Small RIB trailer info

[CUSAC]

I've been looking at 4m ish RIBs to buy (used) and a lot of them seem to be on homemade looking trailers with several keel rollers and then a single roller wheel each side above the axle to stabilise the boat once loaded (similar to pic below).

I've launched and recovered plenty of boats with full roller or bunk trailers and haven't seen this set up before. Looks to me as if it would be fairly tricky to load the boat as the side rollers don't come into play until the boat is well on the trailer and you would have to line up perfectly to get the keel on (or get quite wet and load manually i guess?)

Most of the time I launch/recover solo so it looks like this wouldn't be possible with this arrangement so am currently budgeting for a new roller trailer when looking to buy.

Can anyone please explain how this sort of trailer is used effectively?

Cheers

[CUSAC]

Pic of similar trailer

[jeffstevens763@g]

Originally Posted by CUSAC

Pic of similar trailer

yep thats a trailer that will damage your boat quite easily the keel roller is too far out and as you say the rollers dont do anything until the boats well on. you need a set up that will allow the boat to load from an angle floating carrier.

cheers

[jyasaki]

Wouldn't another set of rollers further up the trailer help center the front when recovering?

Remember that when your're picking the boat up, the trailer is angled downwards as the boat comes onto it, so all the initial contact is towards the front. I have a bunk trailer, and the bunks run the full length of the hull (to the upsweep at the bow) so running the boat onto the trailer puts the hull between the bunks and largely centers the boat to the trailer. As you pull the trailer from the water, the hull nestles down between the bunks and self-centers as the stern drops onto the trailer. That pic doesn't look like it would do that.

To be honest the pic also doesn't seem to have a lot of support for the hull - I prefer spreading the load out a little more (and I've got an aluminum hull.)


jky

[Last Tango]

Yep PIA getting a boat onto a trailer like that. If the ramp is steep the rear roller will be well below the keel but normally it's too shallow for that and the boat will roll off it rather than on it.... Been there....got the t-shirt.