I’m exhausted all the online sources I can find looking for these tilt double roller set up for a cat trailer. Any of your fellows got an idea where to find them?
This topic was modified 1 month ago 3 times by 33curt33
Rollers are ok for loading/off-loading the boat, but will likely leave divots on the bottom of the hulls due to prolonged boat weight on just a small surface area of the rollers. It's best to have hull cradles on both front and rear support beams of the trailer. Spray some 'Aerospace 303' on the carpeted cradles while the boat is off the trailer and the boat will slide on and off very nicely. Wax the hulls with Colinite 845 Insulator wax and it will work even better.... in fact, your cat will likely slide on sand like it's on ice. It's super-slick.
@cat-scratch I’m having a hard time finding cradles, have you got a good source? I didn’t think the rollers were a good idea for the reason you stated also, but that picture I snapped was of a 20+ thousand dollar cat and I thought if it was good enough for them, oh well. I guess maybe they have cradles you can slip over the rollers?
Yeah, I have made my own cradles out of 6" diameter cored PVC pipe, cutting about 12" off of a 10' pipe, sawing it down the length of it (one cut), and placing it in a large toaster oven heated to 350 deg. F. for about 5 minutes until it's very pliable. Then wrap that PVC around the widest part of a hull bottom with straps to keep it snug to the hull.
Actually, I did two layers of PVC at once to make it stronger. After the PVC has cooled on the hull, adhere them together with a polyurethane adhesive (in a caulking tube) like you'd get at homey despot or Lowes. You can then use these over those double rollers.
Also, Sailboxes (dot) com makes cradles that mount to the support beams.
I’m exhausted all the online sources I can find looking for these tilt double roller set up for a cat trailer. Any of your fellows got an idea where to find them?
The rollers in your picture look like bow rollers for a power boat? The double rollers I have used on my Hobie 18 are like pictured.
Maybe @ecsailboats knows where these can be sourced.
One thing I found, when I had these at all four corners, the bow wouldn't stay straight ahead but would wonder side to side no matter how well I strapped down the boat. I switched to cradles for the front and that perfect, with rollers in the back for easy loading and cradles to keep things lined up in front.
I dislike rollers on the rear beam.... on the trailer. Period.
The problems these rollers present are especially prevalent when loading the boat in windy and/or wavy conditions with the rollers just at water surface or higher, and even on dry ground. It can happen even when unloading. The steel frames of the rollers will find a way to chip the stems of your hulls if the hulls are inadvertently pushed away from alignment with the trailer/rollers while loading. Even on dry ground using cat trax, if your crew is not watching the bows well, the stems are gonna find the sharp steel frames.
The supposed ease of rolling the boat up on these rollers is not worth the stem getting nicked-up in my opinion.
If you spray some 'Aerospace 303' protectant on the carpeted cradles (dense foam such as 3/4" thick exercise/floor mat from Harbor Freight is better than carpet, SeaDeck EVA foam decking is even better), then the hulls will slide almost effortlessly on the cradles with almost zero chance of nicking the stems... unless you really mess up and hit the support beams.
Yes, East Coast Sailboats can make them. WE aso have the cat cradles that fit in the roiillers to steady the boat and better support of boat when trailering. Reach out to us via our website. www.eastcoastsailboats.com
