BeachCat trailering & tongue weight

turtlecat wrote: Wow Damon, was that a salt water boat trailer? OUCH!

Not really, I am the second owner of that trailer but I don't think Kenny backed it into salt water. Bearings can go any time.

I couldn't have been more lucky when that happened. I returned from a regatta on the Florida Gulf Coast to Memphis (about 500 miles), my sailing club is about 30 miles south of Memphis right on my way home, so about 1:00am I decided to drop the boat off at the club instead of towing it all the way home. Dropped the boat off in the dark and headed home.

The next weekend I was backing the boat down the concrete ramp to launch, when I noticed in my rear view mirror that the boat seemed to be wobbling side to side as it rolled.

The hub/bearings had completely come apart and the rim was riding directly on the spindle about to fall off the end.

I was so close to that wheel flying off at 75 mph in the dark on the Interstate. I wouldn't have even noticed it until the resulting fire got so bright it woke me up. 😆

BTROUSE...your questions have mostly been answered, & you have done the important things. I will add a few points.
The weight of these rigs is quite small, even so, just make sure you have some tongue weight. The hitch ball is designed to mostly hold a compression & shearing force, the weakest part of the setup is under negative tongue weight, pulling upwards on the ball.
How ever you tie down, stop & check them after the first 20 miles, then again at ecah gas stop. The boat will "wiggle down" from its initial tie down. The amount may be negligible, or it might be lots, or a strap might fail. When I towed mine home, 1 herc strap was 2" above a safety line. Wind loads lifted the safety line enough to just touch the herc strap & it frayed in 1/2 after only 50 miles. The rule, check often, & feel the wheel hubs for heat as soon as you stop. I used 6 tir downs, 2 on each side, 2 across the top. The sides work like spring lines, one from stern of boat forwards, the other from front bar backwards. This prevents fore/aft movement. Preventing forward movement is critical, that is what the boat wants to do every time you touch the brakes, & you might have to panic brake at some point. Ties holding the boat down should not be cranked down, you will damage the hulls. The spring lines do all the work, the tie downs only hold the boat from bouncing up when you hit bumps.
I would slow down, from 100kph, to 90kph. (61mph to 55mph for our American friends)This will save gas & give you more reaction time. Of course drive more defensively than normal.
I was surprised at the air load. I towed with a V-6 van, & it kicked down a gear at even slight hills, & 2 gears on the tougher pulls. Gas consumption was noticeably increased.
When backing up be aware of those long hulls. If you get the car on enough of an angle you can contact the hulls with the car body. Also be aware of the arc the mast will travel when making a turn. If you make a sharp turn the mast will be 5' to the outside of the car, unlikely at highway speeds, but a consideration while manouvering.
Finally, these boats are wide, you will see the hulls well outside of your car. Keep the car tires on the "grooves" in the road & you're OK. If you were to drift the car to the centre line, or let the trailer move inside,(during a left hand curve) the hulls can easily be in the other lane. Combine that with the other guy drifting a bit towards your lane & it could really wreck your holiday.:-(
A few notes on bearings. Fresh water can be just as damaging. The hub assembly heats up & expands the air inside, causing some of it to leak out. When you immerse the hub in relatively cooler water, the air contracts, creating a slightly lower pressure that results in water being drawn into the hub. This eventually spells disaster to the bearing, hence the failure of bearings with few miles on them.
Google "changing a bearing" just to get a visual on what to do. It is a simple job, but the first time will take much longer, you may need help, or just the right sized drift to push the races out if they are in bad shape.
Finally & MOST IMPORTANTLY, proper packing of the new bearing, or repacking the old after cleaning it thoroughly with solvent. Never spin a dry bearing with compressed air to dry it. It is not enough to just woipe grease every where, the grease must be "packed" into the two halves. To do this wear surgical gloves,(they are dirt cheap & make cleanup a snap) place a good gob of grease in the palm of one hand. Hold the bearing in the other using your fingers, as if you are trying to push the 2 halves apart. Try it, you will see the halves separate slightly. Now snap the bearing down into the EDGE of the gob of grease, this will drive grease up in between the halves, do it a couple of times...you will see grease extrude from the other side of the bearing. This is what is meant by "packing". Rotate the bearing in your hand & do the next spot...continue around the circumference. You will find the job much easier to do than to write how to do. Finally resist the temptation to fill every available space with grease, to much is not better. The engineers can explain why, but essentially most of the grease has to get out of the way as the rollers turn.
Most trailering SNAFUS are due to bearings and/or tires. Tires get weak after time/sun even with new looking tread. Those small tires also use quite a bit more pressure than your car tires. Sounds like you have been diligent, enjoy your trip, I'm jealous...no sailing here for the next 4 months.

rpiper138

Off topic, but I also lived in the 'Knife, small world eh? Early in my career I worked as a bush pilot up there. Flew Turbo Beaver on skiis/floats/wheels, also lots of twin otter time. Flew the Yellow birds, for Ptarmigan. Great hunting & fishing. A couple of the guys were pretty good windsurfers, alas I was not one of them.
You are right, that road was the s$@#ts, though I only drove it twice. As of 2 years ago it has all been paved, & the really crappy section from Rae Edzo to the 'Knife realigned. There are quite a few avid sailors, but I do not recall ever seeing a cat on the water. Would you have been one of those guys who sailed the ice boats off Joliffe Is right after freeze up? I never tried it, but man were they fast.
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edited by: Edchris177, Dec 09, 2009 - 09:19 AM

The sides work like spring lines, one from stern of boat forwards, the other from front bar backwards. This prevents fore/aft movement

Smart move with the spring lines. I just picked up a Solcat that came with a beautiful trailer...but the guy had a basic ($9) ratchet system that i immediately replaced with good webbing and a cam cleat. But I never though about forward and back movement. Do you attach your spring lines to the beams or to the hulls?

Nate
NW Ontario/Winnipeg
Sol 18

Never sailed on the Slave, but did go for a swim once the ice broke. I also spent a good amount of time at the brewery near the plane dock on the way to old town and climbed the same chunk of rock that the top picture was taken from.

It is a great town. I heard that Sam Yurkiw (owner of The Range and Sam's Monkey Tree) died this year. I can't imagine Yellowknife ever being the same.

Oh yeah...never did the iceboat thing in the Knife, but have been on them on the Bay of Quinte near Trenton Ontario (and a couple of other places). They are fast and relatively dangerous.

Ice conditions are better further north, but you don't have to go north of 60. The ice on one of the lakes near Kapuskasing used to be great when it wasn't snow covered.

Sam did die, maybe the Strange Range will get cleaned for the first time in its life..hahha.
For a couple of seasons I kept my power boat tied up to that dock in front of the Brew Pub, very convienient. The "bar" in that place was the wing from an old steam beaver.

Natesmall:
I attached the spring lines to the fittings on the outside beam straps,(see pic). There was one of those fitting at each beam end on my NACRA 5.7
I couldn't wrap around the front beam as the tramp goes from edge to edge, & Jack told me not use the dolphin striker for any pulling/tying. Wrapping around the rear beam would have worked.
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edited by: Edchris177, Dec 09, 2009 - 12:24 PM

I believe that Beaver crashed on Frame Lake many years before.

BTW: get end caps for the beams before you sail. The aluminum edges will tear you apart.

Interesting, you do know that is a front beam extrusion in the picture, that is mounted as the rear beam?? Shouldn't hurt anything, just an observation. . .

edited by: mummp, Dec 09, 2009 - 06:13 PM

I hope Nacra owners chime in here (as i could be wrong) BUT... i would be carefull about attaching your "Spring lines" to the beam /strap /bolts

if you ever hit the brakes hard... (or other) you could sheer the bolt/beam off the cat. those Nacra straps/bots are known to be problematic and i wouldn't want to end my season early becase a dog ran in front of my car while i was trailering my boat home.

I personally use 1 strap on each bow, and 1 on the rear beam. this basically prevents more than a fraction of play (fore and aft)...

just my 2 cents..

MUMMP:
Interesting observation,I did not notice that while in the inspection phase, before purchase.
While in the disassemble phase I noticed that both beams were identical. I attributed that to simpler/cheaper for the manufacturer, they could buy lengths of only one extrusion & cut them into sections. I thought perhaps the front beam was stronger, to hold the mast loads + tramp, while the rear might be a thicker wall to accept the traveller screws. They are identical beams.
I believe they came from the factory this. A very close examination after removing them showed two faint lines on only a portion of each end, corresponding to the location of the straps. I think it unlikely that changing them would have resulted in replacing the straps on the exact same position, I should see two sets of markings.
Do you have any info, pictures on what a truly original rear beam for a 5.7 looks like? To your knowledge what is the difference?

edited by: Edchris177, Dec 10, 2009 - 09:35 AM

I do have pictures but I'm a retard when it comes to posting without hosting the image.

The earlier rear extrusions had a traveler track bolted on. The newer rear extrusions had the track extruded into the form, which covered the entire length of the beam. A slot was machined into beam to allow the straps to be mounted. These newer extrusions were considerably lighter. I had them both ways and very much liked the all aluminum track included extrusion version.

I don't believe Nacra would build a boat this way. What probably happened is a previous owner ordered a replacement beam and this was sent in error or discounted, etc. . . . or he found one from someone/somewhere and made it work. I'll see if I have a picture in my album here.

Beam Straps. They do fail. It has happened to me twice, and while sailing. Keep an eye on them. Look for fatigue where the bend is in relationship to the strap castings.

I got censored for using "r.e.t.a.r.d." What's with that Damon?

I found a some old pics in my album, not great but should be good enough to see the extruded track.

http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=18416&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=18449&g2_imageViewsIndex=1
http://www.thebeachcats.com/index.php?module=pictures&g2_itemId=18389&g2_imageViewsIndex=1

I still can't embed an image in post. AARRGGGG!

I found a some old pics in my album

Autopilot- HAHAHAHaha awesome!

Easy Image Imbed Instructions

Easiest to do with Firefox

Open a second browser window to the photo albums by right clicking on the album link and choose "open link in new window"

Browse to the image you want to imbed

Right click directly on the image and choose "Copy image location"

Come back to the forum post box.

Click on the Image button, that will insert

Right click in between the tags and
Choose paste

You should have something like this

Preview the post, you image should appear.

MUMMP:
Thnx for the heads up regarding the straps. My 5.7 is an '84, I think this was before they extruded the traveler track, it is definitely screwed on.
I saved a couple of your pics, thye will be useful when it comes time to rig trapezes.
The pic titled "crystal clear water", what is the line that is shackled to the bottom of the DS rod? I can't quite make out if it ends at the mast, or goes into the tramp pocket. Is it some sort of mast safety line, or the righting line?
Thanks.

damonAdmin wrote: Easy Image Imbed Instructions

Easiest to do with Firefox

Open a second browser window to the photo albums by right clicking on the album link and choose "open link in new window"

Browse to the image you want to imbed

Right click directly on the image and choose "Copy image location"

Come back to the forum post box.

Click on the Image button, that will insert

Right click in between the tags and
Choose paste

You should have something like this

Preview the post, you image should appear.

Stupid me, that is exactly what I did. I just didn't see the images, so I went back and edited by removing the <img src=" and then adding the links.

BTW, there is one picture embedded there now, who did that?

Edchris177 wrote: MUMMP:
Thnx for the heads up regarding the straps. My 5.7 is an '84, I think this was before they extruded the traveler track, it is definitely screwed on.
I saved a couple of your pics, thye will be useful when it comes time to rig trapezes.
The pic titled "crystal clear water", what is the line that is shackled to the bottom of the DS rod? I can't quite make out if it ends at the mast, or goes into the tramp pocket. Is it some sort of mast safety line, or the righting line?
Thanks.

That is a rarely used righting line, just there for looks. 😉

Ok Guys, have finished bearings on trailer, took some pics and added an album in Tech Help Gallery, hope this helps.

Turbo

Awesome, thanks.

Somehow in the last 10 years I lost my grease gun. Not sure how to lose something like that, but I guess if you don't look for it for 10 years that can happen..

Thanks Turbo, great job and thanks for posting.

Link to Turbos pictures
Replacing Trailer Wheel Bearings