Boatmate trailer problems

[jonyb]

My boat is a year old. I ditched the Boat Buddy that was shredded in July. I put a black roller on the bowstop and the first time I loaded the boat, ripped the roller because it didn't roll. I then bought the clear yellow roller with outside parts. It's now ripped, plus I have a penny sized chunk of fiberglass missing on the keel where it meets the roller.

Part 2: 1 of the center bunks are bent forward.

What am I gonna need for the bowstop? Nothing is working.....

Im calling SC this week to see if any of this is covered.

[98outback]

I also would like to ditch my boat buddy and just put a v bow stop or a roller. What would be best? I would like to buy one today.

[jonyb]

i found a black roller first, and it fit perfect with about a 1/4" gap on both sides. It got cut in half the first time I loaded teh boat.

The second one was a 3-piece poly roller. 1 in the middle, and the two outer pieces. The center roller was narrower with a little over a 1/2" gap on both sides. It also failed on the first load, then took a penny-sized chunk out of the keel on the boat.

50 views and no one cares to discuss this? What about Skier's Choice?

I called BoatMate on Monday at 3pm and left a message. It's now Thursday and I haven't had a return phone call. I'm calling again in about an hour.

[98outback]

I just called boatmate also because i am missing the metal cap the goes over the oil fill plug for the brakes. I had to leave a message. Hopefully someone will call me back.

[jonyb]

I talked to customer service today and got it worked out...... They don't seem to like the Boat Buddy junk either.

[TPyle]

3 years and not one moments trouble out of mine...that wasn't caused by me. I had to replace the original as I came onto the trailer a little "hot" and smacked it pretty hard. My fault. Replaced it and wouldn't dream owning a trailer without one.

[jonyb]

I dream of owning something that works.....

[98outback]

I replaced mine with a good polyurathane roller last weekend and it works so much better for me.

[jonyb]

That's what I used, but it broke the first time.

[Ed Obermeier]

Same here. After going through 2 Boat Buddies in about a season and a half I went to the yellow poly 3 piece bow roller. The problem is that there needs to be one more cross member towards the front of the trailer with a centering roller to lift and feed the keel and front of the boat up onto the bow roller more easily. That's my main bitch about my Boatmate trailer, they cheaped out and didn't add the additional cross member to which a roller could be mounted making loading much simpler.

I've learned the hard way that you have to have a lot more of the trailer out of the water than with most boat trailers, allowing the boat to ride up the bunks more so the nose will ride up onto the bow roller. Not enough trailer out of the water and you run the nose into the roller or below it banging the nose into the bracket below the roller and potentially doing damage to the nose of the boat. Had there been one more cross member and a roller that could feed the boat up to the bow roller more easily it wouldn't be an issue at all. How much would that have added to the price of the trailer, $100 - 150 or so?

It's very touchy - with more trailer out of the water, once you get the boat centered you have to give it more throttle than normal to get the boat to load completely. Every new boat ramp is another learning experience, often a somewhat exasperating one. Often I have to have whoever is driving the tow vehicle jockey the boat forward enough to get the nose to go over the roller (with assist from the winch), then back it back into the water enough that it can be winched the rest of the way up. A major pain in the ass. That or take a chance banging up the nose. I've learned to deal with it and it's not too big an issue, but it should be simpler and adding a cross member with a roller during manufacture wouldn't have taken that much doing or added that much to the cost of the trailer. Simply crappy engineering and design IMO.

Ed

[jclose8]

I always get amazed at the amount of anti boat buddy threads....

I have had a boat buddy on my last two boats now. A total of close to 10 years of use. I've been to probably 50 different boat ramps. It always works flawlessly.

Is it possible YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG?

[jonyb]

Explain to me how a dry rubber boat buddy is supposed to allow the gelcoat on the bow to slide all the way to the bow hook. The weight of the bow pushing against rubber does nothing but push the truck forward...... For the boat to go up on the bunks far enough, it has to be floating a little bit.... This whole process is very hard to explain. I'd video it if I had a camera.

[mikebu]

Explain to me how a dry rubber boat buddy is supposed to allow the gelcoat on the bow to slide all the way to the bow hook.

How far are you backing in the trailer? The boat doesn't really slide up the boat buddy instead it rotates the boat buddy to secure the boat and the boat buddy should be at about the same height as the bow hook as the boat comes in. If you have to slide your boat up the boat buddy your trailer sounds like it might not be backed in enough. Also getting your bunks completely wet helps your boat up the trailer better.

The fact that you have broken several other things after you replaced the boat buddy seems to indicate you are doing something wrong.

[jonyb]

If I back the trailer in further, then the bow is below the bowstop.

I have to start with the trailer out of the water too far for the boat to reach, just to get the boat on the bunks and lined up, then power on. THere's no way possible to get the boat all the way up to the bowstop so the driver of the truck has to then back in further while I stand on the tongue winching the boat up. Sometimes I have to go back to the boat to try and power it on a little further.

The angle of the boatramp is what changes things.

[jclose8]

Explain to me how a dry rubber boat buddy is supposed to allow the gelcoat on the bow to slide all the way to the bow hook. The weight of the bow pushing against rubber does nothing but push the truck forward...... For the boat to go up on the bunks far enough, it has to be floating a little bit.... This whole process is very hard to explain. I'd video it if I had a camera.

Hmmmmm... Maybe I'm the one who should be videotaping. Maybe I should make a trailer loading tutorial.

Here are a couple of tips that may help.

1. Use liberal amounts of Armor All on both the rubber of the Boat Buddy as well as the carpet on your bunks. This will allow it to slide on easier. I only did this once this season, and it was fine for the whole summer.

2. You probably have your trailer in too deep. Err on the side of not deep enough. You are right.... if you get it too deep, the nose comes in too low. If you have it far enough out of the water, the boat rides up on the bunks and much less weight is put on the rubber of the boat buddy.

3. You have to come in at the right speed. It all has to happen at once. If you come in too slow and the boat stops when it contacts the BB, you will never get it moving again.... like you said, it will just push the truck. You have to keep your momentum right up to the "click." If you come to a stop too short, you might as well back it off and try again.

It takes a little practice, but once you've got it down, it's a thing of beauty.

[mikebu]

If I back the trailer in further, then the bow is below the bowstop.

I have to start with the trailer out of the water too far for the boat to reach, just to get the boat on the bunks and lined up, then power on. THere's no way possible to get the boat all the way up to the bowstop so the driver of the truck has to then back in further while I stand on the tongue winching the boat up. Sometimes I have to go back to the boat to try and power it on a little further.

The angle of the boatramp is what changes things.

Is your boat ramp particularly steep? If so that is probably the cause of your problems.

[Ed Obermeier]

The cause of the problems is the design of the trailer. There needs to be one more cross member to the forward of the trailer with a roller on it to feed the keel to the bow roller so you can get ther proper amount of trailer in the water. Other brand boats and trailers don't have this problem, it's the BoatMate trailer design that requires you have to have too much trailer out of the water to allow the boat to ride up the bunks so you don't end up with the nose below the bow roller. A properly designed trailer doesn't have this problem, regardless of ramp angle or anything else. A shallow angle ramp is easier to load on, a steeper angle makes it much harder. I've been boating and loading boats for 30 plus years and I've had this boat and trailer for 8 years plus, I know how to load a boat and I know the issues with this trailer design. This BoatMate is the most problematic trailer I've ever had to deal with. It's a (poor) design issue.

Ed

[jonyb]

The ramp I use isn't very steep. I can have the driver set the trailer to where the top of the fenders are at the waters surface. Of course they back the trailer in too far to wet the bunks, then pull back up. When you say get a running start, I was doing that, and it ripped the rubber on the boat buddy and I barely hit it. I've been boating for at least 6 years on my own, and my father had fishing boats for at least 10 years when I was growing up, so I feel like I've got a little experience with launching/loading a boat.

I'll take some pictures of the ramp that I use next time I'm out.

The rep from Boatmate said he was gonna send me a new roller and it's been a few weeks later and I still haven't seen anything from them. Seems like the service I've had from SC and Boatmate as been pretty poor so far......

[jclose8]

I guess I don't know what to tell you guys..... I don't find anything wrong with the design or function. The trailer I have now is much better than my old Mastercraft one.

Maybe I just got lucky and got a good one.

[klewis]

I have an 08 and this was my first season with this kind of trailer/system. I would have to agree a little with everyone here.

The flatter your launch the easier it is and the less you have to think about the right depth to put the trailer.

The steeper the launch and the farther out of the water you need the trailer to be, which results in powering the boat on the bunks all the way up to the buddy.

I have come to accept that I have to error on the side of less trailer in the water if I want the buddy system to work. When you get it right the system works great and makes you look like a pro.

However I was at 8 different lakes this summer as we like to travel and camp with our boat. The differing steepness of each ramp made it so I had to think about trailer depth every time instead of doing what the manual says about having the front fenders barely out of the water.

It was said above and I agree, if you have to power on you have to commit to it and power until you hear the click. Of course you dont want to power too much, it takes some practice.

My only gripe is that I know that powering on the bunks will only wear out the carpet sooner.

I tend to ignore the depth of the fenders and watch the depth of the front of the bunks that will grab the keel. I try to keep those a few inches out of the water so I dont go bouncing like a pinball off of the guide posts.

This trailer is better than my old Malibu, with that trailer I had to sit in the back of the boat and hold one of the guide posts as the boat was pulled out in order to make sure it was centered. At least I dont have to do that anymore.

[Diggs]

What up Kevin.... Haven't heard from you in some time. Hope all is well...

I honestly think the boat buddy is the best thing since sliced bread. I think certain people might have flaws on their trailers that are not normal, but I have had 5 different Supras with a boat buddy on each one and I only had one problem and it was my fault cause I slammed it.
A lot of this has been said above, but I will re-iterate:
It is all getting use to using it properly. The major problem I see with people that are having issues is you have your trailer too deep. If you are on your bunks there is no way you can miss it. Get your entire boat on the bunks and your boat buddy (rubber part of it) should hit your fiberglass maybe 3 inches and click. If you see rubber marks on your boat longer than that you are too deep. If your boat is not lining up straight. You are too deep. Fact of the matter is if your entire boat is on the bunks it will position itself. Every boat ramp is different, so you should make minor adjustments, but it just takes time to get used to it. Just like it took a bit of time to understand driving an inboard vs a I/O, but over time it comes natural.
Good luck and hope you get it squared away... Compare your trailer to another one of the same boat, as I have seen a buddy that had a flawed trailer and then you can pat yourself on the back and confirm that you are not crazy.... ha ha