Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

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DanBerger
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Joined: May 3rd, 2004, 3:29 pm
Boat Make/Model: SC 15 w/ spin!, SC 19
Location: Norfolk, VA

Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by DanBerger »

I'm rebuilding my trailer for my 20 and I thought I would make it a telescoping trailer while I was at it. I'm thinking that I need to make a big frame with cradles on one side to hold the boat. I get the idea of using wires and a winch to winch the frame in and out, so I'm good there.

What I need is advice on how to mount the moving frame to the trailer frame so that it slides out. What has anyone else used? some kind of industrial ball bearing drawer slide? How about those rubber boat rollers? I was also thinking about a strip of plastic between the sliding frame and the trailer frame. Even lubed up, that might be too much friction.

How do you get the sliding frame to lock in the compressed position? Just a pin through the sliding frame and the trailer frame?

Do you need to put legs on the end of the sliding frame under the hull so that it is supported when extended? I'm thinking the trailer would fall over.
gahamby
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Re: Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by gahamby »

I'm thinking rubber rollers mounted over and under on some Uni Strut. Two sets forward, two sets aft. One set on center line, one set outboard. Box tube trapped in between with hull cradles on the outboard end. A trailer tongue jack on the outboard end of each box tube. This would all be readily available trailer hardware, except the Uni Strut. That can be had at the electrical supply or Loews. Not a lot of searching or custom fabricating.
havliii
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Re: Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by havliii »

Telescoping trailers very rarely work well, just too many moving parts to get wracked up, jammed up, twisted, out of alignment. You can tilt the 12 foot boat and fit it into a legal box for the highway or better still narrow the boat to 11 feet and then tilt trailer it. You'll never miss the 1 foot of 'lost' beam, you'll be way happier never again having the assembly nightmare and you'll save hundreds of dollars on aspirin, without the headaches!

my 2 cents.
J Drew
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Re: Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by J Drew »

Dan,
Maybe I can help?

I'm not the best photographer but there's a wheel on each piece of square tubing that telescopes with about 1/8" +/- clearance. There's 4 independent slides, because it telescopes from both sides of the trlr. The tube attached to the trlr has a wheel on the bottom, just at the end of the tube. It is mounted below the tube so that it is just above flush with the bottom of the tube, the movable tube rolls on it. The tube that mounts the cradle has a wheel on the top of the tube, just at the end. The wheel on the cradle tube runs inside, it is basically flush with the top of the tube it's mounted to.
It does have spring loaded pins that secure it all the way in and all the way out.
All the way out is stable enough for boat assembly without any support

When I first got my boat, it had telescoping beams. I found that if the boat isn't correctly squared on the trlr, it likes to blind and if the round plastic curved pieces that shim the two round tubes of the beams are worn, it likes to blind. The wheels must roll freely and any debris can be very frustrating.

With fixed beams, I build it every time, which is extra work but when I roll the hulls out independently, it is much easier.
Last edited by J Drew on September 6th, 2016, 8:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
J Drew
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Re: Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by J Drew »

1473211541666.jpg
1473211507605.jpg
1473211447374.jpg
Like I said, I'm not a photographer.
Be glad to "try" to get better pics if needed
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Bill Roberts
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Location: Stuart, Florida

Re: Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by Bill Roberts »

Here we go again. `1978 factor telescoping trailer. Cost then was $2500, cost today $5000. Telescoping in or out was controlled by a continuous cable thru both beams. Movement out and in was always in concert, never jammed. Set up time was 15 minutes from 8 ft wide to 12 ft wide with tight tramp. Could b moved by hand crank wench or push button electric wench. Push button always drew a crowd.
Bill Roberts
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Re: Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by Bill Roberts »

Drew,
These pictures are of someones home spun idea of how to build a telescoping trailer. This is all junk. The rollers have to be steel or aluminum.
The inner, moving beam, must be moving on rollers at all times. At the outlet of the fixed half of the telescoping system there must be a roller above and below the telescoping part of the beam. The lower roller carries the vertical load of half the boat. The upper identical roller has a center groove in it for the telescoping out cable to bend around this roller 180 degrees and head toward the center of the trailer and around a block and headed toward the wench. Both beams are rigged like this and the wires connected as they came forward and headed to the wench as one wire.
TRAILEX TRAILER COMPANY tried making an aluminum telescoping trailer using their stock extrusions and it was very bendy, sloppy, floppy and did not work well.
J Drew
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Re: Looking for help on a telescoping trailer

Post by J Drew »

It may not be shiny and new, and it's not aluminum, but it works just fine.
When it telescopes, it rolls out adequately and the rollers work like they need to.
Let someone else spend the money on a fancy trlr, I'll keep my "junk" !
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