Boating loading crooked on trailer

[REW]

Follow the setup adjustments as copied from your service manual and you should be good to go:

REW

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TRAILER ADJUSTMENTS
The adjustment of the trailer to your boat is very im- portant not only for the trailer, but also the boat. Fail- ure to do so may lead to potential failure or damage to either the trailer or boat.
Adjust as follows:
AXLE ADJUSTMENT
The amount of tongue weight on your trailer can be adjusted as follows:
To lower the tongue weight, adjust the axle assem- bly forward. To increase the tongue weight, adjust the axle backward.
The distance that the axle assembly has to be moved will vary because it is directly related to the weight and center of gravity of the boat placed on it.
Best towing is achieved when the tongue weight is 5-
7% of the total gross load of the complete unit.
Note: Wire harnesses and brake line lines will need care when moving the axle assembly.
REAR SUPPORT SYSTEM
Place the boat on the trailer so that the transom is located at the rear of the support system. On a bunk trailer, the transom of the boat should be within 1-2" of the end of the bunk. This gives you maximum support on the transom.
The rear cross member is adjustable forward or back- ward to allow the trailer to be adjusted to various length boats. This is accomplished by removing the pivot bolt on holds each end of the rear pivot to the side frame. Reposition the rear pivot arm into the other hole posi- tion predrilled in the side frame.
Reattach the rear pivot to the side frame with the bolts just removed. Tighten.
The wire harness for the three-light identification light must be repositioned where it comes from the side frame to the rear pivot to eliminate slack, and sagging of the wiring.
ROLLERS
Position the roller racks so they are far enough apart to give your boat stability while transporting. When the desired width is achieved, move the roller rack system so that the rollers are just to the outside of a strake. The rollers need to be adjusted so that you have a
　
minimum of one to two inches of clearance between the keel of the boat and the center cross member pads. This will help center the boat when loading and unloading.
When the desired position is determined, tighten only enough to hold the rollers from moving while the other adjustments are being made. Final tightening will be done at the end of the adjusting process.
FRONT ROLLER SUPPORT SYSTEM
The keel of the boat must rest on the center of the front keel roller system creating a three-point support system. The keel roller system is designed to fit most boats without needing any further adjustment, how- ever there are considerable differences in boat bot- tom designs and certain lines of boats will require a riser. One riser is shipped inside the rear keel guide roller bracket. This can be removed and bolted on the bottom side of the keel guide roller bracket so it is be- tween it and the keel cradle itself. This will raise the front end of your boat 3/4". In the event that this is not enough, an additional one can be added to the other keel guide roller bracket.
Once the height of the roller cradle assembly is es- tablished the stabilizer pads can be adjusted. This is accomplished by sliding the pad up against the boat bottom by hand. It is not necessary that they carry much weight. They are designed to just give your boat added stability while being towed. It may be necessary to adjust the assembly up so that they can be moved further apart giving additional support. Pull the assem- bly away from the boat. Place the U-bolt that holds the assembly to the cross member in a lower hole in the bracket. Push the assembly back against the boat. Tighten in position.
WINCH POST
Once all other adjustments are complete the winch post can be adjusted. Slide the winch post base back- ward on the tongue until the bow roller comes in con- tact with the boat.
This bow roller needs to be positioned directly above the boat bow eye to prevent your boat from moving forward in the event of a sudden stop. It can be moved up or down by removing the back bolt that mounts the winch head to the base. When this bolt is removed, the head can be rotated up or down to reach the de- sired height required to fit your boat. Once in this posi- tion, align the closest pair of holes in the brackets and reinsert the bolt just removed. Tighten.

Attach the winch strap and crank winch tight. Attach the bow eye safety chain into the bow eye of the boat
as well. This is just another level of protection to keep your boat and trailer together as one unit.
Adjustments are now complete. Double check your boat for fit. If the desired fit has been achieved, tighten all fasteners that may have either been left loose or have been loosened to do the adjusting.
Note: All nuts and bolts must be tightened before towing. The law requires that the white ground wire on both the tongue wire harness and vehicle harness be properly grounded to respective trailer and vehicle frames.
Recheck all fasteners on the complete trailer to make
sure they are all tight and ready for towing. All fasteners should be periodically checked before towing.

[perchjerker]

make sure one of the rear beams that hold the rollers are not bent.

One of mine was on my previous shorelandr roller trailer.

What I mean by bent is, look at it from the side; mine had a bend in it where it was higher in the middle (where the pivot bracket is) and lower on both ends

It was not a lot, I did not notice it for the longest time. I dont know how it got like that

I had a problem where it ALWAYS loaded to one side no matter what I did

after I changed that beam it loaded fine

so just check it if you have not

[Shorelunch]

Thanks for the advice so far. I spoke with Shorlander yesterday and moved the rear rollers out, so one set is below the strake and one above. The boat sits level, but it's too far to the driver side and the bow is too far to the passenger side. Maybe a set of rollers is bent like mentioned above.

Roller bases are measured from the base and frame and both sets are equal distance. Shorlander rep I spoke with today said to move the rollers a few inches towards the middle of the trailer. I'll give that a try over noon today along with looking at the rollers themselves.

[Shorelunch]

More photos.

[perchjerker]

yeah, kinda how mine looked

I noticed that your rollers are shiny. Are they wet? They sure look strange

[Shorelunch]

Originally Posted by perchjerker

yeah, kinda how mine looked

I noticed that your rollers are shiny. Are they wet? They sure look strange

Boat just came out of the water when I took the photos. Very frustrating project. I can get the boat level, but when I start adjusting rollers in/out both equally and separately, it just gets worse!

[TomP.]

I hope when you are actually measuring for the back rollers you are going from the base where it bolts to the trailer to the outside frame member not the roller. Those rollers have a ton of play in them as you probably well know.

[Shorelunch]

Went to the boat ramp last night. I can get the boat loaded level, but the back of the boat sits too far to the driver's side while the bow comes in too far on the passenger side (as you can see by the first set of photos above). I can't figure out how to "shift" the boat over to the passenger side.

I looked over the rollers, frame, etc and everything "seems" OK.

[REW]

Shorelunch,
I think you need to take the boat off of the trailer and start over.
There is something significantly wrong with the trailer and or setup.

When looking at your pictures, you have a huge misalignment on the trailer.

I would like to suggest the following:
1. With the boat off of the trailer, use a straight edge to check all roller supports to be straight. i.e. you do not want any roller supports that are bent.
It is pretty easy to bend a roller support if something bad has happened to your trailer. You said that all of your problems started when you had a flat tire.

Check very carefully the area of the trailer where you placed the jack. Did lifting the trailer by the jack, cause something to be bent in the trailer?

2. Take the front pads, and drop them all of the way down, so that they will be out of the picture when loading the first time. The front pads are really only stabilizing pads and are not really needed for loading or supporting the boat.

3. Now, you have checked and double checked to be sure that not a single frame, member or brace is bent on the trailer - right?

4. All of your roller adjustments sound like they are pretty close.
If you don't have any bent pieces of metal on your trailer and roller support, just double check one more time that you have identical side to side spacing of the roller supports from each of the trailer side frames. You should be measuring to the roller supports, not the rollers.
As one of the other posts mentioned- there is lots of play in the rollers.

5. Very carefully check each and every roller to insure that it is free and easy to roll on the trailer. You don't want your problem to be caused by a roller that is stuck or hanging up on the trailer. If a roller is not free rolling, take it off, double check for the problem. If it needs lubrication, grease the inside of the roller, as well as the roller bushing and the support rod for the roller. Also, be sure that there are no flat spots in any roller. When the boat is in the garage, you might in advance check for any flat spots on any roller, or any roller that is out of round. If, during your garage inspection, find a defective roller or rollers, purchase spare ones, so that the bad ones may be swaped out when the boat is at the lake off of the trailer.

6. Now, with the boat sitting at the dock, place a level on the floor in a side to side direction. Does the boat sit perfectly level when the boat is just sitting at the dock with no one in the boat.
If not, move things in the boat so that the boat does sit level.

7. Now, for the time being, put your trailer in the water at the landing and make sure that as the trailer goes into the water, that the trailer is sitting perfectly level. Back the trailer in to the water, until you can just barely see the tops of each of the fenders at the same spot on each fender.

8. Now, without being in the boat, winch the boat onto the trailer. Do NOT power load or drive the boat onto the trailer.

Note - before doing this, double check the alignment of your winch. The winch stand is vertical is it not? i.e. the episode with the trailer flat did not result in a bending of the winch stand did it?
Also, the front frame of the trailer in the area of the winch stand did not get bent at any time did it?

9. Now that you have winched the boat onto the trailer with the front supports lowered all of the way, with the boat sitting level, and with the trailer sitting level, pull the boat out of the water.

If the boat now sitting level and is the boat pulled up in the center of the winch stand?

If not, double check your boat loading procedure. Perhaps you need to have the trailer a bit out of the water further, or into the water a bit further.

10. When you do have the boat centered, level and the nose tight into the bow stop, then go back under the boat and raise each of the front pads to gently rest against the front lower each side of the boat.

Good luck
REW

p.s.
Let us knot the continuing saga of the trailer.

p.p.s.
By the way, if there are any tight or not active roller bushings, you may need to pull that roller of of its mount and really grease up the roller bushing as well as the inside of the roller. So, when you go to the lake to make these adjustments, be sure to bring along a grease gun to take care of any lubrication issues in the roller or sliding mechanisms that might be on the trailer.

p.p.p.s
Again, double, triple check the trailer for any bent members, arms, or rails during this setup and testing.

Your problem begin after a flat tire incident, so it certainly seems reasonable that something happened to the trailer during this incident to begin to cause your trailer problems.

REW

[1shooter]

Very intrested in what you figures out. I have the same issue.