Ken, Go to the archives. There you will find a "keel-threading" design for centering your boat on the trailer.
It is made out of plastic pipe and plastic fittings. The material cost is only a few dollars. The basic idea is a "Vee" - opening towards the aft end of the trailer; with the narrow part of the "Vee" at the trailer axle. The design consists of pieces of pipe attached to the axle with U bolts. >From this, you add "Tees" for vertical pieces on each side of the keel. Then, at the top of these vertical pieces you put a 90 degree fitting, plus lengths of pipe leading to the two aft supports on the trailer. Another 90 degree elbow and a short piece of pipe held in place with another U bolt, complete the system. I installed this on my trailer last summer, and it works very well. As you retrieve the boat, the horizontal pipes guide the keel to the center, and into the narrow part of the "Vee". Once the keel is in the slot, pulling the bow further to the stop causes the boat to pivot around the guide and line up on the keel rollers. Cross winds on retrieval don't bother you any more. Once the keel is captured by the guides the boat is forced to line up over the keel rollers. The easiest way to make this installation is, obviously, with the boat off the trailer. Then you can climb in and out of the trailer frame; make measurements and test pipe lengths. The only dimension you need the boat for, is the vertical height to the hull from the axle. Don't try and make this too close to the hull: remember the axle will move over bumps, moving your "Vee" up and down too. So leave some clearance. Mine, I think is about 3 inches. Connie M15 #400 LEPPO ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
