Does anyone have any ideas on getting a 25 - 29 foot boat from stands onto a flatbed trailer
without a crane. I would like to buy the cheapies on Ebay and try to turn a little profit but
getting them is a problem. I have a flatbed trailer and have thought of making a generic
'lift' that I can jack up on site, move the trailer under it and then lower the boat on the trailer.
I have fixed up and sold several boats on Ebay but always ones with swing keels that
have standard boat trailers so I have zero experience with stands, cradles and transporting
larger boats.

Appreciate any experience or tips,
Thanks,
Frank

I have done this many times when the trailer is an open construction. You
need about three jacks so you can jack up the bow, as far aft as possible,
then run the trailer under it as far as it will go, then shift the jacks to
the other side of the first cross-member and repeat until it is on.
If you have a flatbed trailer with a solid base it becomes more difficult.
Carry out step one as above but when you remove the jack lower the boat onto
a roller, not the bed.
Then the stern must be on a jack with wheels and the wheels must be oriented
towards the vehicle. Then you need to haul the whole thing forward with a
winch until you can get another roller aft of the C of G.
Then with small height jacks get the boat off the rollers and onto
blocks-and there you are!
Needless to say you must be on a level concrete area to do this. It will not
work on grass because the small wheels of the jack holding up the stern will
sink in.
By far the biggest problem is keeping the boat level while you do all this.
You will need a couple of helpers for this and always ensure that there are
fail-safe supports a few inches below the bilges in case they fail to keep
the boat dead upright and thereby lose control.
Or you could always hire a crane...

"woopei" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have any ideas on getting a 25 - 29 foot boat from stands onto
a flatbed trailer
without a crane. I would like to buy the cheapies on Ebay and try to turn
a little profit but
getting them is a problem. I have a flatbed trailer and have thought of
making a generic
'lift' that I can jack up on site, move the trailer under it and then
lower the boat on the trailer.
I have fixed up and sold several boats on Ebay but always ones with swing
keels that
have standard boat trailers so I have zero experience with stands, cradles
and transporting
larger boats.

Appreciate any experience or tips,
Thanks,
Frank

woopei wrote:
Does anyone have any ideas on getting a 25 - 29 foot boat from stands onto a flatbed trailer
without a crane. I would like to buy the cheapies on Ebay and try to turn a little profit but
getting them is a problem. I have a flatbed trailer and have thought of making a generic
'lift' that I can jack up on site, move the trailer under it and then lower the boat on the trailer.
I have fixed up and sold several boats on Ebay but always ones with swing keels that
have standard boat trailers so I have zero experience with stands, cradles and transporting
larger boats.


How much time & effort do you want to put into it? There are
big boat trailers with hydraulic arms spicifically built to
pick up & transport large keelboats from their jack stands,
without using any other equipment. I bet they're expensive.

An alternative would be to build a pair of H-frames that you
could drive your trailer under, that could also support
boats from sling on the upper arm. Winch the boat up onto
the H-frames, drive the trailer under, lower the slings,
vroom away you go.

Or you could use a couple of chain hoists & temprory (and at
least partly sacrificial) lumber skid frames to drag the
boat up onto the trailer. That would cost far less but take
more time on each job.

For every engineering problem, there is a high, middle, and
low end solution

Fresh Breezes- Doug King