www.iFourWinns.com

I know it is way early to be thinking about doing this as I hope to still have the boat in the water late into October, but what is the safest / best way to get the boat off the trailer once I put it into the garage ? I'd like to really clean up the underside of the boat, patch a few nicks and then work on the trailer as well.

I really don't want to be crushed by a 4,000 lb boat and while our garage does have steel beams, I'm not sure they will support a hoist with straps, but maybe I should have an engineer take a look at them as that would be easy.

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1994 235 Sundowner w/351 Ford

Think in terms of jacking and blocking the keel & chines and walking the trailer out from under the boat, not hoisting from above. Most garage structures just aren't built for lifting or suporting that kind of load... at least not without some structural modifications.

This video will give you the basic idea, although they let the boat settle to the side after they have the trailer out. You can easily keep the blocks on the chines to keep the boat level, and even add some lumber to tie the keel blocking and chine blocking together afterwards, for stability and peace of mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU2vrrY9kiA

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2009 H180 w/3.0 Merc
Homebuilt Minimax Hydro
2011 Zodiac Cadet 310

That video is interesting...I don't really like the method of tieing the boat to something and then literally pulling the trailer out from under it.

As a part of my business (marina) I move and block boats regularly. For most things we can use a hydraulic trailer that allows us to lower a boat onto blocking on the keel then we place boat stands at the transom corners to keep the boat from tipping. The trailer we use is an open frame so we can place blocking and pull the trailer out after we lower it down.

To get a boat off of a traditional trailer you can do the following:

- lower the tongue jack then place wood blocking at the trasom right below the keel.
- raise the togue jack of the trailer which will lower the transom and stop when the boat is just making hard contact with the blocking
- Place posts, sturdy jack stands or stacked blocking under each aft corner at the chine of the boat try to get even pressure on each side, use shims or thin pieces of wood to get to a point that you have even pressure between each corner and the keel.
- continue raising the tongue until you lift the back of the boat off the trailer bunks.
- tie the rear supports together with a strap, chain or even a 2x4 & scews so they can't separate.
- check stability of boat before proceeding
- Locate a position near the front of the boat where the keel starts to curve up. Tap the hull to find a solid area/bulkhead
- Use a floor Jack and a wood block and jack the front of the boat off the trailer
- Move trailer forward until a cross member gets to the floor jack.
- Place wood blocking behind cross member and lower front of boat so it is supported by the blocking
- Repeat last 3 steps until trailer is clear of the boat.
- Once the trailer is clear add some supports to the chine as far forward as possible.


This sounds more complicated than it is. The total activity of moving the trailer will only take 15 mins if you have all the wood and tools on hand.

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Current Operational Boats:
'04-Four Winns 180 Freedom 150 HP Evinrude
'72-Chris Craft Commander 31 Sedan Twin-350Qs

Great description Rotary! It was the message that I was trying to portray, but I didn't realize that they had tied the boat off to yank the trailer out from under the boat. Done as you describe, there should be no need to involve the structure of your garage (other than the floor) for any part of the process.

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2009 H180 w/3.0 Merc
Homebuilt Minimax Hydro
2011 Zodiac Cadet 310