Check your straps

D

Donald Tyson

Member
I left Florida early Wednesday and I'm glad I left a bit early. On the way home I had an interesting experience. Somewhere in southern VA the winch strap broke. I don't know how far I continued to drive but at some point I pulled off to get some gas and I noticed that the bow of the boat had slid forward until the safety chain stopped it from running into my pickup. The transom also slid to starboard. There is some minor gelcoat damage on the starboard aft chine which I can fix when the whether warms. From where I was at the gas pump I found that a boat dealer was just up the street a few miles. Using their lift they strapped and lifted the boat and recentered it. Then they replaced the winch straps and added factory styled transom straps. The whole event took less than an hour and My hat is off to the crew at Nautical Marine as they saw my predicament and jumped right to it.
Nautical Marine
10223 Route 1
Richmond, VA 23237

The massage here is to not get into the predicament I did. In addition to all the other items to check such as bearings, brakes , lights and hitch, also check your tie down and winch equipment.

Best wishes everyone...
 
Good advice, thank you. Seems you got real lucky, and to get it taken care of so quickly while traveling is rare. You must be living right! Fortunately the safety chain did its job and shows its appropriately named. Just recently Dale had his boat totaled while trailering, a beautiful 25.

James
 
We stop every two hours when trailering (and most other times). We check all straps, tires for temp, and bearing temp with an IR thermometer. I always put a wide ratchet strap over the cockpit just IN FRONT OF the aft cleats, as another safeguard from the boat sliding forward on the trailer. The small straps (to the transom eyes) I also use, but many of them are not rated highly enough to carry the load if there is an accident, sudden stop or even speeding around the corner. We also recommend a tandem axle trailer if you are driving long distances. The single axle trailers are often described as "Boat Yard Trailers".

Tires on boat trailers should be less than 6 years FROM DATE of MANUFACTURE! (not from time installed on the trailer.

All C Dory trailers above the 16', should have brakes on them. Surge is most common. But for long distance trailering I have put Electric / hydraulic bakes are one of our 22s. They are better, and give better control, especially on long down grades.
 
Another safety add-on for trailers that I have found very useful is a tire pressure monitoring system. This provides instantaneous readings of individual tire pressure and temperature on a small screen one can install on the dash. An alarm will sound if either T or P on any tire exceed pre-set specs. If the bearings overheat, the heat will be transferred to the tire and it will read higher than the others. The system I have (TMS TPMS from etrailers) is wireless and one unit can handle up to 16 different axles, so I have them on both my boat trailer and RV trailer. This reduces my stress level during long hauls!
 
Also, I agree that additional protection is needed from side to side movement on the trailer. The C-Dories have relatively flat bottoms and can easily slide sideways on carpeted bunk boards. I urge folks to also consider side bunk boards that come up almost to the gunwale. I included these in my order for my trailer. My previous St. Pierre Dories had a completely flat bottom and the side boards were an absolute necessity for trailering. Also, when attaching the trailering straps on the transom I bring them a little bit forward and attach them to a point on the cross bar under the boat rather than on the side rail of the trailer. This reduces the amount of side to side play during towing.
 
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