..................
......................--- Boat Supports for the Stern & Bow---
I started today to build some side bunks on the trailer to hopefully help in retrieving the boat. I needed to lift the rear of the boat off of the trailer so I could drill some holes in the top of the trailer frame at the very rear. To do this I spent a couple hours and made made the following support for the stern of the boat. I hope later to use it to completely remove the trailer from under the boat also.
...............
The first thing I did was to lower the tongue of the boat as low as the tongue jack would allow. That raised the stern of the boat up as it pivoted around the axle. Then I built the support shown in the picture.
..................................
I started on the starboard side with the two uprights (middle arrows) and the piece at the bottom of the boat (upper arrow). I cut the tops to a compound angle and wedged them in under the top board. I started with them a little long and kept cutting the bottom end off until I liked where they were. Next I tied them together at the bottom with a board (bottom arrow). That was followed by putting in a diagonal brace top right arrow. That finished the right side. Next I ..............
...............
...... did the same to the left side (middle left arrow). With both of the individual supports in place I tied them together with a board across the bottom. I used grabber type screws for all of this. I have a small bit in one screw gun and a screw driver bit in another. I'll drill a pilot hole through one piece with the one gun and then run a screw through the hole and into the other piece with the second screw gun. I also tied the two supports together at the top with a piece of wafer board.
...............
Next a 2 X 4 was screwed to the bottoms of the up rights (2 bottom arrows) with 5 three inch grabber screws. Then two diagonal braces were made from some clear (no knots) 1 X 2's. The top arrow points to the tops of the two braces. The picture just shows one screw in each, but they ended up being drilled and screwed to the upright with 3 screws each. The same for their bottom ends.
...............
This view shows the compound angle cuts on the uprights better. To make these I just used the radial arm saw and instead of putting them flat against the back fence on the saw I raised the end away from the blade (where the cut was to be made and rotated the board at the end away from the cut away from the fence. This didn't take much moving of the board up and away on the end with my hand to make the compound angle cut. It isn't perfect, but good enough to have a boat sitting on it. Make the uprights a little long and do the compound cut. If it isn't right just take a little more off until it is. Then cut the square end to fit to the length you want.
...............
Another view...............and...............
...............
......... another. I raised the tongue and the back of the boat came off the trailer fine and was supported by the stand but I was a little paranoid about one thing. I didn't like the fact that the boat is tapering down away from this support I didn't think it would slide forward and it didn't act like it was still I wanted to cover my bases.
...............
I took a length of 2 X 6 I had and slid it into the mount for the rudder and drilled two holes in it and put the rudder mount bolts through the holes (top two arrows). Then I measured forward at the bottom of the 2 X 6 to the support structure and ripped a 2 X 4 to fit in that place (bottom arrow).
...............
Then I cut a two pieces of scrap plywood and gusset the two pieces together on both sides with some screws (arrows). Now if the boat would want to slide forward it would have to take the support along with it.
Now with the back of the boat supported I can jack the tongue up (I had better luck with a large floor jack than the tongue jack) and as the tongue goes up the back of the trailer rotates down and the back of the trailer separates from the boat and is lower than it. If you continue to jack the front up and can then support it you can then lower the front of the trailer only down and it will be separated entirely from the boat. I'll try doing this and making a front support another time.
...............
After I was done with the support I needed to store it and to make it easier to assemble and disassemble the support I added the gusset with the arrow. Now I just use the screw gun on the diagonal braces above it to remove them from the up rights. besides locating the braces the gussets will also make the whole deal stronger.
...............
On the bottom I switched from the 3 inch screws and drilled two holes for carriage bolts (arrows). Remove the two carriage bolts form the bottom on each side and...
...............
Take the screws out of the top and in a minute the whole thing breaks down into 3 pieces that is easy to store and doesn't take up much room.
...............
To support and raise the boat towards the bow I made this set of blocks that were screwed together to fit on the top of my floor jack. I needed this to add height to the top of the floor jack.
...............
I purposely put two pieces of 1 X 2 along the top and spanned them with some 5/8 inch thick wafer board I had and did not support the wafer board in the middle. This way when I jacked the boat up the wafer board bent in 3/4 of an inch and broke some, but spread the forces over a much larger section of the hull bottom and not just at one contact point.
...............
I added another piece of wafer board to the bottom that was sized to fit in the pocket of the jack top. This by no means creates a solid attachment to the jack surface, but helps to center this spacer.
...............
Here is the spacer on the jack. I have it located on the jack as if the jack would be straight under the boat, but it can be located at any place on the jack and the jack can come in from the side. I positioned it on my Mac 26S with the swing centerboard just in front of the centerboard pocket as the hull looks to be very strong there.
...............
Finally one caution. It can be VERY DANGEROUS to put something on a jack like this and then lift something. A block on top of a floor jack can want to pivot out and drop the load. Our boats could very easily kill someone if they fell on them. Use extreme caution while jacking, supporting and working around or under a boat when it is off the trailer. Before I would get under the boat while it is on a jack like this I would put jack stands on each side with a heavy pipe or other suitable crossmember. from side to side under the boat in the area of the jack. A jack can fail without notice if a seal blows and or the load could tip and come off of a jack with an arrangement like above. Please be very careful.
A little more...........
I have a storage bay off to one side of my shop. I made it to use as a paint room for my car stuff, but found out that the Mac would just fit inside of it and decided to store it in there over the winter if I wasn't using the space for anything else. It will just barely fit in on the trailer, but I also wanted to paint the bottom, so decided to fix things up so I could pull the trailer out from under it.
...............
I made a second support to use near the stern forward of the support I made further up this page. It is in the foreground. This was to distribute the weight over a larger area. To pull the trailer I still first use the rear support after dropping the tongue down to the ground to raise the stern. Then I jack the tongue back up with a floor jack (saves the tongue jack that isn't really designed for large loads).
...............
I had some 2 X 8's left over from when I built the house. I laminated (just nailed them together) 4 together for the overhead beam and 3 together for the side supports. The over head beam fits above the door tracks. I bought some of the webbing that is used to lift heavy equipment and used that an some chain to make a sling. When the trailer tongue is jack up high I place the sling under the boat just forward of the centerboard trunk and then lower the trailer and pull the wheels/tires off and drag it out on the hubs. I also have some of those platforms that you use to move a vehicle around that go under the vehicle's tires and have 4 castors on them. I use those when I push the trailer back in as it is easier to position it that way, but you wouldn't need them.
...............
Once the trailer is out I block the bottom center of the boat a couple places forward as a safety measure and remove most of the weight from the straps, but keep them under the boat. I screw the brace shown above (there is one for the other side also) to the uprights and it fits against one of the side stanchions on the boar. This is added security to keep the boat from tipping. but it is quite stable with the two "V" supports at the rear.
The upright above is bolted to the wall at the bottom right arrow to steady it.
...............
The upright on the opposite side is attached to the track bracket to keep it from moving. This system has worked really well. With the trailer outside there is a lot more room to move about on the sides of the boat to get to other items stored on this side of the shop. I'll try and post pictures at some point with the boat in the shop.
...............
A view into the storage bay.
...............
Here the boat is on the rear support and the strap (top arrow) at the front. The second rear support isn't put in place until the trailer is out. The bottom right arrow points one of the castors under the hub on the axle. Here I'm removing the trailer, so that I can finish adding the second axle with brakes to it.
...............
Here you can see the front most blocking and more blocking behind it. The straps are tight, but the blocks are carrying most of the weight.
...............
One final shot and at this point the side bracing between the uprights and stanchions on the boat are not in place.