attachment 96172

Good luck spraying that at a boat ramp these days you’ll have the environment police knocking at your door lol

 

[SpringVelocity]

I rarely see people driving boats up on trailer. If you launch solo on a cuddy not sure how you are doing that. Mine isnt a walk around.

I just switched to bunks last year. How I do it is I back trailer down until there is about 8 inches of the bunk out of water. If you do that boat always center perfectly.

I sometimes do have an issue getting boat on in that last few cranks to the roller, but it's only at ****** launches that aren't steep. Brechin in Nanaimo is a perfect example.

Probably going to look at an electric winch.

 

[pescador]

 

[Loghauler]

Play with it there is a sweet spot just like goldy locks you need to find it
how far back u need to be so the winch only pulls the last bit to final stop
I back in till I have one inch of my fender out and that’s my spot
You will need to practice to find yours and pull out slowly if you have low range use it so your boat doesn’t get yanked off its spot when driving out

 

[scott craven]

Bunks suck, rollers rule !

 

[Loghauler]

Bunks suck, rollers rule !

Seen more than one boat roll of at a launch
Never off bunks

 

[pescador]

Bunks suck, rollers rule !

Half and half. Front half rollers, back half bunks. That's the ideal setup especially for larger boats with some weight on steep launches. I've got bunks and its a ***** at Gold River getting the boat up that last 2 inches to set the bow into the winch upright rubber stop,

 

[Squire]

Bunks suck, rollers rule !

I’ve found that it depends on the size of the boat. I had a 17’ runabout with a roller bunk trailer that was fanastic at self-centering the boat on the trailer. It required very little of the trailer in the water and the winch pretty much dragged it up. I would take the tie-downs off at the edge of the water.
Now that I have a much heavier boat I prefer the bunks because I’m not going to yard it up over rollers and I’d have to mostly float it on anyway. I feel safe taking the tie-downs off at the top of the ramp. In both cases I don’t unhook the safety chain or winch strap until the stern hits the water.
Rollers support ‘points‘ on the hull instead of spreading it out like bunks do and this matters for a heavy boat that spends a lot of time on the trailer.

 

[Clint r]

I’ve found that it depends on the size of the boat. I had a 17’ runabout with a roller bunk trailer that was fanastic at self-centering the boat on the trailer. It required very little of the trailer in the water and the winch pretty much dragged it up. I would take the tie-downs off at the edge of the water.
Now that I have a much heavier boat I prefer the bunks because I’m not going to yard it up over rollers and I’d have to mostly float it on anyway. I feel safe taking the tie-downs off at the top of the ramp. In both cases I don’t unhook the safety chain or winch strap until the stern hits the water.
Rollers support ‘points‘ on the hull instead of spreading it out like bunks do and this matters for a heavy boat that spends a lot of time on the trailer.

This. My last boat trailer was a bunk/roller combo and the one I have now eventually will be. It proved it’s worth to me at the native launch in port renfrew. We pull up and everyone’s waiting for the tide to come in. I back in to a chorus of “ too shallow” “not enough water” blah blah blah. Unhook my straps and chain and back in and shoot the boat off the trailer. Wife pulls it in to shore while I park and we head out. We fished north to carmanah a full 2 hours before the next guy at the launch shows up.

 

[Clint r]

I rarely see people driving boats up on trailer. If you launch solo on a cuddy not sure how you are doing that. Mine isnt a walk around.

I just switched to bunks last year. How I do it is I back trailer down until there is about 8 inches of the bunk out of water. If you do that boat always center perfectly.

I sometimes do have an issue getting boat on in that last few cranks to the roller, but it's only at ****** launches that aren't steep. Brechin in Nanaimo is a perfect example.

Probably going to look at an electric winch.

Maybe not the same as at the coast because the launches are more rocky than sand/gravel but we have a definite problem in the okanagan with people powering onto their trailer. You can go to any launch here and see the trench blown In the bottom from weekend warriors powering onto their trailer. You can also go to any marine repair shop and see at least a couple boats waiting for impeller/water pump replacement or even needing a new heat exchanger or maybe even sand plugging the openings in the engine block because they suck all that crap into their cooling system.

 

[seahorse]

I never power onto my bunk trailer, never had to, I put my hip waders on, sink the trailer so that the front 1 foot of the bunks are just out of the water, pull the boat up to within 2 ft of the winch then hand winch the rest of the way, very easy and have had no issues centering the boat. I do turn my main engine a little to port before raising it to compensate for the kicker weight on the starboard side. Launching is easy but as mentioned I wait until the boat and trailer are in the water to release the safety chain and winch strap just in case, there are too many spectators at the ramp.