Why not winch the boat up?

[Hannibal]

It's been many years since I could launch our 17' SeaRay onto the yard with our magic tilt roller trailer, do maintenance and crank it back up onto the trailer. I have no desire to do that with our 190FSH but I noticed in the manual it says to not winch the boat onto the trailer. Does this mean not even the last 2-3 ft while retrieving the boat at the ramps or is it referring to the SeaRay yard retrieval? I've read of some ramps that don't allow you to power the boat onto the trailer. What is the concern with winching it on?

 

[Speedling]

No concern.
I use no wake mode and come in a little hot. Slides up nice but needs about a foot of cranking. Fulton F2 winch does a great job and my wife cranks it in. I find if i stand in the back of the boat it is easier to pull up as well.

 

[jetfisher]

uh oh, i better go check on this. I have always winched my boat on the trailer.

 

[Hannibal]

The only thing I can think of is if the strap broke, it could put a hurtin' on you. Surely there's no risk of pulling the eye out of the bow with my weenie arms?

 

[jawsf16]

You're stronger than you think, especially with help from that winch. Unfortunately I believe the bow eye is weaker than you think. These hulls are very thin and I doubt they did a big reinforcement job on the bow eye. I power load while wife cranks the f2. So to speak!!

 

[JAUGA82]

Fulton F2 winch and liquid rollers. I was about to declare WWIII on my trailer because the boat would be secure on the bow roller, but when I pulled up the ramp, it'd drop about 6 inches off. I even did the welded bow roller arm mod, which helped but didn't fix the problem. Now it slides like butter back on the roller after I pull up the ramp. That winch is a complete beast, and with the liquid rollers, I have absolutely no worries about the bow eye. But, you don't want to use too much because it can make it tricky getting the strap hooked to the eye because the boat will roll off the bunks when you cut the engines.

 

[Ronnie]

I don't recall my manual stating I shouldn't winch the boat onto the trailer but i prefer to power on whenever I can because I don't like the sounds (popping/cracking) I hear or the things I see (lots of strain on the strap, the bow stop seemingly flexing under the weight) sometimes when I winch the boat onto the trailer. Plus power loading is so much faster.

After my first and only 30 minute recovery I did declare wwIII on my trailer. That is, Installed everything I could to make recovering and trailering easier. This includes an f2 2 speed winch, trailer guides, a boat buddy II and self retracting transom straps. Worth every penny to avoid being "that guy" at the ramp who takes forever to recover his boat and looks like a rookie doing it.

 

[Hannibal]

I'm going to look into the liquid rollers spray. I haven't yet learned the best depth for the trailer to launch or retrieve. Fenders just above the water is way too high for our boat. Second launch I backed in until the boat just started to float. Fenders were at least two inches under and bunks just peaking out at the front. I put the trailer in the same to retrieve and waves from other boats kept pushing the boat off center of the trailer. Bow guides on the trailer may be in the near future. I see other people with outboards power their boats right up to the bow eye. I don't really want to push it that far for concern of vacuuming up debris through the impeller from the surface of the ramp. Ease it onto the bunks and winch the last 2-3' seems like the safest for the jet drive. The manual disagrees.

 

[sstegh]

I believe the problem is the stock wench on the trailers. If you've replace the stock wench with something beefier then it's not an issue.

 

[JAUGA82]

I'm going to look into the liquid rollers spray. I haven't yet learned the best depth for the trailer to launch or retrieve. Fenders just above the water is way too high for our boat. Second launch I backed in until the boat just started to float. Fenders were at least two inches under and bunks just peaking out at the front. I put the trailer in the same to retrieve and waves from other boats kept pushing the boat off center of the trailer. Bow guides on the trailer may be in the near future. I see other people with outboards power their boats right up to the bow eye. I don't really want to push it that far for concern of vacuuming up debris through the impeller from the surface of the ramp. Ease it onto the bunks and winch the last 2-3' seems like the safest for the jet drive. The manual disagrees.

Backing in with the fenders just above the water is exactly how I do it (and others I know with our boats). I tried going deeper but it often caused the boat to settle off center when you pull it out if the water. It's completely up to chance whether it settles level when you back up any deeper. Give liquid rollers a shot. It's crazy how well it works. I think our puny little stock winches could even pull it out of the water after applying it.

 

[scokill]

There is no way to have a standard rule given that ramps have a variety of angles. The rule you have to have enough bunk contact with the boat to straighten the boat and lift bow above bow roller, but not too much to cause too much friction to bring to bow roller under moderate throttle or force on winch or bow eye. This becomes more difficult with steeper ramps. I look at water line on the front bunks, not fender depth. I leave about 15"-18" of bunks exposed. If you use a ramp all the time you should know the sweet spot for that ramp. If I'm using an unknown ramp I will tend to lean on too shallow vs. too deep. It's easy to back up with boat in bunks and straight and easy up to bow eye. If you are too deep you usually have to back up and start over as you will drift off center.

Liquid rollers is a good idea, but also back down and get all of the bunk surface wet and then pull up.

 

[txav8r]

One thing that will save your hull is making sure you have the bow eye bolt completely up and against the bow roller before trailering. I have not found that I can get it completely snug without leaving "some" power on the engines while I tighten the winch. If you don't have it completely against it, and then tighten the transom straps completely, the boat bottom gets scuffed on the carpet where you can't see it when loaded...this is with or without soft bunks, liquid rollers, or anything. About the only thing I know that prevents this is keeping the boat from moving. If you have an MFI trailer on an older boat, and don't have a bow stop post weld or bolt mod, your boat moves EVEN if you follow the above procedure...so you should modify the post to prevent the movement. The Shorelandr trailer post is solid and doesn't flex like the MFI. @scokill is on the money, wet the bunks first...even maybe put it under completely and pull up and back several times occasionally to rinse them. If you can, use a brush occasionally on them to get the sand out. I too back deeper, to float the boat first, then pull up to launch depth. It makes a BIG difference. I do not winch my boat to the stop. I have the stock winch and did on the previous boat, and never saw a need to winch as it just doesn't do any underwater damage to pcowerload...the pumps are jetting on top of the water, not down on the ramp under the water like an I/O would do. It looks and sounds bad, but your just surface splashing. If you have two people to load and crank, it goes fast, 10 seconds maybe...if you alone, like me, it takes maybe 20 seconds, to walk to the front with the power still up, and winch tight, and then go power down.

One more thing, if you find after you pull out, that you didn't get the boat snug up and under the bow roller, you can do a hard stop (be careful with this), to scoot the boat's bow eye up and under the bow stop roller, then winch tight again, and tighten the transom straps. Even with getting it tight, when the straps dry, they can either tighten or stretch, and i'll be damned if I can guess correctly. So at the first stop I check them again. When I load correctly, they always stay tight.

 

[Hannibal]

Thanks for all the helpful tips and advice. We're going out early tomorrow morning. I will try to employ what you all have suggested. Wish I could take off a week day so I could experiment without a line of people waiting on me coming and going.