Trailer scraping badly on a steep launch

[ruby23m]

I played hooky from work yesterday in order to enjoy the mid 80's September sunshine up here in Minnesota. The launch I usually go to has changed since early in the season when the water was higher. The St. Croix is down a lot since then and now this launch has a severe drop that causes mine and many other trailers to scrape on the cement from hitting the 1st cross bar where the big black roller is. Well, when pulling out on the first try I couldnt move an inch, so I backed up and put my Explorer through some tug of war with the launch. Launch won 2 times in a row, so of course, I backed down further to gain momentum and this time she barely got out much to the delight of an owner of a brand new Malibu that was encouraging me to "give it hell". I ended up bending that 1st crossbar inward and the roller also popped off because of that. My question is, has anyone had this sort of issue? Secondly, is there room to modify the crossbar to be welded up higher without the keel hitting? I look forward to hearing anyone else's experiences!

[Jetlink]

Do you have any pictures of the damage and the area in question? I am trying to picture it.

[Blackntan90]

From the sounds of it(w/o pic's), you need less of a drop/more rise on your draw bar. Is the back of your truck sagging from the weight of the boat? A pic is worth a thousand words!

[michael hunter]

Sounds like you need a adjustable ball mount for your hitch . I had trouble with my SMP trailer being too low.I replaced the 20 year old suspension that helped but not cured. I made 1'' blocks out of aluminum for the axles and increased the trailer height works great with no problems towing.

[DAFF]

There must be a monster rock or obstruction down there. Perhaps you could weld a skid plate or talk to the owner operator of the ramps and express your concerns. When loading my Sunsport I usually reverse down until the fenders are 3/4 covered by water. Could you load the boat with less trailer in the water??

[rtpaxton2]

Two suggestions:

1. Check that the trailer tongue is level at the hitch (or just behind the trailer brakes). Either put the truck and trailer on some level ground and step back and look at it, or put an actual level on it. If the tongue is up too high, then the back of the trailer will hit ground more often and vice versa. You might look into an adjustable hitch where you can easily move the trailer tongue up and down as needed. Tow to the lake level, stop, and reset the tongue to ride low to go down the ramp.

2. Use a different ramp!

[Supra-in-steamboat]

I agree, either flip your reciever hitch over and switch the ball, or get an adjustable hitch. Good luck/

[wotan2525]

Dude! Are you really pulling with an explorer? I can't believe it even pulls it!!

With the water so low, my guess is that your catching on the bottom side of the precast concrete ramp. Power loading digs out all the sand from the deep side of these and creates a really steep ledge or hole right under it. It's feasible to me that if your trailer wheels dropped off the end of that, it might be impossible (or quite damaging) to pull back up. Getting a bigger drop on your hitch might help but with that explorer, it's going to increase the tongue weight (which is probably already over capacity.)

I think the best option is a different launch. Where are you putting in now?

[Jetlink]

Wotan, on shorter trips to the water, we sometimes drag the comp behind an RX350, longer trips with people, the GX470 and soon (we always laugh that we must look like yuppies), hopefully some 3/4 ton pickup, keeping my eye out for a good deal. As for the ramp, we have to powerload our boat as there is no winch. Always have people complaining about power loading and washing out the ramp yet, we are able to just idle on to the bunks and get it there with the occasional bump in the throttle. Sounds like if the water is that low, time to look for another ramp. We sometimes have to change ramp choices based on water level and also current.

[wotan2525]

Wotan, on shorter trips to the water, we sometimes drag the comp behind an RX350, longer trips with people, the GX470 and soon (we always laugh that we must look like yuppies), hopefully some 3/4 ton pickup, keeping my eye out for a good deal. As for the ramp, we have to powerload our boat as there is no winch. Always have people complaining about power loading and washing out the ramp yet, we are able to just idle on to the bunks and get it there with the occasional bump in the throttle. Sounds like if the water is that low, time to look for another ramp. We sometimes have to change ramp choices based on water level and also current.

A comp probably only weighs a hair over half what the Saltare weighs. I don't think it would be any problem to pull that boat with a GX470. Even the RX350 is probably OK if you're not hitting highway speeds.

I know that my Saltare is way over 6,000lbs once you factor in all the aftermarket stuff, fuel and trailer. (I'll weigh it on the way to storage this year.) The biggest factor, though is the tongue weight. It might be just that my trailer isn't setup correctly (although the axles are directly under the engine, which makes sense to me) but the tongue weight on my boat is (as close as I can guess) 800-1000lbs.

Oh, and about the powerloading -- I always powerload, too. There's no way I'm going to crank 4000lbs of boat on to the trailer. My trailer and boat were designed to powerload and I do so. I try to be respectful about it, but the ramp I use seems to be deep enough that it hasn't caused any problems with the propwash building up to the point where it is causing damage.

[Jetlink]

Oh yeah, I can see a Saltare being an issue. Truth be told though, the RX does quite well with dragging the boat at highway speeds. It does have an oversized trans cooler though and I limit the trans so it does not hunt for gears. We are talking about upgrading boats already though and getting a V-Drive soon, hence the search for a better tow vehicle. I may have missed it, but does the original poster have a Salty? That is a bit much for an explorer to handle though I did see an explorer dragging a 22 foot-ish Tige down the highway last weekend. They were way overloaded especially on the tongue weight.

[wotan2525]

I may have missed it, but does the original poster have a Salty?

Hah! He didn't say so, but he's got the twin to my boat. A big old red and white Salty. ;)

[ruby23m]

There must be a monster rock or obstruction down there. Perhaps you could weld a skid plate or talk to the owner operator of the ramps and express your concerns. When loading my Sunsport I usually reverse down until the fenders are 3/4 covered by water. Could you load the boat with less trailer in the water??

No monster rocks! Its a concrete launch that has two different slopes to it, so problems start when the water gets to the point where the slope changes. Almost everyone I saw launch had their trailer scrape a bit, but mine was far much worse.

[ruby23m]

Everyone is making me laugh about hauling the Saltare with the Explorer! :) I should say that It does have the 5.0 V8 with tow package. I believe its rated for 7500 lbs, correct me if I'm wrong. It pulls it admirably, not much issue with tongue weight, I seem to have it balanced well. You might all be shocked that I took the Saltare on a 600 mile round trip to my buddies cabin. That was with 3 people inside plus tons of gear. As for the launch issue I certainly won't be launching at St. Croix Bluffs this season again unless we get 2 ft of rain!!

[Jetlink]

What I always find entertaining is people trying to pull something like a saltare or heavier/larger boat with a minivan or something of the like. The other fun spectacle is the rear wheel drive truck that backs down a little too far and gets on the slippery part of the ramp and is doing a whole lot of tire smoking and not doing much for getting the boat out.

[wotan2525]

The other fun spectacle is the rear wheel drive truck that backs down a little too far and gets on the slippery part of the ramp and is doing a whole lot of tire smoking and not doing much for getting the boat out.

Guilty! I've got a 3/4 ton 2WD w/o a LSD. This peg leg gimp truck once sunk itself pretty deep (ahem... water over the bed) at a sandy boat launch (luckily I only had my jetski in the bed and not the boat hooked up.) It's now restricted to concrete ramps only.