Cradle to Jack Stands

[dmdoiron]

I'm about halfway, I hope, through reconditioning a Typhoon I bought last summer. It's now inside a barn here in Maine for the winter. Now I'm trying to think through what to do with the trailer that came with the boat.

Although old, it's a rugged double-axle utility trailer with a wooden cradle to support the boat. I'd like to keep the trailer if possible rather than buy a new one. The boat was previously used on the coast and a crane was used to put the boat onto the cradle. I'll be sailing on a lake with no marina, just a boat ramp with a nice steep ramp. The cradle is in bad shape. I kept my fingers crossed driving it 100 miles up the Turnpike last summer.

What I'd like to do is launch the boat in the spring, and then remove the old wooden cradle. I'm wondering if I should rebuilt a new cradle or replace that with four jack stands. I'm thinking that a cradle, although easy to build, would be difficult to position the boat onto during retrieval. So I'm leaning toward replacing the cradle with jacks stands.

Has anyone floated a boat onto a cradle at a boat ramp? If doable, is it easy?

It I go with jack stands, could these simply be bolted onto the planks on the trailer floor - the planks are in good shape, at least an inch thick. Or would I have to take off the planks and weld the stands to the trailer frame? Any recommendations as to where I could get jack stands at a reasonable price?

One final issue I'm dealing with is that the trailer barely has a tongue, so I'll need some kind of extension. What do you think of this idea. I have another trailer that I use for a 16' alum boat. I'm thinking of putting a trailer hitch at the end of that trailer and, after I get the Typhoon into the water, chock the wheels, disengage the SUV from the TY trailer, and then use the alum boat trailer as a tandem-trailer to launch/retrieve. A nice thing about that plan is that the TY trailer doesn't have a winch, but the other one does.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Dennis

[trapper]

Hi Dennis,

My husband built a trailer for my CD22. He first used 4 jackstands and a single axel but it was not strong enough. He rebuilt the trailer with the boat on the trailer as a cradle type of system and he added an axel. I have attached pics of the trailer that did not work very well. I will try to find pics of the final product.

If the boat can float freely off of the back of the trailer you should be able to launch in a lake if you have a tongue extender or I have seen a long rope used. We always use a tongue extender. Retrieval is another matter. You will need something to keep the boat straight on the trailer so that it does not float off on either side. A keel guide works well. Without a keel guides it is very difficult to keep the keel in the center of the trailer during retrieval.

Currently, my husband is building a trailer for my brother's old Rainbow 24. He is only going to use the trailer to pull it out of the lake and over to a storage area to work on it. I will try to get pics.

Below are pics of the trailer for the CD22 before the mods were made.

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb14 ... p/QT-move/

Good luck.

[Oswego John]

I'm about halfway, I hope, through reconditioning a Typhoon I bought last summer. It's now inside a barn here in Maine for the winter. Now I'm trying to think through what to do with the trailer that came with the boat.

Although old, it's a rugged double-axle utility trailer with a wooden cradle to support the boat. I'd like to keep the trailer if possible rather than buy a new one. The boat was previously used on the coast and a crane was used to put the boat onto the cradle. I'll be sailing on a lake with no marina, just a boat ramp with a nice steep ramp. The cradle is in bad shape. I kept my fingers crossed driving it 100 miles up the Turnpike last summer.

What I'd like to do is launch the boat in the spring, and then remove the old wooden cradle. I'm wondering if I should rebuilt a new cradle or replace that with four jack stands. I'm thinking that a cradle, although easy to build, would be difficult to position the boat onto during retrieval. So I'm leaning toward replacing the cradle with jacks stands.

Has anyone floated a boat onto a cradle at a boat ramp? If doable, is it easy?

It I go with jack stands, could these simply be bolted onto the planks on the trailer floor - the planks are in good shape, at least an inch thick. Or would I have to take off the planks and weld the stands to the trailer frame? Any recommendations as to where I could get jack stands at a reasonable price?

One final issue I'm dealing with is that the trailer barely has a tongue, so I'll need some kind of extension. What do you think of this idea. I have another trailer that I use for a 16' alum boat. I'm thinking of putting a trailer hitch at the end of that trailer and, after I get the Typhoon into the water, chock the wheels, disengage the SUV from the TY trailer, and then use the alum boat trailer as a tandem-trailer to launch/retrieve. A nice thing about that plan is that the TY trailer doesn't have a winch, but the other one does.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Dennis

In my personal estimation, it's much easier to use adjustable jackstands (some people call them poppets) to float and retrieve a boat, rather than using a cradle on a trailer. The cradle thing is doable, but a real pain in the derriere

You can buy jackstands at West Marine.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... 2010610444

Also at Brownell Corp.

http://www.brownellboat.com/

To save some money, shop around boatyards for used stands. Try ebay, etc

Some people attach pipes to the trailer and buy just the upper half of the stand which slides down inside of the support pipe.

As Trapper mentioned, it's a great help to have a keel guide installed on the trailer. There are two other things that I recommend that you install on the trailer to aid in retrieving the boat and keeping it centered on the trailer.

I think that you should install a hand winch at the front of the trailer. When you haul the boat back onto the trailer, the bow self centers itself as it is pulled toward the winch, which is mounted in the front center of the trailer.

Many boaters mount vertical guides on either side of the rear of the trailer. These guides prevent the stern of the boat from wandering off center, especially in a cross breeze.

I would forget the idea of using a second trailer in tandem. KISS. While you are improving your trailer for the long haul (pun intended) why not put a decent tongue on it. It will pay off in spades.

Good luck,
O J

[dmdoiron]

Thanks Trapper and OJ. I'll hunt around for some old stands through the winter and keep thinking about an extension. From what I've read - and in talking to a friend - the use of a rope seems to work fine for launching a boat, but a bit trickier in retrieving it. Maybe I'll just launch it with a rope, put on the jack stands and then see how well retrieval works with just a rope. If it doesn't work, I'll have the whole summer to rig up a extension.