I have had two bow-eyes(metal u bolt)to break on my 18.5 foot fiberglass boat. Any ideas or fixes to prevent this from happening. I am not winching it down that tight, i don't think.
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I have had two bow-eyes(metal u bolt)to break on my 18.5 foot fiberglass boat. Any ideas or fixes to prevent this from happening. I am not winching it down that tight, i don't think.
If its a stainless and you're breaking it I would say increase the size. Different brand maybe also...sometimes just bad metallurgy on some products. It should be nearly impossible to break a quality stainless one.
They are stainless and broke two of them. thinking may be a trailer issue. The nose of the boat is about a inch off the bow roller
I don't know what your winch setup looks like but I keep my stem cinched up tight against the bow roller. Boat trailers will flex on the road. You may be getting some varying stress on that bow eye from the trailer flexing. If your setup will allow, try cranking the stem up against the roller. You mentioned that you keep it off the roller by an inch. Other folks can chime in on how they trailer their boat.
A inch off roller is where it is after unhooking all straps, should the boat rest on the winch roller with all straps unhooked?Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquadog
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I pull mine tight to the bow roller, then tighten transom straps. I think it trailers better when locked down tight.
I have others winch my boat up and left the inch, however it seemed to bounce too much for my liking going down the interstate.
I pull over , winch tight, tighten up transom straps and carry on.
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I was wonder if it was pulling up on winch strap that's why it keeps breaking will add pictures when I make it home
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The bow eye and the winch strap should be under the bow roller and the boat should be tight against the bow roller
Pictures would sure help, I'm thinking it needs to be against roller if possible.
Pictures of how it sit with all straps and transom saver off Attachment 293005Attachment 293006Attachment 293007
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I'm chiming in with everyone else. Your boat is back too far. Your eye should be against the roller. Leverage of boat rocking is causing eye to break
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The arm that has the roller on it is adjustable. Raise it up so it contacts the boat. Then crank the winch tight. Eye against roller. When you drive the boat on the trailer the roller should lift the nose of the boat. The eye should be against the roller. To assist in that, keep the boat in gear then hook up winch and tighten down. The take out of gear.
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Your roller it too low. Raise it to touch the keel of the boat.
What smoke wolf said. It has got to be tight. It's that sudden impact when you hit a bump boat rocks down putting slack in strap then snaps back up stretching that eye until it finally snaps.
Should the weight of the nose of boat be on the roller, like maybe the front of the bunks too high or something to that effect.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMOKEWOLF67
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No adjustment on the winch post to my knowledgeQuote:
Originally Posted by SMOKEWOLF67
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Could be. Can you show a picture of the front of the bunks and good pictures of how the bow roller is mounted to the arm.Quote:
Originally Posted by gaint_71
Are the boat skids as low as they will go ?? If not you may be able to drop them down and make up for the gap. Otherwise it looks like you may need to drill another hole for your winch head, and raise the bow roller up ... or else get a new winch stand. :dono
What I'm talking about, when I say drill another hole for your winch head, is :
looking at this picture ... the bolt is in the lower hole of the winch head & that whole section needs to be raised up so that the bow roller fits snuggly against the bow of the boat in front of the bow eye ... so that the front end of the boat doesn't move up/down once it's winched up tight and ready to tow.
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...306_154444-jpg
Your roller assembly obviously is not adjustable, but it does look like the main frame head is "capped" onto the bottom frame and held in place with that bolt (which I assume goes all the way thru to the other side). Whether or not there are already other holes under that cap, you won't know until you unbolt it and lift it up. If there are other holes, but they don't line up with the same distance needed to push the bow roller up against the bow of the boat ... you'll just need to mark it and drill thru both cap and bottom frame.
And NO, I'm not a mechanic, and am merely suggesting an option ... based on what I can see/determine from your pictures.
This is a picture runner from front of boat Attachment 293023Attachment 293025Quote:
Originally Posted by tlefire
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Doesn't look like your runner are adjustable, need to do what crappiepappy said.
I see your runners are not adjustable, either :Doh: .... so, yeah, you're gonna have to make the adjustments at the winch stand.
I'll assume that trailer was made for that boat, but ... make sure the boat's transom isn't hanging off way past the rear of the runners.
Sometimes I don't get my boat winched up good and tight against the roller (at the ramp) ... so I find a good downhill road or parking area and finish winching it down (even if I have to jam the brakes to make it slide forward). But, that usually only happens when I'm fishing alone and try to get out of the way of others on the ramp asap. :biggrin (I've seen some people take nearly 20mins trying to get their boat trailered just so, moving the vehicle - moving the boat - re-moving the vehicle - rinse/repeat :Doh: )
Thanks for posting the pictures. They are helpful. As others have suggested, I would find a way to raise the roller some. When installing your new u-bolt, you should consider running those outside nuts all the way down to the shank. This will help reduce the leverage on the u-bolt. All of my boats have been configured like that.
Attachment 293096
With the boat shorten, my hook will not got in the boweye because roller is in way, do they have rollers that aren't as thickQuote:
Originally Posted by Aquadog
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Your roller diameter looks to be correct. Like CrappiePappy said, you will need to find a way to raise that roller a little bit. When you are finished, you should be setup like this:
Attachment 293108Attachment 293109
Once you raise your bow roller to make proper contact, you can run the ubolt down to the end of the threads and everything back in line. Before you do anything though, I would make sure the boat sits proper on the trailer like crappiepappy suggest. If not, correct that and then fix the bow roller and ubolt.Quote:
Originally Posted by gaint_71
This could be one option, change to a "V" style at the bow. If you have a local marina I would drive it over there and measure it up. They should have in stock.
https://www.overtons.com/modperl/pro...top-2&i=317583
This is another idea to help reduce the bouncing and provide a safer pull
https://www.overtons.com/modperl/pro...-Down&i=315083
This evening got under the boat and jack it up off trailer to make sure everything was seating right, i move a couple running about a inch or so to see if that helped. It didn't still sitting with nose up about a in after replacing bow-eye. I am going to try to move winch post forward maybe to two inches to see if pulling boat up farther will get the nose down. Any suggestion on professional help with trailer.
I think I would try to see if there are more adjustment holes under the winch cap, first, as you wouldn't have to raise it more than an inch. You really don't want the bow of the boat resting on the roller if it's lifting off the skids to do so. The boat should rest most of the weight on the runner skids and the bow should contact the roller right in front of the bow eye at the same time, but not really carry any weight .... just be in alignment -- the boat being level in relation to the trailer and the bow eye in contact with the roller when the boat is winched up tight & ready to travel. And if raising the cap puts the bow of the boat on the roller, yet lifts the front half of the boat off the runners ... then just re-adjust the runners back to where they were originally, or up/down to where they need to be to bare the weight of the boat.Quote:
Originally Posted by gaint_71
And if that winch strap hook doesn't have the spring lock lever still on it ... I'd buy a whole new strap/hook assembly. Mine is broken (missing the lock lever) and that's one of my "to do list" things I intend to take care of before I start using the boat again. At 70yrs old, I'm getting a little too shaky to be standing on the trailer tongue bent over and trying to hook the boat with one hand & winch the slack out of the strap with the other. It just falls out of the eye too easily without that spring lever to stop it. I can get a new one from my local Cabela's for <$15. ( https://www.cabelas.com/product/Boat...E&gclsrc=aw.ds )
Since you show your home lake as Sardis and you need help, I'd take it by performance marine in Sardis and get them to help you out. Alike others said that winch stand needs to move up about 2 inches and should be adjustable to a point if not and you want to work with it your self, take off one of the U bolts that holds stand to trailer. Go to tractor supply and buy a couple same size and width but with the threaded ends being 2-3 inches longer. Take stand loose and start adding something as shims under it until you get it where you need it. Once that is established go to a fab shop and find a piece of square tubing to put under it and tighten it back down. Also on that U bolt eye very important for strength that nuts be all the way down on threads to relive stress.Quote:
Originally Posted by gaint_71
Quote:
Originally Posted by "G"
:hesaid