Rear tie downs to trailer

[xpjim1]

Firefry17

Like your idea. Actually I like my towel idea also as I ussually put my wipe down towels under the strap as a reminder to attach the straps.
The boat on the trailer is in no beauty contest so I really do not care how the towels look.

I am going to look at attaching to the swim step though. I think it wouls be strong enough.

[bneub]

I think the swim platform would hold two men and a boy (or maybe 2 women and a man) Mine seems very stout! The force from straps is also straight down and close to the transom. If that breaks looks, you have bigger problems.

[CP3]

I also hook mine to the swim platform but at my storage unit I saw a 22v that looked like it had pretty bad gel coat damage to the swim platform. So the straps were hooked to the transom.
Does the Towel really work I am heading cross country and really dont want to rely on the swimplatform.

[xpjim1]

Cant answer for a 22V but on my old 20V and my current 24V no scratches on the gelcoat. I put the towels under the straps on both.

[tony dunn jr.]

I am now hooking mine to the swim plat form on my 22ve. It sure looks like that platform is plenty stout for the straps. It seems like there is alot of surface on the platform brackets.

[derekbell23]

unless you are driving around a lot of bumpy roads there is no reason to even have them. the new tiges are so heavy that they won't move when you get them on the trailers.

[raythompson]

Trailer Tie Downs

I would also agree with that statement. I had a 18 Century Bronco that I never used trailer tie downs. I never had a problem. I also do not have any tie downs on my 22V.

I have been told that tie downs were to keep the boat from slipping sideways on the trailer. With the current crop of trailers and the side guide posts sideways movement becomes a moot point.

If you think the boat is going to move on the trailer try an experiment. Don't load your boat all the way on the trailer. Leave say a foot between the bow eye and the bow stop. Now pull your trailer up the ramp until the back of the boat is still in the water but no longer floating, the majority of the weight is on the trailer. Now use full throttle and see if the boat moves on the trailer. It won't move and you are dealing with significant thrust, more than you will ever encounter on the highway.

The boat is heavy and will not bounce off the trailer. I would be surprised if the boat even came off the bunks when going over extremely rough road at a higher than sane speed. Even if the boat did what is it going to do? Nothing. Coming back down on the bunks from even a one inch height is no harder than hitting a wave at speed, loading the boat on the trailer, or hitting a piece of wood in the water.

If my tow vehicle and trailer get into a situation where the boat is going to leave the trailer the situation is already really bad and tie downs are not going to save the day. Hopefully I survive and insurance picks up the cost of repairs.

[Studman]

I hook my straps to the bracket that hold platform. My salesman saw where I hook and said they should go to the eye up top. I said that it will rub and he did not have answer for that but told me he does not even use them he has a 22V and mine is 20V. I do not pull tight just snug so that if things got crazy it would not bounce.

[CP3]

I agree to a point about not using the strap. While the boat may not slide off of the trailer, it WILL shift. when I first got my boat I didnt use them and once when I got back to the house I noticed the boat was about an extra 2 inches to the right. So I use them loosely now.

[raythompson]

Originally posted by CP3 So I use them loosely now.

Unless you cross the straps (port boat to starboard trailer, etc.) there will be enough play to allow the boat to shift an inch or two in either direction. Put the trailer in the water with the straps still attached so the back of the boat is floating. Now get behind the boat and you can easily move the boat back and forth a couple of inches.

Staps were OK and in fact are necessary the the tin boats on the generic trailers. But with the weight of the Tige, the custom fitted trailers, side guide rails, bunk surface area, the boat is not going anywhere in all but the most extreme situations. If I was in that situation I would have bigger issues than worrying about the boat remaining on the trailer.

And consider that a jolt hard enough to move the boat is going to put the mass of the boat in motion and stopping that mass will require straps with a higher tensile breaking strength than the weight of the boat, several times. That would require some fairly hefty straps. The strain may even be enough to damage the transom on your boat.

So think about it. If your boat bounces up and then comes down that energy is being transferred to the massive surface area of the trailer bunks and spread over the same are in the hull. With straps that energy that would have moved the boat is now constrained to very small area on your transom. Simple logic dictates that spreading that energy is better than concentrating that energy.

Straps are not going to keep the boat on the trailer, gravity and friction does that. What they will do is transfer any bounce energy to your attachment points on the transom. And it would take a lot to bounce a Tige. But when it happens I would rather not have the force transferred to the transom hooks or the swim platform.

[scootc]

I bought 2 of these wrap around pads for seatbelts. They're held on with velcro and slip right between the platform and the transom.

[zany]

I have always used rear straps on all my boats.
I believe that the rear straps keep the boat and trailer moving together not independent. If you hit a bump and the boat rises you want the trailer to rise with the boat. The trailer weighs far less than the boat. When they come down together the trailer suspension should cushion the force.
So I guess what I am saying the straps don't hold the boat down, they hold the trailer up.

[MRMoffat1]

I had rear tiedowns on my 1999 2100V for the past 7 years, and now 2006 22Ve. To fit for both, just flipped the tie downs upside down. See photo. Never have had a problem with scratching gel coat.