Group buy Mac X or M trailer

[OverEasy]

Hi All!
Yes, we're new to owning a Macgregor 26X and have all sorts of questions and discoveries to make as we learn our new boat.

One of the first things is to possibly adjust the bunk heights on the 2012 Sea Lion dual axle trailer to lower our boat and hopefully let it float off more easily when launching. Several of the ramps we would like to use are rather shallow affairs and we'd dearly love to avoid getting the back end of our van dipped in salt water!!!


Does anyone know the original Macgregor road surface to bunk top surface height?

Thanks!
Over Easy

[Jimmyt]

Welcome to the Forum! I'm sure one of the X owners can help you out. It might be helpful to post a pic of your trailer since the setup may be different than stock; and the responses are generally better with more info up front.

[K9Kampers]

Hey OverEasy, good to see you made it here! This is a great group and the best place on the web for anything Mac.

When I bought my, now yours, Sea Lion trailer, I had to experiment with adjusting the bunks to best fit the shape of the hull. If I recall, there is still some vertical adjustment available on the bunk brackets, however, the critical thing to pay attention to is the proximity of the hull to the fenders or more specifically, the tires. The more the boat is lowered, the wider it gets in reference to the tires. The fender boards I installed can be removed or repositioned as needed. The aluminum fenders will give way some if the hull pushes against them. However, if the hull is too close to the tires and makes contact while trailering the tires could wear into the fiberglass hull.

Months before you took possession of OVER EASY, my original Mac trailer had already found a new home. If I had ever taken the measurements you are looking for, they might be somewhere in the archives. There are others here that posted detailed drawings and measures that may help you.

[OverEasy]

Thank You!!!!
We appreciate the opportunity to become the new caretakers of Over Easy.

Yes, There is some potential vertical adjustment left for the bunks and the forward roller as well as available width as the hull lowers on the trailer frame.

It is appreciated the cautionary note about looking out for tire rub!!! THAT would definitely NOT be a good thing to occur
We will take extra care if/when we get to lowering the boat height on the trailer to ensure there is enough room for the vertical wheel & axle travel to avoid contacting the hull. Thank you for pointing that out.

We are also going to do a couple other checks before we travel any distances such as leveling the trailer. It looks like our existing hitch might be a bit lower than desired. We will get to a good level place to check that out so we can get a better ball height. Once that is done we are also going to get the trailer and empty boat weighed and check the tongue weight before traveling. We wouldn't want to invite an episode of trailer sway to our travel plans.

There is also the aspect of the overall vehicular weights for us to keep tabs on too! Navigating all this is all part of the adventure!

[Tomfoolery]

Thank You!!!!
We appreciate the opportunity to become the new caretakers of Over Easy.

Yes, There is some potential vertical adjustment left for the bunks and the forward roller as well as available width as the hull lowers on the trailer frame.

It is appreciated the cautionary note about looking out for tire rub!!! THAT would definitely NOT be a good thing to occur
We will take extra care if/when we get to lowering the boat height on the trailer to ensure there is enough room for the vertical wheel & axle travel to avoid contacting the hull. Thank you for pointing that out.

We are also going to do a couple other checks before we travel any distances such as leveling the trailer. It looks like our existing hitch might be a bit lower than desired. We will get to a good level place to check that out so we can get a better ball height. Once that is done we are also going to get the trailer and empty boat weighed and check the tongue weight before traveling. We wouldn't want to invite an episode of trailer sway to our travel plans.

There is also the aspect of the overall vehicular weights for us to keep tabs on too! Navigating all this is all part of the adventure!

Think about it before you made modifications that would be hard to reverse. As a general rule, with these float on/off trailers with bunks, the only part of the process that requires the trailer to be deep in the water is getting the boat all the way forward to the bow bumper. The whole rest of the bunk arrangement is deep enough under the water that the boat never touches them until you start pulling it up the ramp.

Lowering the front of the trailer raises the rear of the trailer a little, but lowers the front a lot more, given the location of the axle. Adding a roller (or several, in fact) would allow you to get the bow into the bumper without the trailer being as far down the ramp as without them. Lowering the front of the trailer will do the same thing for different reasons.

A series of rollers can be added that don't have to carry the weight of the boat once it's in the vee bunks. I've added just one, to jump the bow up into that little forward vee bunk, and it works extremely well. It doesn't carry any weight with the boat in the bunks, but it guides the bow up and over the bunk with the trailer less deep in the water than it would require otherwise.

Dropping the front of the trailer will also help, but unless and until I modify and mechanize the pole tongue to 'kneel' when loading the boat, like hydraulic boat trailers marinas use, the same thing could be done by using an adjustable height hitch, and setting it low for launch/haul, then jacking it back up and pinning it level for travel.

See this post I made recently, in this thread. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=27911

If you really want to drop the trailer for easier loading, you can hinge it at the pole tongue to make it closer to level while on an angled ramp. Like the hydraulic trailers they use for launching and hauling boats that are stored on blocks and stands. There isn't actually very much bending moment there (it's a puny 3 x 3 x 3/16" tube, after all), and dropping the trailer at the tongue would make it much easier to load a boat.

This sketch is from the Mac Bump® sketch I made long ago, but it illustrates the principle at least. Click the image to get a better look.

[OverEasy]

Thank you all for the great cautions, thoughts and ideas!
I already have a roller on the tow tube extension aft of the post of the Sea Lion trailer which extends quite a bit aft. It is the current defacto limiting vertical point for the loaded boat meeting to post bow vee roller. This is where i was thinking that shortening that tube extension would allow me to move the whole boat down vertically as the extension tube roller would then move forward and the bunks could then be lowered accordingly. This should yield a lower boat hull by about 4 inches without changing the loaded fwd/aft location of the boat/trailer combination (given what I am able to currently see).

I like the "kneeling" tow tube function. . That is a neat idea. That could be a good thing to explore further. Briefly looking at the Sea Lion trailer there are some geometry issues that complicate it a bit. I'm also concerned about possibly needing to add a transit sleeve or something for the split line during highway transit (we will be towing about 1100 miles twice a year based on current plans).

But it did foster another idea though. Right now I am going to be towing with an 8 inch riser ball hitch in the 2 inch receiver of the Caravan to keep the trailer level in transit. I might try swapping out the 8 inch riser for the straight hitch when at the boat prep area before launching. There is about a functional 6 inch drop in ball height between the two hitches. I suspect that i will still be able to navigate the ramp and still get a lower front on the trailer when in the water reducing the need to "sink the trailer" as much . It could be a low budget easy means to to test things out.

It will be a few more weeks before i get any chance to try this out as we are prepping for our first big trip. I'll try test this out after we arrive and attempt to include some pictures at the same time.

Again, thank you for the great comments and ideas! They are appreciated!