Poly slick bunks

Jon - CLou · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 11:24 pm Post subject: Poly slick bunks

FYI-After inspecting the bottom of C-Lou, I noticed that the poly slick bunks left some pretty nice scratches on the bottom of the boat. I installed some carpet to the front and back of the bunks hoping to reduce the weight of the plastic slides. They work great, but they're a little rough on the bottom paint. Also, when trailering, the back of the boat wants to slide side to side when going around corners. This is with the back end strapped down really tight. If I were to do purchase a new trailer again, it would be a bunk with all carpet or rollers. Hope this helps for new buyers.
Jon

Da Nag · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 12:02 am Post subject:

Aren't those slicks an upgrade? As new as your trailer is, I wonder if you might be able to work something out with King, and swap them for carpet - might be worth a call.

Jon - CLou · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 12:31 am Post subject:

Bill, I'm not sure about the upgrade, but maybe I will call the factory for some carpet. Thanks for the idea.

Mighty Bite · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:12 am Post subject:

Hi Jon,

I'd be surprised if King wouldn't at least furnish you with the carpet for your bunks, if not re-do them for you in carpet, under the circumstances. I was looking at the poly glides on the King trailers at the boat show and the fore and aft edges are pretty sharp and abrupt. Looked to me to be a potential problem. Significantly easing those edged would help the scratch problem but sure wouldn't do anything for the sideways movement on cornering. Good luck.

Jon - CLou · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:30 am Post subject:

Mark, I think you hit the nail right on the head. The front and rear edges, I think, are causing most of the scratches. Yeah, I think the factory owes me some carpet for sure.

Hey Mark, way off the subject, but I have to tell you that I did some road cleanup in front of your previous home on Woodcock Road last week.

Mighty Bite · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:55 am Post subject:

Jon, I even mentioned the sharp edges to one of the representatives at the King booth and he acknowledged it but I'm sure that's as far as it went. Such a simple thing to correct I don't understand why they wouldn't.

On a brighter note, it was only -6 this AM and hit a high of 39 today. I was running around all day in a t-shirt, +47 tomorrow. This next month and a half + waiting for my new boat is going to seem like an eternity, but knowing Les @ E.Q. is doing his magic on it I guess I can handle it.

Almas Only · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 6:27 am Post subject:

Our boat tended to slide from side to side at the rear of the trailer, too. My concern was that this motion appeared to be stopped by the trailer bunk hitting the boat, on the inside of the chine. You could put all the tension you wanted on the tie down strap, and the stern of the boat still slid back and forth as you turned while trailering. The easy way to see if this is happening is to do a very low speed turn on a parking lot, and then feel under the boat on the side which was the inside of the turn, to see if the boat is up against the side of the bunk. Then do another turn in the opposite direction, and see if the boat shifts toward the other side of the trailer.

Our solution was to move two unused tie down anchors from the brake light units, down to the inside axle u-bolt brackets, and use not only the main tie down strap to keep the boat on the trailer, but also, two shorter tie down straps between the transom u-bolts and the relocated tie down anchors, to keep it centered. Locate the anchors wherever you want, so long as each strap is capable of applying a lateral force to the boat. To do this, the straps have to either "wrap" slightly to the inside, or come laterally away from the boat at a fairly steep angle. Otherwise, you're tending to pull the boat toward the front of the trailer, or just hold it down. Neither is a particularly effective means of eliminating lateral motion.

It takes a little adjusting to get the boat centered on the trailer. For transom straps which "wrap" around the boat, go ahead and tension the main strap, and then put moderate tension on the transom strap on the side toward which you want the boat to move, and nominal tension on the other transom strap. Then, pull the trailer in a 360 degree turn (heck, 180 would probably work just as well), and let the boat slide out, onto the higher tensioned transom strap. If the boat's then centered, retension the other transom strap, and you're set to go. If not, do a little more fine tuning. If your transom straps go laterally away from the boat, rather than slightly wrapping, just reverse the tensioning procedure. Either way, the objective is to have the boat tension one of the straps as it centers on the trailer, and then manually tension the other strap.

We got straps which have a soft plastic pad under the buckle, and a velcro closure which wraps around the buckle and strap, when the buckle is closed. Both features are recommended. There's not much strap material left over, so depending on your trailer, the size of your boat, and how it rides on the trailer, you might need more than 4 feet.

Jon - CLou · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 9:36 pm Post subject:

I called King Trailer Factory today and they were most helpful. The customer service fellow I spoke with was very pleasant and said he would carpet my bunks free of charge. Instead I elected to have them ship the pre cut carpet to me so I could install it myself. It's so nice when you have great customer service. Smile

King Trailer Company Thumbs Up

Jon