Trailering

Moderator: GreenLake

Trailering

Postby Shagbark » Mon Oct 09, 2017 7:52 pm

When I purchased the boat, it came with a cargo strap securing it to the trailer. Since then I have always used a cargo strap when trailering, but now I'm thinking that may be over kill. Is securing the boat to the trailer necessary when trailering?
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Re: Trailering

Postby Bob Damon » Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:17 am

Absolutely a strap is needed during trailering. The Day Sailer is fairly light and a small bump will result in it shifting the boat off the trailer. I have seen boats leaving a ramp area without the strap on and the boat came off the trailer with significant damage.
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Re: Trailering

Postby Shagbark » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:31 pm

Alrighty then, a cargo strap it is. Thanks Bob.
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Re: Trailering

Postby BaronDaniels » Thu Oct 12, 2017 4:59 am

In that case, I may have to buy a cargo strap as well. :?
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Re: Trailering

Postby Alan » Wed Nov 01, 2017 11:41 pm

I use three of them for trailering (2-inch ratcheting straps), along with the bow winch hooked to the bow eye.
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Re: Trailering

Postby GreenLake » Thu Nov 02, 2017 12:46 pm

If all your straps are loops across the boat, it can still shift and twist until it rests off-center. Only way to prevent that is straps that tie each side separately. That, however, requires strong points on the boat. So I make do with the inferior solution, but then I don't go very far.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: Trailering

Postby Alan » Thu Nov 02, 2017 10:14 pm

Using the three-strap setup, I've gotten away with a 2,000-mile round trip from California to Wyoming (no problems, in other words). A lot of high speeds--the limit through Nevada at the time was 75 mph including big rigs (some of it was 80 mph this year) and that's what everybody did--but no bumpy surfaces except for the occasional road work-related pavement change.

I've also gotten away with towing the boat to Tahoe several times, a much shorter trip on sometimes dodgy pavement.

I tighten the strap ratchets just short of the point where the hull flexes.The aft and center straps have always worked fine, but the forward one had a tendency to work loose until I finally figured out how to place it.

GreenLake, I've thought about separate attachments on each side, and I do like the idea, but I can't figure out how to create guaranteed strong points on the boat without major surgery that I don't have time for, so I'll go with this for now.

If I lose the boat off the trailer, I may or may not tell anyone. :)
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Re: Trailering

Postby GreenLake » Fri Nov 03, 2017 2:01 am

If you have a front deck cleat, you need to run the front strap aft of that cleat. Amazingly enough, the bow gets narrow fast enough for the distance around to get shorter the more forward the straps are angled, with the result that the strap simply slips off. Held by the deck cleat, it can't escape (it's not tied to the cleat, so the force on the cleat is rather moderate, a slight forward push, which incidentally helps pull the boat towards the bow stop).

I don't see a need for a "middle" strap, other than just being able to add a bit more force w/o point loading the hull. I simply have an aft strap (my trailer has good places to connect it) and it runs 18" forward of the stern cleats. I'm not in danger of losing the boat, but it can (and will) shift on the trailer if I hit a major bump. The reason is that it can rotate a bit without requiring any give from the strap.

I tow rather short distances, and will manually re-position the boat if needed, so it's not been an issue to lose sleep over.

I recently replaced my straps with ones that have a bit of molded plastic added to the ratchet handle. Immediately that lead to enthusiastic crew to actually overtighten the strap and now I have a bit of crushed laminate and a dent in the rubrail that is bigger than anything I had before...
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: Trailering

Postby Shagbark » Sun Feb 04, 2018 8:33 pm

I'm less concerned about losing the boat as I am about losing a strap and it getting tangled up in a following car. I have had straps come off and fortunately got hung up on the mast support.
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Re: Trailering

Postby GreenLake » Sun Feb 04, 2018 9:57 pm

Never had a strap fall/slip off. However, if I run a strap from the trailer across the foredeck *forward* of the deck cleat, it will work itself loose, as the length of strap required to span the distance actually gets shorter as you approach the bow... that's why this strap now goes *aft* of the deck cleat, and all is fine.
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