Hello all,
I have a 3 mt tinnie on a dodgie trailer with skids,
I am currently renovating the trailer and considering replacing the single mount skids with wobble rollers
do you think it is a wise move or should I just replace the skids with new ones ?
they are just planed hard wood at the moment
Keep the skids man, or you will forever be kicking yourself.
Any reson why? are the rollers crap ?
rollers get flooged, deteriorate faster, come loose and sometimes just fail cos they feel like it. remember, the less moving parts, the less that can go wrong.
Rolloers are really only intended for larger boats, to make it a bit easier to retrieve, but on a small tinny, skids are the duck nuts so stick with them
Skids also spread the load over a larger area .tinnys can crack with just wobble rollers
Stuie
IF IT CAN'T EAT A WHOLE PILLY I DON'T WANT IT
A 3m tinnie would hardly have enough weight to even turn a wobble roller.
Cheers
Dave
As has been said,dont use rollers on aluminium,unless under the keel,where it has strength. And then they should be the blue ones.
Some manufacturers,will not warrant pressed boats,unless skids are used.
David
I got hardwood skids with teflon strips countersunk screwed over the top for my 4.4m tinny works like a dream have rollers to giude her on, then she comes up on the skids as she comes up the trailer. You can use a set of wobble rollers to guide her in then skids further up the trailer. I had a trailer set up like that for my old quinie when I was pro fishing and it made life at the ramp really easy cause you never had to be plumb even if she was on the beach.
Skids make your life so much easier when retrieving. I have one roller to guide the nose in and thats it. Mind you, on the polycraft i reckon stainless skids would be better than plastic but it still works for me.
I have a 3.9 Metre Tinny and I swapped the skids to "wobble" rollers about a year ago, I am just about to swap it back again, for a couple of reasons, the rollers are next to useles on the smaller shaped Tinny, they have bugger all support for the thin hull and even press it in when it is tied down, and because the hull is fairly light, it is very hard to push the "wobbles" into tyhe correct position when winching it on, you need to manually move them, so, I am going back to poly centre rollers and some Custom (home made) skids.
Take a look at what is available.The loading skids are great.They are readily available.
David
thank you for youre input,
you guys just saved me a whole lot of pain and money
An easy way is to take a look at any PRO boat trailer you see at a boat ramp. Even the larger boat have skids. even along the keel.
A fair while ago, mate wanted to buy a large alloy boat ( 21ft ) and we went to have a squizz at it. He was amazed and worried that the trailer had no rollers ( all skids ), I said that is fantastic, but I think he was sceptical. He bought the boat and could not get over how good the skid system was compared to rollers. It was a drive on/ drive off trailer.
Not too sure of the percentage of weight distribution on centre rollers and supporting skids, but the vast majority of the tinnie weight should be on the centre rollers and the skids are their to support the tinnie from rocking side to side and provide some assist for the launch and retrieve.
Good question and good responses here.
Cheers Phill
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definately skids, as said before, use rollers and the bottom of your tinnie will have a similar texture to a golf ball.
I made skids for my little 3.7 with hardwood covered in old carpet - worked well.
It looks like a lot of the manufacturers are seeing this too. In the process of looking at new boats to buy I have noticed an increase in the uses of skids.Originally Posted by Lucky_Phill
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