Trailer Tilt

How much do you tilt?

I am of the opinion that a Ts16, whilst being launched or retrieved, should always be in contact with the end roller on the trailer.

And preferably, that end roller should be a double unit, for the reason that at some stage of the activity, the entire weight of the boat is on it.

Of course, how much tilt will depend on the size of the wheels on the trailer, and the level of the rollers as well. On some trailers the cross bars are straight, and others “V’d”, setting the rollers lower.

The thing I have observed, particularly in the recovery process, is that when a trailer is fully tilted, several things occur

• Having passed  over the end roller and moved onto the second (last) roller and approaching the third roller, the boat looses contact with the end one and is prone to swinging more, making it harder to keep straight
• When retrieving, you are actually winding the boat up-hill! Have a look next time.
• When launching at a shallow ramp, the effect is to spear the boat onto the bottom, and this occurs particularly when the rudder is fitted.

Admittedly, my trailer has 9” wheels and is “V’d”, so the top of the end roller is only about 450mm above the ground. This means that during launching the whole of the keel is on each roller as it passes over them and always on the end one until fully afloat. It also means that I can almost winch the boat fully on to the trailer on a 1:1 on the winch.

I have suggested to another member to try a reduced tilt on his trailer for recovery, and the test was so successful that he would like a modification to be made to enable this to be permanent.

The way to limit the tilt is to have a length of chain, say 5 or 6mm, with a 5/16 or 3/8 eye bolt on one end, and fasten this to one side of the vee of the trailer just near the tilt lock. On the other side, put another of the eye bolts, but opened up to make a hook. You will need about 500/600mm of chain. The reason for the hook is to enable the chain to be adjusted if necessary. Probably the most amount of tilt will be about 50/100mm at the tilt lock, not much really.

The other important thing to adjust to get a good clean launch and recovery is not to have the boat sitting firmly on the side runners. I suggest that these should be low enough to be able to slide a piece of corrugated cardboard between the top and the boat bottom, each side. After all, they are only there to prevent the boat toppling over; the full weight of the boat should be on the rollers.

Rollers should be regularly cleaned & greased, and the winch also needs regular oiling. Make it a habit, when retrieving the boat, to always put the winch handle into the boot as soon as you have wound the boat up and fastened the safety chain.

Re-inventing the Wheel!

In the March “Tillerscope” I printed an article about the way a boat should be launched & recovered and the use of the Tilt on the trailer.

Reading through the November 1983 “Tillerscoe”, I came upon the following article.

Handy Hints

Continued from the segment in the August 1983 issue of "Tillerscope”, dealing with trailer problems.

PROBLEM NO. 3  -  Tilt Control

The Problem with stock tilting trailers is that they provide two angles of tilt only: too much and/or too little.

With the latter the boat often has to be pushed off the trailer which experience has shown means pushed skew-whiff and off the rollers, etc., while with the former the deadwood digs into the sea-bottom and makes heavy work of launching. So obviously there must be an ideal angle some-where between the two extremes provided by the manufacturer.  The next question is in a popular phrase, "Where do you get it?'

Bolt or weld a hook to the front end of the tilting section of the trailer and bolt or weld a suitable length of 5mm galvanised chain to the underside of the draw-bar just ahead of the hook to prevent fouling when the tilt is not in use.

In operation the appropriate link is dropped over the hook thus limiting the degree of tilt to that desired.

Experience has shown that differently sloped ramps and depths of water, ideally, require different settings of the chain.