Need help trailering my Sea-Doo Utopia 205

[umbighouse]

(I posted this in the '2-Stroke SeaDoo Sport Boat Forum' too - I didn't know which one it would be better for. Please feel free to delete a dupe if needed)

I have a Sea-Doo Utopia 205. I have an issue getting the boat trailered well from the water. I've tried different trailer wheel depths but just can't seem to find a sweet spot.

What I usually do is drive the boat onto the trailer, give it a little more 'help' moving forward, and then try to winch it the rest of the way.

What I find is that by the time I winch it forward so that the bow meets the rubber roller, I've usually run out of winch strap, so it often doesn't touch the roller.

Sometimes, I can get it close, and I think that when I pull the trailer forward up the ramp, the boat may then settle down into position a little, and make contact (see photo). But I don't think this is the way it's supposed to work. I bought the boat used, and looking at the bow, there are black smudge marks from the bow roller much higher up than where I get it to make contact, so that tells me that the bow has been able to settle in higher up in the past.

When I trailer, there are often passengers (my kids) in the boat with me. I've experimented with them forward or aft, but again, can't find the sweet spot.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[nataliator]

had a similar issue with my islandia. Admittedly I am still figuring it out.

With that said, what works best for me, is to drop the trailer in just over the fenders, which is not deep for the boat. Then I drive the boat onto the bunks, and since its not deep, the trailer bunks push the bow of the boat upwards. I winch it as much as possible at this point, and then I reverse the truck and drop the trailer even deeper into the water. That takes the weight of the boat off the bunks, and allows me to winch it all the way up so its snug on the bumper/roller up front.

Early mistake I made and was seeing was that if I dump the trailer in too deep from the start, the boat sits too flat in the water, and I cant even get the nose of the boat up high enough to clear the front roller without pushing the boat upwards, and then it would drag along the roller as I winched and felt like a lot of resistance.

As I said, I still haven't mastered my setup yet that's for sure. Something that helped me get it to this point was heading to the ramp at a very non-busy time and just played with depths until I seemed to find something that worked.

 

[umbighouse]

I'm including a photo of my wheels so you can see my trailer. When say that you initially lower the trailer in just above the fenders, do you mean the lower step of the plastic fender around my wheel? I've been putting the trailer in much lower than that to start- just about 2 inches below the top of the fender above the wheel.

 

[cbjustDOOit]

That looks fine to me... I usually drop the trailer in until the front step of the wheel Fender touches the water. I then power it on up to about a foot of the roller, and winch it on. Winching it seems to center the back better than driving it all the way up.

I also keep a Bottle of half dish washing detergent and water. If you squirt a bit on the carpet bunks after you drop the boat.... it slides on and off like rollers.

 

[slaizer2000]

I added bunk board guide ons to the trailer. Allows the boat to go in straighter and actually makes winching easier. I've also noticed the boat is more heavily pushed up to the bunk guide that is in the direction of the waves. So i think it helps prevent the boat from going on crooked and in my case also tilted.

https://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?77299-What-I-did-to-my-4-tec-boat-today/page16