can not drive on, what's wrong?

[weedeater]

I have a 2000 alumacraft navigator 165 with shorelander roller trailer. have read many posts on drive on loading. Well I tryed this for the first time, put the trailer in so the rear rollers where 1/2 way in the water. Got the boat lined up straight and started powering up, as soon as i got 1/2 way up the tilt on my motor would go down and in the rocks my prop went. read that if the motor is run over 1000 rpm this will happen. how can you drive on if this happens am I missing some thing? the motor is a 2001 merc 50 2 stroke.could this landing be to steep, would it work better on a flatter landing?been out with my new boat 3 times no.1 ground prop. no. 2 and 3 wet feet. please help!

[Box]

hmmm... That is odd. Possibly you have the motor too tilted/trimmed high/up. Then when you get the boat on the trailer acts as a lever and your motor is pushing down.

As long as the rollers are where you say they are, you should not hit the ground at all unless the landing is very very shallow. With our 150 we really don't even have to tilt/trim the motor up and we don't hit - ooopps, I did get a gravel nick last week, but it is the same ramp position that it happened to us at a couple years ago, so I think it might be that hole is kinda odd.

Once you get it down you will love it, and so will all the other people at the ramp cause you can be out in less than 1 minute easy.

Good luck and keep eating weeds and not props ;)

Box

[Tim/Iowa]

get rid of the Shorelander trailer and go to bunks, your life will be a lot better

[SVaerst]

If I understand the first post correctly, it sounds like you don't have the trailer in the water far enough. With the rollers only half way in the water, Physically, the boat has to "get over the hump" of the rollers being out of the water. Hence, when trimmed up, the rear goes down, and the front goes up without forward movement.

What I have found that works is to get the rear rollers totally submerged (I judge my submersion by how much fender is in the water...I go half way up the fender). My front keel rollers are not submerged, but the rear-most roller just touches the water. With this set-up, the boat will be about half way on the trailer when the rollers in the rear hit the hull and the bow hits the front keel rollers. Doing this has prevented me from pushing the rear down (since the hull is touching the rear rollers) and the motor can push the boat up on the keel rollers.

Also, what has helped to make sure I am on straight is a set of bunk guide ons. They help tremendously to make sure I am square with the trailer.

I hope this helps...dinging props is not fun..

Steve

[REW]

It cold be several things:
1. Rocks at the ramp -- this is always a bad thing to have around the ramp. If there are any misques at all - you will have a nicked prop.

2. Angle of ramp. The very best ramps will be deep enough so that you can get the trailer in, but not so speep, that the back is 6 inches under the water, and the top is a foot out of the water. So, a relatively, but deeper ramp is best. This allows the trailer to be at a relatively flat angle,

3. The amount that the trailer is in the water.
A nice way to do it is to have the boat on the trailer, as in unloading - then back the trailer into the water at a particular ramp, and see where the back of the boat just starts to lift. Note that point on the trailer fenders with respect to the water level.
Now, for driving the trailer on, you want to have the trailer about 1 inch higher. This will cause the trailer to self align the boat onto the trailer.

It is much easier to set the depth of the trailer for a drive on at a particular ramp, if you check the "float point" of the boat - during the launch, rather than trying to guess, during retreive time.

Take care

REW

p.s.
If you have a rocky, or gravel launch - don't drive on, and save a prop. Just too much chance with nicking a prop.

[MarkG]

Not all trailers can be driven on to,including bunk trailers.What
is really the deciding factor is how high the boat sits on the trailer,and more specificaly what amount of clearance you have between the bottom of the lower unit skeg and the ground, with the motor trimmed down at an angle far enough to allow you to power load. You can easily check this:When your boat sits on the trailer,if you trim down to a usable angle and your skeg is hittin the pavment,it will be difficult to power load,unless your trailer is far enough down the ramp, that the skeg is beyond the ramp drop off,while loading. Bunks or rollors set higher in the trailer frame,in combination to the size wheels your trailer has ,will be the determining factors if you can power load in all situatons on any ramp.The trade off for that is, the higher you are on the trailer,the Deeper you have to back down the ramp to launch,especially with a bunk rig.

[weedeater]

Thank you all for your imfo. I will give it a try again today

hope it goes better. Thanks

[Gunga Din]

Ditto the above post. You have to judge how far in the water you need to put the trailer so that your boat won't be floating above the rollers, but resting on them. But you also want the trailer far enough in so the boat's bouyancy will lighten the amount of weight resting on the rollers.

I have a heavy boat, so my rear rollers go a little deeper with the front rollers being just below the water. If you notice the rear of the boat floating around, you're too deep.

What I do when loading is drive onto the trailer about 2/3 way so that the rollers are supporting the boat, then I put it in neutral and let the boat slide backwards a foot or two which straightens it up nicely, then I apply a little power to push it back on. I don't power it all the way up (not good for the ramp), but I then hook up the winch and crank it on. I can do all this without getting my feet wet.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Gunga Din]

Boy, a lot of people offering help. My reply jumped from 4 to 7 in the time it took me to write it. You should be squared away with all this advice.

[T-Mac]

Shorelander sells a ton of bunk trailers. I drive onto my Shorelander all the time, but, it has bunks.
On some smaller roller models, the roller assemblies will pivot, and this causes the bow to go up as the transom goes down and the prop hits the rocks.
It is likely that the model trailer you have on your rig (a 165 Aluma-craft)is not designed to be driven on to.
If it is a 1 1/2" X 3" framed trailer (like an SLR15), the rollers sit on a cross member that pivots to ease unloading in bad ramps or no ramp situations. Unfortunately, when you start your boat onto those rollers, with you sitting in it, it will pivot and you know the rest of the story.

At least, this is my best guess.