www.iFourWinns.com

My Trailer doesn't have a safety chain. I asked the Four Winns dealership about it they said that is the way it is supposed to be. The 2 shorelander trailers I have had in the past have both had safety chains. I am a little concerned about not having one. Should I be worried about this?

Tony

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Tony

2008 FS 5.7ltr 300HP DP
2007 Yukon Denali
2008 Chevrolet Avalanche LTZ
1995 Polaris 650

I don't know what the deal is with FW dealers telling people they don't need safety chains/straps. My dealer told me the same thing. If they aren't needed, why did FW weld a bracket on there for one?

I've seen too many pictures of boats sitting on top of truck cabs to not have one. Also, for the first couple of years I followed my dealer's advice and did without. I noticed, when going down the highway, that the boat rocked forward and backward on the trailer. Not a lot, but enough to notice. I figure that's not the best situation.

In any case, I fail to see how a chain or strap could hurt anything.

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

I was concerned enough about it to add my own... All purchased from Lowes, all 9600LB capacity, galvanized.

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Brett DiMichele

With my 224 I got a small fabric strap much like the trailer straps that was on the eyelet then connected to the crank case. I figure that worked as well. It is interesting that you don't see the old metal log chain hookups but I guess if they are counting on my main strap working than a second one can't be all that bad.

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2008 Four Winns 224 Funship 5.0 GXI/DP Black w/ Tower
2007 GMC Crew Cab Short Bed / Bose Ed.
2007 Fourwinns H180 (SOLD)

"There are no stupid questions, only stupid people"

Tony, I would atleast ask for the strap like I got on my brand new 224. It's the least they can do, they have it somewhere probably lost it.

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2008 Four Winns 224 Funship 5.0 GXI/DP Black w/ Tower
2007 GMC Crew Cab Short Bed / Bose Ed.
2007 Fourwinns H180 (SOLD)

"There are no stupid questions, only stupid people"

Because FW is a boat maker trying to make an extra buck on the trailer. They could careless about a trailer quality no money in trailers like boats.

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Somebody there doesn't know what they are talking about, you should have BOTH a safety chain to keep the boat from sliding back if the winch fails, and a tie down in the front to keep the bow from bouncing up and down in the bow stop. If you want to talk to people who REALLY know about trailers go over to:
http://www.championtrailers.com
I rebuilt my old 1994 Load Rite with their help and http://www.trailerpartsdepot.com as well as
http://www.easternmarine.com Eastern Marine has good prices on Kodiak disc brakes, as does Champion. Eastern also sells one of the better trailer tire brands (Loadstar).
Champion built a new axle to my specs and I added their brake kit. Trailer parts depot sells OE Load Rite parts so I was able to replace the rollar bars with longer ones and put on a longer tongue.
Chamnpion also sell a set up to mount a chain and turnbuckle on the trailer tongue to act as a tiedown, very heavy duty, instead of the typical straps. They sell all kinds of parts for the do it yourselfer so you can custom build your trailer the way you want it.
They do sell really nice all aluminum bunk trailers but don't ship, you have to drive to La to get one!
Here we have to use rollers because of the tidal change being 7 feet between high and low, a bunk would never work at low tide, even with a longer tongue.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II