SN 200 Boatmate Trailer Mods

[pauldixon]

I thought I detail what I did with our trailer to resolve issues regarding rubbing the front strakes on our SN200 when loading.

The Boatmate trailers were not built well for the SN200 hull and have bunks that rub against the front strakes. To minimize the rubbing, its best to float on and off the trailer but even then its not great. Here is what I changed:

Shim the bunks:

• The bunks are not well designed in that they have too much weight at the very front. Therefore, shimming up the bunks at the rear of the trailer helps take off the weight at the very front
• we installed 3/4" UHMW shims (3"X3") between the bunks and their supports for each bunk supports except the very front supports. A total of 12 shims are required
• Our bunks were lagged in so we had to buy new 3/8" X 2.5" SS lag bolts. I was worried about the extra 1/4" of length into the bunk so we ground off 1/4" from the tip of the lag bolt. A total of 24 new lag bolts are required as there are 2 per shim
• we match drilled the UHMW with a 3/8" dia drill and then drilled the holes to 1/2" off the trailer

Roller:

• Attaching a roller to the trailer cross member wouldn't work for us as the fins come past the second cross member so we needed to make an adjustable frame for the roller as per the pictures in some of the other threads
• to measure, we loaded the boat onto the trailer all the way up with the shims installed. We measured the distance from the front cross member to the fins which was 39" I believe. For height we ran a string line on the top of the 1st and 2nd cross member. The distance from the string to the keel at the location of the roller was 5.25"
• We then reverse engineered the roller bracket from the pictures. I've included the fabrication drawings in the attachment. All you need to do is check the measurements and if they are close you can use this design which has all the parts
• the only deviation from the drawing is that we didn't end up using a 5/8" SS bolt to attach the roller. We purchased a roller shaft from Tie Down. Is zinc plated steel so hopefully it lasts. We got it long (15") and we will just cut it to size.
• To install, this weldment just needs to be welded on centerline, flush with the top of the cross members
• Then weld the tube onto the cross members with the boat off the trailer. Then set the roller as low as it can go. Load the boat onto the trailer and raise the roller to the bottom of the keel and tighten the nuts. Then, the next time the boat is taken off the trailer, raise the roller 1/4" and the nuts tightened well

Apparently I have heard that Boatmate was doing these mods awhile ago (ie 2017-18) but when I contacted them they wouldn't even sell me the parts to make these so I had to build it myself.

[Interjon]

Thank's for this. The Boatmate trailer for the SN 200 is terrible. My boat had a huge gouge in the strakes after 1/2 season, and the ramp at our ski lake is very forgiving. We float it on and off now. I will check your mods out.