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......................................................................--- Bow Roller ---
After looking at some of the Mac trailers on the Internet I decided to make a bow roller to ease the loading of the boat on the trailer.
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After it was decided where I wanted the roller under the bow a piece of 1 X 2 was held under the trailer frame rails in that location and marks (arrows) were scribed on the wood with a felt tipped pen that showed the angles and distance apart. The crossmember. above was then made from square tubing and pieces of strap to match the angles and width.
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Mounting holes had been drilled in the strap before it was attached to the square tubing (arrows). The new crossmember. was then clamped to the frame rails and mounting holes were drilled through the frame rails for 3/8th inch bolts.
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A bracket was made to support the roller and at this point the mounting holes (arrow) hadn't been drilled out to 1/2 inch.
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This bracket was made from a bottom piece of strap and two other pieces of strap for the uprights.
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The round stock that the roller turns on was drilled on the ends for the keeper pins.
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The crossmember. was then drilled to 7/8th inch for bushings for the 1/2 inch bolts that would be used to hold the roller bracket on. Here I really messed up some how and did not drill these holes in the right location. Note how they weren't centered. Oh well. I didn't realize this until after I had....
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.... made these bushings out of 7/8th round stock drilled out to 17/32nds and .....
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... put them in the crossmember. and......
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............welded them in with the tig. Notice I didn't need any filler rod. Well I put the crossmember. up under the boat and the roller wasn't centered under the boat of course. I then had.....
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.... weld the bushings closed (arrows) and make new ones and weld them in the right place on the crossmember. I wanted bushings so that bolts wouldn't work loose crushing the crossmember. and also this way no water can enter the inside of the square tubing and form rust there.
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I had intentionally made the crossmember. lower than needed for any future adjustment in height of the roller. I made the spacers (arrows) out of some aluminum round stock and ......
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.... they along with the washers spaced the roller up where I wanted it. Now I can either remove or add spacers in the future if I want to raise or lower the roller. The arrow points to a wood platform I used on the floor jack to raise the front of the boat slightly while installing the roller so that the boat.....
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.........rests just a touch on the roller when the jack is removed. Here you can also see how the crossmember. bolts to the frame rails of the trailer.
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A picture after painting and ...............
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........... another and..........
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......... another.
If you go straight down from the rub-rail at the very front of the bow it is 65 inches back to the centerline of the roller.
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The first time we launched and retrieved the boat I was really happy about this mod. Here you can see how far the trailer is in the water and at this point the ballast tank is full on the boat as we are taking out.
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With the trailer in this far I was able to pull the boat forward with a bow line and then step out on the dry trailer tongue and hook the winch strap to the bow and .....
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.... winch the boat right up into the "V" at the front of the trailer. The bottom of the bow hit the roller (bottom arrow) and rolled right up into the front of the trailer with not much effort on the winch handle. One thing I had done at home was turned the winch (top arrow) upside down from where it was on the trailer when we bought it. I liked the way now that it is pulling the boat forward into the "V" and not downward like it was. Maybe there was a reason for it the way it was, but this seemed to work fine for us.
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Here you can see how the roller picks the front of the boat right up and into position. You can also see how high the boat is above the water line and how the trailer tongue is coming out of the water at this point and yet it winched easily all the way into.....
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.... the front "V" block. The side bunks also guided the boat right into position even though there was a cross wind on the boat at the dock. We are really happy with the bunks and roller mod as retrieving the boat was a "no brainer" for us beginners. If you haven't seen the construction of the bunks you can find that starting ( HERE ).
