What Depth Should My Trailer Be?
Boat trailer depth is a complex scenario, but in most cases you can simply say, the deeper the trailer the harder it will be to load a boat. We have put a number of illustrated examples below. We show examples of different boat trailer depth. This will show where the boat and trailer meet, and how much trailer depth impacts the loading process. See below for a full description of each example.
The bunks or rollers will center or align the boat on to the trailer.
Having the trailer out of the water more allows the bunks or rollers to contact the bottom of the boat and center the boat while you drive it on to the trailer. If you have the trailer too deep, the boat will just float over the top of the bunks or rollers. This lets the water or waves play too much of a role in loading. A deep trailer will cause the boat to come in sideways, left or right of the Ramp N Clamp system.
The bunks or rollers will lift the front of the boat.
The trailer is what lifts the front of the boat out of the water to lock into the clamp. If you have the trailer too deep, the trailer will not be able to lift the boat into the clamp. If you touch the clamp with the nose of the boat, then have to race the motor the get the nose to rise, you are literally lifting the boat out of the water to get it to lock.
Boat Trailer Depth Explained – Example 1
In this image you will see the trailer has roughly 1.5-3ft of the bunks out of the water. This will allow the trailer to both center the boat as well as lift the front of the boat into the clamp.
Trailer Depth Explained – Example 2
In this image you will see the trailer has roughly .5-2ft of the bunks out of the water. This will allow the trailer to center the boat, but as you can see may have troubles lifting the nose up out of the water to lock into the clamp. You may need to race the motor to climb into the clamp.
Trailer Depth Explained – Example 3
In this image you will see the trailer bunks or rollers are submerged under water. Your trailer will have a very hard time guiding or straightening out the boat on to the trailer. Causing a lot of left and right movement. You will also notice the trailer can not lift the boat up out of the water enough to lock in to the clamp. You will need to really race the motor to get the boat to climb out of the water to lock in.
Trailer Depth Explained – Example 4
In this image, the trailer is completely submerged under water. This is the worst case scenario. The trailer will not guide the boat at all, causing a severe left and right motion and the nose of the boat can easily miss the clamp off to either side. Another problem is you can see in the image that the the clamp is now so low that the eye of the boat will easily shoot right over the top of the clamp.
