www.iFourWinns.com

Hey all,

Anyone with a 220 find that it is somewhat difficult to get the bow eye between the rollers when loading your boat?

I finally got my new '07 220 home and took it out for a short spin today only to experience a good deal of frustration getting the bow eye where it should be. It either ends up below the lower roller or when I tilt the rollers down they will not cam over.

Finally found a sweet spot and power loaded the boat up to the nose rollers, held it there under power and locked down the winch. Lucky me running the one man load/unload routine.

I tried further in and further out on the trailer depth but this just seems to be a bit of pig to get right.

Any helpful advice would be much appreciated. Next step will be to measure the trailer to see if the relative position of the front bunks and the winch stand are correct for a 220.

I am also thinking about getting an adjustable draw bar to allow me to lower the front of the trailer when loading the boat to try compensate somewhat for the nose down attitude relative to the trailer on the loading ramp.

Best Regards,

Steve

FWIW the difficulty isn't limited to your model. If the bow eye is landing below the lower roller, your trailer is probably in too far. With our 240, to get the boat all the way up on the trailer, the trailer has to be in quite far. But if we don't put the trailer in as far so as to get the bow eye up between the rollers, we have to power load it as winching becomes impossible with the bow still 3' from the rollers.

One of my goals for this summer is to figure out the solution to this. While there are no rules in this area against power loading, I hate doing it.

_________________


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

My solution: I trim the motor up some as I come in to load the boat onto the trailer. While I'm mostly doing it to avoid dinging my SS props on the ramp/lake bottom as I load, it is also effective in raising the bow up just a bit as it first comes in. Flattens out that angle a bit.

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

I have no idea if this helps....but before I load I rotate the rollers so the bottom roller is pushed down/rotated as far as it can go. I think this helps get the bow eye over the bottom roller.

Finding the sweet spot on trailer depth is also key. If it's not just right you're not getting it on the trailer.

_________________
2005 Horizon 210, 5.7L Volvo

Pet...I like your trim up idea. That seems like it would work if you can just goose it enough to get the bow to lift at the right moment.

_________________
2005 Horizon 210, 5.7L Volvo

+1 to mikebaker. Sorry if I didn't make that clear, I thought someone had said above that they did it. I've been pushing the roller down at my brother's suggestion, mostly because the roller was tearing up the accent tape. I think the combination of the two is a good idea.

As for the trim, you really don't have to goose it. If you trim the motor up a few marks while in forward gear at idle, it WILL lift the bow some.

Finding the sweet spot on the ramp can be tough. My home ramp is a little flat, so we pretty much have to put the fenders on the tandem trailer underwater.

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Paul, I'm doing the same thing, that is having to put both fenders underwater, which means the bunks are all the way under also, cause if I don't I have to throttle way to hard to get it on the trailer right. All part of learing your boat I guess. I am going to try trimming it up a little more to see if that helps also, good idea!

David

_________________
2008 H210SS VP 5.7 Gi/SX
2011 Ford F150 FX4 EB

I still think back and laugh about the first time I tried to load it. I couldn't believe the difference between it and the former 18' Caravelle I had.

_________________
2005 Horizon 210, 5.7L Volvo

So I used all four years of my university degree, some mechanical aptitude and built and installed some stuff to solve the bow eye under the lower roller issue I have been having when loading my 220.

I figured I needed to have the boat load like a single nose roller trailer and with that in mind here goes the story...



I fabricated a bracket and link setup to allow me to fix the nose roller set with a 1/2" clevis pin. This modifies the angle of the nose roller set to allow the bow to ride up the upper roller while the bow eye misses the lower roller completely. The link is pinned in place before loading the boat on the trailer. Below is another view of what I am trying to accomplish.



Next, hook up the winch strap and draw it tight to hold the boat in position. Shut her down and climb out and insert a 3/8" rachet in the newly drilled and filed square hole, unload the pressure on the clevis pin and remove. A better setup is in the works but this will work for now and note I have drilled the corners of the hole to reduce the stress risers in the corners. I have been able to perform the whole operation on the trailer in the driveway so I am hoping that it will require less effort when the boat is in the water. Even still it required very little effort to unload the clevis pin in order to remove it.



Once the pin is removed allow the lower roller to relax against the hull. I will have to winch the boat another couple of inches to draw it up snug while it is still on the trailer in the water to complete the process.



Attached is the view of the hardware setup which involved a 1/2" flat bar and square tube bracket attached with a 1/2" U-bolt, a square tube link and a 5-1/2" Grade 5 bolt with shaft collars to position the floating link. Nice touch was that Fire Red Tremclad matches the trailer almost perfectly.



This setup is looking very promising in that I hope to avoid the unnecessary stress of getting the boat on the trailer in front of the boat ramp audience who always seem to know how to load every boat better than their owners.

Enough for now.

Steve

Very nice bit of engineering there! I love stuff like this.

_________________


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

NIce Job! That will work!

_________________

08 H260 VP 8.1Gi DP.....Previous
2013 Crownline E6 Merc 8.2MAG BIIIX, DTS/SC

Looks good...but I'll have to come back and look at it again to see if it makes sense to me sober. What does the ratchet do? Does that give you leverage to rotate the dohickey?

_________________
2005 Horizon 210, 5.7L Volvo

I believe the proper technical term is "gizmo."

_________________


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

Yea, the rachet is simply to unload the clevis pin so you can pull it out once the boat is winched up to the upper roller. Current rachet setup is crude but will be upgraded soon with a short 1/2" extension bar and the welder.

Steve

That IS a pretty sweet fabrication job. Without trying to be a jerk (though I may fail just by asking), why is all of that necessary? I only ask because my bow roller has quite a bit of tightness/resistance to it so that I can just push the lower roller down, the top roller pops up nice and high, and everything stays tightly in place. Was your roller really loose to where it swiveled up and down too easily and would fall back down before you could get the boat on the trailer?

Not knocking what you've done, just curious. Seems like you've created a lot of extra work at the ramp for yourself by adding in the steps of the ratcheting and pulling the clevis pin and all. HOWEVER, if you've got an easily moving bow roller that won't stay in place I could understand the need for what you've done. Either that or some kind of spring that would pull that lower roller down when the boat is off the trailer.

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)