Trailer Walkway

After putting the 9000# electric winch on the trailer, launching and retrieving was a lot easier Saturday. I did feel the need to have something sturdier to walk down the trailer frame than a 3-inch wide piece of 3x4 steel tubing to balance on. So Monday I went to a local steel supplier 20 miles away (Fazzio's steel) in Glassboro, NJ and had them cut me a piece of galvanized grating. I went with 1-1/4" tall stock, 3/16" thick runners, and had them cut it 11-inches wide, and 13.5 feet long. This weighs 110 pounds. I have plenty of height above the trailer's cross members to the keel, but not sure if I'll have to add a keel roller at the start of the grating. Would like to know what everyone thinks about this starting clearance. I didn't go wider than 11" just in case the rollers tilt down that low, although the first roller is way behind the cross member & grating. It appears everything will clear nicely once up on the 1st roller. Since I launch by myself often, this addition gives an added degree of convenience when attaching the winch strap, with just wearing slip-on boots. Oh, and the cost for the grating was $226 for 12-inch wide. Then there was a little galvanized angle iron, SS fasteners, and some galvanized unistrut for drawing up under the cross members.

Looks like a winner to me. You'll never truely know till you put it in the dirt so to speak.

A change in tide and or ramp could make a difference.... But I believe it will work well for you.

Some U bolts around the grate and crossmember's will hold it in place well.

Id hate to see that piece of steel coming out from under there and into a car behind you.

Looks good Jim. I think it's a great idea and the fit on your trailer appears to be very good as well. Like you mentioned, the only concern I could see is if the keel at the bow entering the trailer has any risk of hitting the cross member? I've been curious as to why more folks up north seem use roller trailers? At least that's my impression? I purchased my first boat from a friend in NJ I knew from when I lived there (brought it straight back to NC)and it had a roller trailer. I was only on a boat a few times while there (NJ)and didn't have boating experience then. But I don't remember the tides being that extreme there? Are the tide swings more than 3' to 4'? Just curious as to what drives the roller need vs bunks? I have a bunk on my Parker and I love it. I launch and load by myself all the time and I can do it in a few minutes. I just drive on, power up the bunks for the last few feet, jump off the boat hook the safety chain and wench strap. After a couple of cranks to snug it up I'm pulling out. Same basic process in putting in. Back down until the back half of the boat is in the water, stop and unhook the strap and chain, then back down a little more until I'm just shy of the boat floating off, jump onboard, fire up and reverse off. 2 minutes in 2 minutes out ish.

warthog5":p3dtuqnr said:

....... Some U bolts around the grate and crossmember's will hold it in place well..........

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Most of the pics were shot before installing the fasteners. You can however, see one of the close-ups of a recessed galvanized grating clip with ss carriage bolt. I used 10 of them to hold it down. I chose them over u-bolts so I wouldn't feel them under my boots. I suppose could use a safety chain for the 1st trip out with it, and see how the 10 bolts hold.

shawnee83":3jtvzy4q said:

..... Like you mentioned, the only concern I could see is if the keel at the bow entering the trailer has any risk of hitting the cross member?

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I guess it comes down to "how close did the keel originally get to the first cross member when entering/exiting the trailer". The grating takes away 1-1/4 inches of that height clearance. It can only be seen from the one side aft shot, that the keel will contact the first roller 20 inches prior to encountering the first cross member. Hopefully it will climb and clear before then.

Based on the pics Jim, it appears that you shouldn't have any problems with it clearing. The walkway was a good idea and it looks like it was built that way from the factory. Nice work

Jersey Jim":dd56wl30 said:

warthog5":dd56wl30 said:

....... Some U bolts around the grate and crossmember's will hold it in place well..........

Click to expand...

Most of the pics were shot before installing the fasteners. You can however, see one of the close-ups of a recessed galvanized grating clip with ss carriage bolt. I used 10 of them to hold it down. I chose them over u-bolts so I wouldn't feel them under my boots. I suppose could use a safety chain for the 1st trip out with it, and see how the 10 bolts hold.

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Yes I saw that, but it looks as through there "could" be a possibility to slip If you can locate those clips so that it can't fore & aft slide.
You I understand about the U bolts standing proud, bu their NOT gonna let it move.

Jim that looks awesome! Very well done. Since we have the same basic setup keep me posted on how it works when you launch. You should patent the idea and sell the idea to Mike at sea lion trailers. Lol.

Shawnee, the reason for roller trailers here, especially in New Jersey, is because our boat ramps SUCK. There are times when I go to launch my boat at a few ramps at low tide and i am launching from basically a dry trailer. If we had bunks trailers we never get the boat in the water lol. A lot of ramps in NJ have very shallow angles

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't want to take any chances on the keel hitting the new grating walkway, so ran out today and got the widest keel roller I could find (17" wide). The grating is only 11" wide, but one can't always count on going on straight. I probably increased the chances of it hitting, as the soft rubber roller sits up even higher than the 1-1/4" tall grating. At least it will be a brief, soft impact, if any.

Sara F":k56v09ax said:

Shawnee, the reason for roller trailers here, especially in New Jersey, is because our boat ramps SUCK. There are times when I go to launch my boat at a few ramps at low tide and i am launching from basically a dry trailer. If we had bunks trailers we never get the boat in the water lol. A lot of ramps in NJ have very shallow angles

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Thanks for the reply. Interesting. It's the opposite situation of what I thought it might be relating to the steepness of the ramps. Although I know the terrain there at the coast is very similar to NC, I thought maybe bigger tide swings caused issues at the ramp.

Shawnee, the People's Republic of New Jersey (South Jersey anyway) doesn't put any money into providing quality ramps. The is one ramp that i use in South Jersey that at low tide the water stops about 3' feet from the end of the ramp. And there is hardly any slope to the ramp at all.

That's sucks about the ramp situation Phil. You would think with all of the high tax dollars collected that they could build some decent ramps. We are fortunate at the NC coast to have in general, excellent ramps. The one I use regularly was redone not to many years ago and it has nice floating docks and grooved concrete all the way down. I've never had an issue even at dead low tide. The tide swings in Beaufort are between 3' to little over 4' depending on the moon phase. The NC coastal ramps are mostly done by NC Wildlife and some by the local municipality.

Your walkway starts about where I would want mine to end. Depending on tide at my ramp, sometimes my boat stops 4 feet before the winch post, and I have to walk the tongue, lean down and snap the hook into the eye. I only do that when the water is very cold, otherwise, I just walk down the ramp and snap the strap in. Just the other day, I was wishing I had something similar on the tongue portion of the trailer, but I have never had any need, or desire , to walk to the back of the trailer while it is on a ramp. Under what circumstance is this necessary?

PKS1801":2sc5o3h5 said:

......Under what circumstance is this necessary?

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Thanks for the interest. Up here in the NE, our tide swings are more dramatic. Just last week during a full moon, the swing was almost 7 feet. the ramps are steeper too. I usually never walk past the rear rollers closest to the center of the trailer. Actually, water would run into the top of my knee-high boots if I walked to the very rear, at least with our steep ramps in this region. Usually launching solo, I first pull the boat via the dock lines, from the dock, onto the first set of rollers. If I didn't, the long walkway allows me to walk to the rear of the trailer & hook the bow eye and pull the boat onto the trailer, but haven't done this yet. In addition to the rear cross member being the end support and a convenient point of attachment, I just felt it was good to have the option. Usually several feet behind the vehicle's rear tires is dry ramp. I guess that comes from the steepness of our ramps. All I know is, it is infinitely more convenient by myself now. That in addition to the wireless remote I plug in where the wired remote used to. Oh, and I've lowered that 18-inch wide bow roller to just barely an inch above the grating. I also painted the roller to look for "witness marks" of the painted bottom's keel hitting the roller. It has never touched it, so that keel protection wasn't necessary after all.

the first time i saw this string i said "what a great idea, almost seems like something that should have evolved as a factory option". i'm a bunk person now - somewhat to do with this very issue. i am often solo driving the boat off the trailer to the dock and then running back and parking the vehicle and vice versa. most ramps i use (NE) are well sleep enough to get the boat deep enough with dry vehicle rear tires so climbing aboard dry and driving off/on a bunk trailer is not much of an issue.

trailers past have been roller. getting the boat off the rollers and into a position for me to climb aboard and drive her to the dock often left me "quick stepping" my way down a submerged trailer. same problem getting the boat back on (cable to the eye etc).

think this is a great idea. maybe even get a patent as i'd see this evolving into some sort of oem option some day. if i'd seem you stroll down a fabricated walkway and hook the cable to your eye just before or after i'd slipped or wind related had to jump in waste deep to accomplish the same, you know i'd have been asking all about where to get one...

nicknotsebastian":2lorummn said:

..... think this is a great idea. maybe even get a patent as i'd see this evolving into some sort of oem option some day.....

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Thanks for the reply, but I don't think something is patentable once you disclose it to the public. One would have to apply for one first, I would think. Besides, I'd feel funny about trying to patent "common sense" practical ideas with only "off-the-shelf" parts. It's not like I designed the grating, but rather just used it somewhere practical. Then again, it's always the simple things people seem to get rich with.

This is the painted bow roller to protect keel from potential impact. It was painted purely as an indicator to show if any keel contact was made during launching. Apparently the keel never touches the roller, so can probably be removed.

I like it.
When I trailered, I also had to 'walk the tongue' of the trailer, so I would have liked some of this grate material up there as well.