Upgrade trailer or use vintage design

John Hart · Post by **John Hart** » Thu May 31, 2007 5:37 am

I am planning to upgrade my Tee Nee trailer shortly... I am thinking of replacing the old wiring and bulb lights with a new kit with round LED lights. My winch appears to be an unoriginal copper color, with a frayed yellow rope. I think I will replace with a new ESD black painted one from Overtons, which has a black winch strap vs. rope.

Also, I am trying to decide what to replace the old partly rusted safety chains with... new zinc or SS chains, or maybe even safety cables.... Has anybody had any experience with these self coiling cables?

I scraped and repainted the trailer with gloss black rustoleum paint several years ago. Although I have replaced the roller bunks with carpeted wood, and will add several more bunks this year, I did have a printing company make me new Tee Nee labels from the original design so it would look like a new trailer.

I don't plan to enter the trailer in any vintage competitions, and I guess I am ready to use the smartest technology, even if overall the trailer will present a combination of 1960's image, but still cool for 2007...

Any comments... are you guys original equipment proponents for trailers....?

John Hart

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Thu May 31, 2007 9:03 am

I prefer the vintage trailers, just for the look of it, as long as they correctly hold the boat (which mine does not), I am in the middle of freashing up and modifying my 62 Holsclaw trailer. I'm into the full vintage package, but like you have no desire to wine any concourse events where the trailer makes a difference. I'm stripping and repainting all the harware, replaceing the rusting bolts with zinc plated carriage bolts, modifying the roller bunks into longer flats, replacing all the keel rollers, winch rope, break away chains, etc etc. A fair amount of work, but it's easy and certainly costs less than a new or used trailer. I'm hoping to find the same trailer somewhere so that I can add it's axle to mine to make it into a tandem, and add it's bunks as forward bunks. Cuase, you know, I have nothing else to do.

Rodney Syverson · Post by **Rodney Syverson** » Thu May 31, 2007 5:48 pm

John, Peter.
A couple of photos of a 62 Holsclaw I rebuilt to carry my 62 Lancer. I favored modernizing my trailer to make it safe to carry my heavily invested boat project. I replaced the coupler, the jack, the tail lamps with LED lamps, safety chains and finally the tires. Even though my 20 plus year old tires looked perfect I was not going to trust my boat to them. Problem is the 12 inch tires of the original trailer are not available any more. So I purchased new 5 bolt hubs that fit the existing axles that allowed me to go to 13 " tires. These steel wheel trailer tire assemblies look like the original. They also could be accessorized with Baby Moon's that looked like the original.
I converted my rolling bunks into sold bunks. I made two bunks by laminating two 2X4's to a 2X6. The T shaped bunk was first cut to width so that it would fit into the rolling bunk channel. I then lowered my boat onto the bunks. I then scribed a line along the bottom equidistant from the bottom of the hull all around the bunks. After removing the material above the line the bunk conformed to the bottom of my hull perfectly. I then glued and stapled carpet to the bunk. My thinking was to better support the hull with something that fits the hull rather than mating a flat plank to a curved hull. Contemplating the amount of time the boat sits on the trailer I did not want to lose my recently restored proper convex shape of my hull. Rod
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e219/ ... oat018.jpg

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thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:26 pm

Thanks Rod! I am taking a similar approach. I'm flipping the metal rollers over and after clean up and paint I'll attach a 2X6 to them. I like your idea of how to better shape the bunk to the bottom. I'll give that a try. I've actually just arrived at the point where I am building the new bunks - I'll post back to let folks know ouw it goes.

MikeA · Post by **MikeA** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:12 pm

Just curious about why you guys are switching from roller beds to plank bunks? Is there a specific reason or is it just because it's cheaper. I'm in the midst of refurbing my '56 Holsclaw and I was going to go back to roller beds. Is there something I should know?

John Hart · Post by **John Hart** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:19 pm

There are a few reasons... the first one being that I could not find replacement rollers for my trailer... I went to several boat shops and nobody had anything I could use. One fella told me that the material used back then, was the same as for the old Maytag wringer washers... I realized that he was probably right. They were gray rollers, about an inch and 7/8 by 5"....

On my trailer, at least one was missing, and several others so disintegrated that they were useless. The boat was pushing in and deformed around several areas as the wood was resting on the metal channel that was holding the rollers.

If you think about it, there is a lot more surface area contact with a carpeted bunk, 6" x 48", than the 1/4" x 5" X 5 rollers. It seems to me that spreading out the weight of the boat is a good idea...

It is a little different to launch a boat, though. While I always tried to keep the hubs out of the water on my aluminum fishing boat, I plunge the trailer for my Seacoaster completely under water, and FLOAT the boat off.

John.

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 6:18 pm

Same basic reasons as above - on my trailer the rollers themselves are in good shape, but are all frozen. If you inspect the underside of my boat, you can see indentations where each roller was, and as well, the rollers were chewing up the edges of the gardboards.

I considered replacing the rollers with new rubber rollers on new axles, but I also want to extend my bunks. They did not extend under the transom, and so of course put a hook in the bottom. How bad I don't know.

A flat plank bunk evens out the load on the bottom vs the pressure points of hard roller. Just makes me feels better.

Phill Blank · Post by **Phill Blank** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:16 am

On a wood boat one wants BUNKS not rollers. Roller as your guys have indicated form pressure points on the hull and over time will cause the hull to deform around the rollers. As wood tends to deform under pressure and then retain the deformation a nice soild flat bunk will keep you hull flat and this is what you want for a good planing surface. Also the bunks if carried beyond the transom will keep the hull from getting a hook. Placement of the bunks is also cretical so as not to cause the hull to doop around the bunk. With proper placement of bunks and the keel rollers your hull should ride well on the trailer and on the water.

"BUNKS RULE"

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 12:25 pm

Phil - my bunks set just outside of the sister keelsons, say, 4 inches or so. I am re-building the bunks as I type (taking a break, literally). I am extending them past the transom. Is four inches outside of the sisters OK?

Phill Blank · Post by **Phill Blank** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:54 pm

Grammas,
I would think 4" outside should be OK. The sister's are there to help support the hull and give it strength along with the keel. As long as they go a little past or are atleast even with the transom you are supporting the tramson and the hull at the same time I think you will be fine.
Main thing is to have as equal a support as possible to the hull keel, transom and stem all thigs should be good. I set my trailers up so when the hull is on the bunks the keel rollers have a small amount of pressure on them and can be turned by hand with some effort but are not carrying all the hull weight. The stem is riding on a roller just aft of the area where the it makes the turn into the same plain as the keel. This roller is carrying the weight of the bow only.
Also the bunks should be long enough to carry the weight of the hull for the same length as the sister keelson or a little longer towrad the bow. In this way everything should be evenly distributed so in the hull is as evenly loaded as possible. Main thing to remeber is to keep the hull as flat as possible when on the trailer as it would be supported in the water.

a j r · Post by **a j r** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:15 am

Phill gives very good, sound advice and I second the motion! Keep away from roller bunks on any wooden boat.

Andreas

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:11 am

Excellent - my plans exactly - I've gotten all the painting done and am reassembling - I'll post pics when the boat is back on.

John Hart · Post by **John Hart** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:11 pm

Phil... I have been struggling with the length of the bunks that I am planning to add to support the keel of my 1960 Seacoaster..... I had planned to add a 10' bunk on each side of the keel, at about the bilge stringer position...

After laying under my boat a bunch of times, I am thinking that instead, I will cut my 10' treated 2x4s into 80" and 40" bunks... the hull is flat for about the last 1/2 of the boat, but is turning into more of a V by about the windshield....

The 6 1/2' bunk will support along the keel in basically a flat position, and then I would angle the 40" bunk in a little to accomodate the bow a little better, and maybe position it out just a little more from the keel...

Does that make sense.... I could say the keel itself is flat for 12', so I should keep a continuous bunk for the 10 footer, but I thought I would like a little more of a cradle to eliminate any tendancy for rocking and rolling on the road...

I know this may sound a little obsessive, but I tend to analyze things over and over, before I make a move...

John.

thegammas · Post by **thegammas** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:11 pm

Thought I would post pics of my revamped trailer - I flipped the original roller bunks over and moved them aft 9 inches so they would extend past the transom - then bolted a 2x6 to the steel roller bunk assembly. The wood bunks extend to a point about 10 inches forward of where the original bunks ended. The forward section of the plank is reinforced with a steel galvanized pipe attached to the steel bunk. I also removed, stripped, and repainted the brackets and such, and replaced all the old keel rollers with new (the old were frozen solid and hard as rocks). Finally, set up a new light assembly that moves the lights aft and up. Groovey.

A few views of the orig set up

And a few of the new set up

a j r · Post by **a j r** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 3:33 am

Very nice Peter!