I have just purchased a Cmdr with no trailer. The boat is in the water at a mooring. I will be using a Catalina-27 trailer to pull the boat but have no idea on how to adjust the supports. How should the bolster pads be positioned for a Cmdr? Does anyoue have a picture of a trailer or some cursory diminsions I could use? Any info would be appreciated.
Wait to posistion the pads when the crane lifts the boat onto the trailer . The Catalina is a fin keel and the Commander is a full keel .
While the crane hold the boat upright , just slide the pads up to meet the bottom .
I hope you have a 4 wheel trailer with brakes , you need it .
When I got my Ariel it was on a wooden cradle sitting atop a makeshift trailer. The trailer appears to have been a mobile home frame or trailer for moving modular homes. It's double axel and has been modified a bit. I'll try for some pictures this weekend.
I want to get rid of the cradle and weld supports directly onto the trailer frame. This will lower the boat almost 12" . I don't have trailer brakes......but then I can launch it at the end of my driveway (almost). With a tidal range of 18 to 26 feet I can get away without a lift. I think Mike's advice is right on to fit things using the lift and go from there.
You will note that he is in Oklahoma , not much tide range there .
I have seen a new , 1998 , Ford F-250 4wd , pulled backward when trying to ramp launch a 6000lb ( combined trailer and boat ) load on a steep, wet ramp . It stopped when there was about 2.5 feet of water in the cab .
The draft of the Pearson will require the trailer to be near 6 feet under water before she floats .
Draw that out to keep the truck wheels out of the water and you have a tongue length on the trailer of near 25' ( unless of course you can roll it down at low tide , un-hitch , move vehicle beyond tide line and wait for boat to float off )
Not many places in the US where that can happen .
You are lucky in Maine to do this , but luck has it's downside , your summer is only a week long .;>)
It could be worse, A friend of mine lives in Nova Scotia , went to Toronto for 2 weeks in July and missed summer all together .
I'm way behind on getting #45 commissioned , bad weather and making a living get in the way .
Picking up my new Nissan 4 stroke 6hp today ,actually picking up 2 , one is for Commander 105 who lives down the street .
We are going to do some prop testing , 8" vs 7" , 8" vs 6" and 7" vs 6" . My mechanic says the 6" will be the winner . I think he is right .
I have a trailer for the Ariel. I tried to get a picture out but it did not take. I can send you a picture by email if you would like.
The trailer is 20 feet long, and the bed is 4 1/2 feet wide . Overall, the outside of the wheels make it 7 feet wide. The Ariel extends 7 feet aft of the end of the trailer
The trailer has two sets of wheels, the forward set being almost directly under the center of gravity of the boat (where the keel starts heading up.
There are six posts, three on each side.
The first is 9" from the back and the post extends about about 43" above the keel bottom.
The second is about 73" from the aft end of the trailer and about 31" off the keel bottom.
The forward most set are 117" from the aft end and about 34" high.
Down the center of the trailor is a "U" beam, with a 2" X 6" wolmanized plank placed in the trough upon which the keel of the Ariel sits.
The posts are capped with a flat swivel plate with a wood pad that adjust to the countour of the hull. The post height is based on where the bolt holding those plates passes through the post.
If you don't already know about it, a company (Barnett is the name as I recall) makes screw type jacks that fit inside the post so that the height of the post can be screw adjusted. I do not have those yet but will be buying a set this summer.
Let me know if there are any other dimensions you need or clarification.
My understanding is that they include the screw handle, but not the pad. There is a real problem with the Ariel and commercial pads. The swivel on the pads, from ones I was shown a year ago, do not swivel enough to accomodate the deep hull design of the Ariel. Most boats today do not have bottoms that are angled 30 degrees and more.
My pads, as a result, I had to have made to order.
(Back to the shelter topic sans new thread)After digging around and much measuring and remeasuring I decided to scrap the 'erect a new structure' idea and try to squeeze 113 into a building allready on the property. This, of course, required about ten days of nonstop cleaning and reorganizing (or maybe just ORGANIZING!!!) to accomplish. Due to some incredibly warm temps recently-nearly 45 degrees-I could wait no more.
trailers Ariel/Cmdr
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