Jacking The Boat Up While On The Trailer

[Antidote]

I need to touch up my bottom paint while I have the boat hauled out for the 400 service. Is it possible and is it a good idea or a bad idea to jack it off the bunks using a bottle jack and the frame of the trailer? I'm thinking I could jack each corner of the transom one at a time and lift the bow when done. What do you guys think?

 

[GoodChance]

Yes ..... you can do it with a bottle jack and lift the entire trailer...... block the hull to keep it elevated then lower the trailer. Make sure you have some jackstands to keep the boat from tipping over (obviously).

You might find the process easier with a floor jack. More range. More strength. I've taken several boats off trailers with a floor jack. Here's a most recent project. I bought this junker boat and wanted the bottom paint off. The boat needed to come off the trailer. Took about 45 minutes to take it off the trailer with the help of my 15 y/o son and 30 minutes to put it back on.

 

[knotflying]

On my Ranger tug, which would be a similar application. I have done it both ways, lifting and blocking and removing the trailer and doing while on the trailer and lifted. The latter is easier. You will need boat jacks. Lower the front of the trailer as low as possible. Then put the jacks at the stern of the boat and then crank the front back up. This will raise the boat off of the bunks. I covered the trailer with plastic so it would not get bottom paint drips. I did my painting as far as I could. I then lowered the back down to the bunks when dry. Then raise the front as high as you can and place your jacks under the front portion and then lower the front. If you want to do everything in one shot then you need more jacks and blocking under the hull. The process to remove the trailer gets a bit more involved.

 

[Live2fish]

Easiest way,

lower tongue of trailer to the ground. Put in jack stands with wood blocks under transom jack up bow of boat with trailer jack level put in wood blocks then lower trailer tongue again partially and now your boat is hovering

Support the corners and the bow and your good

 

[saltydoc]

Boat stands are the way to go in helping lift a boat from the trailer. They are reasonably priced if you consider that you’ll use them for many years.
Please note that these stands are NOT designed to hold entire weight of boat- boat should be supported along keel with stands keeping boat from tipping.

I will never paint the boat while on trailer again- awful messy experience!

 

[pelagic2530]

Agree with the use of the boat stands. When we were borrowing a trailer to haul the boat every year, we would jack the back of the boat up with a floor jack, and build cinderblock towers topped with wood 6x6s to support the transom corners. Lower the boat onto the towers, and jack the bow up forward until the trailer cleared. Then, slowly creep the trailer forward until the axles were near the jack; support the bow with jackstands and move the jack aft of the rear crossmember. Trailer pulls away, lower the bow onto another set of keel blocks forward with the jackstands continuing to support the bow.

Now that we store the boat on a trailer, the jackstands still come in handy to take some of the load off the trailer as it sits for the whole winter season. Also, they stabilize the boat a bit if you're climbing on and off to get off-season projects done.

 

[Fio98]

I have a 2520 xld with trailer I found the easiest way is check out Jamestown distributors their trailer mounted jacks work great good up to 10000 lbs

 

[gregd123]

Yes ..... you can do it with a bottle jack and lift the entire trailer...... block the hull to keep it elevated then lower the trailer. Make sure you have some jackstands to keep the boat from tipping over (obviously).

You might find the process easier with a floor jack. More range. More strength. I've taken several boats off trailers with a floor jack. Here's a most recent project. I bought this junker boat and wanted the bottom paint off. The boat needed to come off the trailer. Took about 45 minutes to take it off the trailer with the help of my 15 y/o son and 30 minutes to put it back on.

GoodChance, I want to remove the bottom paint from my 2520. How did you do it on your junker boat? It looks like it turned out real nice. Any details on the project are appreciated. Thanks,

 

[GoodChance]

GoodChance, I want to remove the bottom paint from my 2520. How did you do it on your junker boat? It looks like it turned out real nice. Any details on the project are appreciated. Thanks,

Well ..... you'll need a bunch of wood to block the keel. Depending upon the size of the hull, you'll need 3 or 4 sets of cribbing material to block the keel. And you'll need 2 or 4 boat stands as seen in the photos. And you'll need a floor jack (the kind that mechanics use to lift cars.

Lower the tongue of the trailer as low as it will go. Then crib/block the stern. Then raise the tongue. The stern will now be lifted.

Then use the floor jack to progressively lift the boat away from the trailer. Lift the boat and pull the trailer forward. Lower the boat, reposition the floor jack around the axles and trailer cross members and lift again.

 

[gregd123]

Well ..... you'll need a bunch of wood to block the keel. Depending upon the size of the hull, you'll need 3 or 4 sets of cribbing material to block the keel. And you'll need 2 or 4 boat stands as seen in the photos. And you'll need a floor jack (the kind that mechanics use to lift cars.

Lower the tongue of the trailer as low as it will go. Then crib/block the stern. Then raise the tongue. The stern will now be lifted.

Then use the floor jack to progressively lift the boat away from the trailer. Lift the boat and pull the trailer forward. Lower the boat, reposition the floor jack around the axles and trailer cross members and lift again.

GoodChance, thanks for the jacking info. Was wondering what your procedure was for removing the old bottom paint without damaging the gel coat?

 

[GoodChance]

GoodChance, thanks for the jacking info. Was wondering what your procedure was for removing the old bottom paint without damaging the gel coat?

Ohhhh ..... well that's a little more involved.

The easy way is to hire someone with a soda blaster but you'll risk ending up with a bottom that must be re-painted because it will be so rough.

Mine? On several boats I started with 120 grit on an 8" Dewalt orbital sander/polisher. Remove the paint with 120 just until you start to see the underlying gelcoat and no further. Then move to 220 remove the remaining bottom paint and go until you see full gelcoat. Then use a pencil or dye marker across the entire bottom (as a guide coat) and again go across the entire bottom with 320. More pencil. Then 600. More pencil. Then 800. Then use a polishing compound on a wool pad and a Dewalt 8" sander/polishing machine. You can go 1 additional step and add polish after compound but I didn't.

 

[gregd123]

Ohhhh ..... well that's a little more involved.

The easy way is to hire someone with a soda blaster but you'll risk ending up with a bottom that must be re-painted because it will be so rough.

Mine? On several boats I started with 120 grit on an 8" Dewalt orbital sander/polisher. Remove the paint with 120 just until you start to see the underlying gelcoat and no further. Then move to 220 remove the remaining bottom paint and go until you see full gelcoat. Then use a pencil or dye marker across the entire bottom (as a guide coat) and again go across the entire bottom with 320. More pencil. Then 600. More pencil. Then 800. Then use a polishing compound on a wool pad and a Dewalt 8" sander/polishing machine. You can go 1 additional step and add polish after compound but I didn't.

Wow, you were not kidding about it being a little more involved! Thanks for the details. Everything makes sense except maybe the "penciling". Are you saying scribble all over the bottom with something like a carpenter's pencil? Do you just put a bunch of x's or the like or should the penciling create more of a dense pattern?

 

[GoodChance]

Wow, you were not kidding about it being a little more involved! Thanks for the details. Everything makes sense except maybe the "penciling". Are you saying scribble all over the bottom with something like a carpenter's pencil? Do you just put a bunch of x's or the like or should the penciling create more of a dense pattern?

The "pencil" is your guide.

After sanding the bottom with say 220 grit, you'll scribble like a 3 year-old girl (or boy) across the entire bottom of the boat. Everything. Then when you sand with 320 grit, you'll be able to see where you have sanded and where you haven't.

It is an involved, tedious process. It's not easy. But the results are worth it if you have bottom paint and now keep the boat on a trailer or lift. The initial sanding with 120 grit takes the most time and is the most labor intensive. Subsequent sanding with finer grit goes much faster. As a point of reference, on my 26ft boat with 2 layers of bottom paint, it took about 30 hours of sanding to remove all the paint, compound and polish.

I picked-up 2 - 2.5mph at all rpm and a slight increase in fuel economy by removing the bottom paint. Plus, the boat looks tremendously better.