How are your bunks secured?

[BlackoutATX]

I was inspecting my trailer yesterday and found a few things disturbing. My wood bunks are held on my nothin more than large screws. Which are all rusted. Is this normal? I definitely need to replace some screws. Is there a better way to secure the bunks to the actual trailer?

IMG_0597.jpgIMG_0595.jpgIMG_0594.jpgIMG_0593.jpgIMG_0596.jpg

[freeheel4life]

Stainless lag bolts and washers are your answer. When building bunks new I like using elevator bolts, but its best to clamp each new bunk and drill out the holes for the elevators in place. Trying to mark them out typically results in a miss at the uprights somewhere.
https://www.grainger.com/product/41U...180801233830:s

The above are zinc plated elevators. I get stainless from my hardware supply guy.

It's hard to tell but it kind of looks like the uprights and the crossmember they are mounted too is/are bent...Am I tripping??

[BlackoutATX]

How are your bunks secured?

Stainless lag bolts and washers are your answer. When building bunks new I like using elevator bolts, but its best to clamp each new bunk and drill out the holes for the elevators in place. Trying to mark them out typically results in a miss at the uprights somewhere.
https://www.grainger.com/product/41U...180801233830:s

The above are zinc plated elevators. I get stainless from my hardware supply guy.

It's hard to tell but it kind of looks like the uprights and the crossmember they are mounted too is/are bent...Am I tripping??

Got ya. I thought this setup was odd. But I also have no idea what I’m talking about when it comes to this. Here are some more pics. Nothing is bent.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chpthril]

Is it me, or do 2 or 3 of those cross member look jacked, ripping the bolts from the wood bunks.

[freeheel4life]

^^agreed Mike

So if your front 2 crossmember aren't bent then the worlds worst welder built your trailer. Or you are just messing with us...

The front two cross members are bent. See how your rear uprights are parallel to the bunks and your front two crossmembers uprights are no where near parallel to the bunk. That's not right.

The V of the cross member should be pointed straight down, like the crossmembers are near the axles. Front 2 Vs are racked way towards the tongue. That's why the screws pulled out of the bunks.

[dj2]

That trailer is jacked up pretty bad, I wouldn’t use it again until it’s fixed.

[bsreid]

Is that a boatmate? I’d be giving them a call

[Ewok]

Someone snagged those crossmembers on something and used LOTS of force to bend them like that. What brand of trailer is it? I have a Road Runner and I'm not a fan, I've had some custom welding done to my trailer to keep it from looking like yours.

[BlackoutATX]

Holy freaking crap. I honestly did not even see this when I was taking pics yesterday. Working a full time job and the BABz stuff has me brain dead. Didn't take the second round of pics as I was out of town today for work. But wanted to get the ball rolling on here and knock this out this weekend. So had my sister take some more pics. Now I see what you're all talking about. I brushed off the bent crossmember comments above because, to my knowledge, I have never hit anything with the trailer. So it wasn't even a possibility. Definitely nothing that could have done that. How the hell did that even happen? That its been like that for god knows how long really scares the **** out of me. What a nightmare scenario. I'm now searching through my pics to see if I have any of the boat on the trailer.

Well screw the bunks, this thing is going to Magnum trailers.

[BlackoutATX]

Someone snagged those crossmembers on something and used LOTS of force to bend them like that. What brand of trailer is it? I have a Road Runner and I'm not a fan, I've had some custom welding done to my trailer to keep it from looking like yours.

Magnum Trailer. They are big down here. They make awesome trailers. Although I am not sure how I feel about their boat trailers. I'd love to check out a boatmate. I just have no idea what could have put that much force on those without me knowing.

[freeheel4life]

Look at the bottom of the crossmembers for damage to the paint/scrape Mark's. If you find some it got backed over something tall. Backing up and contacting something would rack them that way. Even backing thru a big dip could maybe do it. If not it was simply some weight, stress, and force exerted in a way that was never intended, but that would be a lot of the above. Should be a fairly easy fix. Hopefully it didnt tweak the wishbones and all the tweak is in the crossmembers. Sorry we rained on your parade man
Good luck.

[BlackoutATX]

Look at the bottom of the crossmembers for damage to the paint. If you find some it got backed over something tall. If not it was simply some weight, stress, and force exerted in a way that was never intended, but that would be a lot of the above. Should be a fairly easy fix. Hopefully it didnt tweak the wishbones and all the tweak is in the crossmembers. Sorry we rained on your parade man
Good luck.

I will have to take a look when I get home. I'd like to think when I started fixing the bunks I would have immediately noticed it. But I didn't notice from those pics. So who knows. And no worries, better now then later. Can't imagine what would have happened if those snapped.

[Jetdriver]

Wow! I wouldn’t think that boat would be bow heavy enough to cause those two crossmembers to bend. Only other thing i can think of is it got backed it into something (HARD). I’m guessing you’d have heard an awful sound as soon as the first one hit. (Kinda like Ben Stiller in Something about Mary. How’d you get the zipper all the way to the top?! LOL)
Let us know how this mystery pans out. That’s wild.

[bsreid]

After looking at the pictures once again I’m gonna guess the bunk boards were mounted after the front cross beams became mangled. My reason for saying this, look at the back mounts, they all look good and they’re at the end of the bunk board. If you were to straighten the front cross member out the mounts would not be on the bunk board...

[UNSTUCK]

That's some pretty flimsy angle iron. I think I'd just take a come along or ratchet strap from those two bent crossmembers to the axle and pull them back to straight. Hopefully once they are straight again you can find some fresh wood on the bunks to sink new lags into.

The real question here is how did this even happen? How do you get your trailer into a position that it would catch on something tall enough to hit those crossmembers, but not hit your axles? Mind blown!