Thought it best to continue my rant,er,"discussion" here as opposed to tying up gillyzonkers Seafarer thread.
If your winch setup is all the way forward, and the hull hangs off the bunks aft, than I'm inclined to believe your dealer put your Seafarer on a trailer in the yard that was already there as opposed to getting one sized properly for your boat. As mentioned in the other thread, a foot of distance seems a lot to me.
I have also experienced the "winch vs. bow pulpit" encounter. I finally figured out that if you just keep backing down and sinking the trailer deeper and deeper, the Grady will eventually float upward as the trailer submerges and float freely away from the winch stand. From your description, you have come up with a solution also.
Maybe most owners of Gradys live in coastal areas and are close to their respective ramps, but that's no excuse to undersize a trailer and put $50,000- $100,000 boats on them. Their just cutting corners to drive the price down and I have had enough trailer mishaps that I won't let them do it anymore. They beat the boat up going down the road when they aren't sprung and outfitted properly and when the trailer is too small to absorb all the jars and shakes, the boat, and all it's accessories do.
1.) A weld broke loose on the frame and consequently dropped the wheel well onto the tire, ruining the tire and causing a wrecker bill and a weld job at a local shop to save my vacation.
2.) My axles were undersized and misaligned so I was going thru bearings and it handled squirrly at hi speeds. I had a competent local guy install 7000 pounders and align them properly and my troubles stopped. This is on my Gulfstream trailer that I currently own.
3.)On my previous Seafarer, my axles were too light and they bent with the boat pushing down on them continually as I went over bumps and expansion joints over bridges, etc. The result was my tires wearing on the inside as the axles bent more and more. Kind of like if your camber was off in the front end of your vehicle. I had bigger 5000 lb axles installed; new tires, troubles over.
These dealers are not in the least worried about our trailer woes once they sell the outfit. I dearly love all my folks at Twin Cities Marine, but I had my own trailer built custom for my Gulfstream and STILL had all the crap happen that I described above. It's just unbeliveable.
Your like me and tow everywhere. If it's becomes an option as you indicated before, I highly recommend an oversize trailer. Nowadays, I can go to Marathon from Indy with a reasonable assurance of safety.
If your winch setup is all the way forward, and the hull hangs off the bunks aft, than I'm inclined to believe your dealer put your Seafarer on a trailer in the yard that was already there as opposed to getting one sized properly for your boat. As mentioned in the other thread, a foot of distance seems a lot to me.
I have also experienced the "winch vs. bow pulpit" encounter. I finally figured out that if you just keep backing down and sinking the trailer deeper and deeper, the Grady will eventually float upward as the trailer submerges and float freely away from the winch stand. From your description, you have come up with a solution also.
Maybe most owners of Gradys live in coastal areas and are close to their respective ramps, but that's no excuse to undersize a trailer and put $50,000- $100,000 boats on them. Their just cutting corners to drive the price down and I have had enough trailer mishaps that I won't let them do it anymore. They beat the boat up going down the road when they aren't sprung and outfitted properly and when the trailer is too small to absorb all the jars and shakes, the boat, and all it's accessories do.
1.) A weld broke loose on the frame and consequently dropped the wheel well onto the tire, ruining the tire and causing a wrecker bill and a weld job at a local shop to save my vacation.
2.) My axles were undersized and misaligned so I was going thru bearings and it handled squirrly at hi speeds. I had a competent local guy install 7000 pounders and align them properly and my troubles stopped. This is on my Gulfstream trailer that I currently own.
3.)On my previous Seafarer, my axles were too light and they bent with the boat pushing down on them continually as I went over bumps and expansion joints over bridges, etc. The result was my tires wearing on the inside as the axles bent more and more. Kind of like if your camber was off in the front end of your vehicle. I had bigger 5000 lb axles installed; new tires, troubles over.
These dealers are not in the least worried about our trailer woes once they sell the outfit. I dearly love all my folks at Twin Cities Marine, but I had my own trailer built custom for my Gulfstream and STILL had all the crap happen that I described above. It's just unbeliveable.
Your like me and tow everywhere. If it's becomes an option as you indicated before, I highly recommend an oversize trailer. Nowadays, I can go to Marathon from Indy with a reasonable assurance of safety.
