tiki 21 trailer

[Rune M. Christensen]

I have just built a ”sliding” trailer for my tiki 21.

It’s inspired by the trailer built by Rich Hueschen of which I found pictures on this forum.

When building something new you always look for pictures to get inspired by, so I thought I would contribute back with pictures of a few of the modifications I made.

The sliding mechanism is just 50mm and 60mm steel tube. The outer tubes are welded together and attached to the trailer. It has been galvanized after welding.

The central platform sits horizontal on the trailer, and is just lifted up when the boat is assembled. It holds fuel tank for the outboard, propane burner and all the cooking gear, so that doesn’t have to be unpacked.

The side-platforms sit parallel to the hull in their cradle on the inside, and the rudders on the outside.

All is easy to access when the hulls are pulled apart and the boat is assembled.

The boat was launched from the trailer first time this weekend, and much to my relief it worked very well :)

If anyone is planning to build a tiki 21 trailer I will be happy to help with some measurements if needed.

Rune

[Rod McLaren]

Excellent job. Thanks for sharing.

[Timo]

Looks impressive, Rune! I'm curious to ask, which trailer model did you choose? The rear lights seem to have a sliding mechanism too.

[Éric Bouvéron]

My boat lives on the water. However, in two-three years, I will need something like that. Will I be able to do it is another story. Good job, thanks for sharing.

[Rune M. Christensen]

Thanks for the reply's :)

Its a Brenderup boat trailer. Danish brand, but I think its pretty standard. I just dismounted the normal boat rollers and used the mountings for the sliding pipes.

Yes, the the rear light and number plate can be pulled out so that the boat doesn't stick out too far behind the lights.

Timo said:

Looks impressive, Rune! I'm curious to ask, which trailer model did you choose? The rear lights seem to have a sliding mechanism too.

[Bo]

Looks great! I came up with something very similar after getting inspiration from this forum also. I have some details here: https://www.monarisa.org/2019/02/21/trailer.html

[Timo]

Rune, I must say then that the Danish standard trailers suit pretty well to such projects. :)

Bo, your trailer looks great too, and your blog has a new follower since today!

I find T21 sliding trailers cool because they seem to make it easier to take advantage of narrower slipways that are so common outside of big marinas. I have just wondered if the higher waterline (from ground) sets tough requirements for slipway quality (grade, length, surface). So, what do you say? :)

[Rod McLaren]

In response to Timo's question about waterline and launching ramps, I have already experienced issues with the sliding trailer and my  Mana 24. I used a trailer that was built for a pontoon boat and I am sure works fine for that application. The v-ed hulls of a Wharram require considerable greater depth to float the boat off than the rounded hulls of a pontoon boat. We had a lot of trouble with the very first ramp we launched from. My home ramp is much steeper than that one and so is not a problem but based on that first experience, I will be very particular about choosing where to launch in the future. If you go to the 20 minute 35 second spot of this video, you will see my son and nephew struggling to get the boat off the trailer. What you don't see in the video is that I  had the truck backed so deep that water was pouring into the truck cab, and water was over the top of the rear differential - a situation I do not want to repeat.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbU5QWrVqQU&feature=youtu.be

[Rune M. Christensen]

Very nice Bo.

I wish I had found your site before :)

It seems we came up with more or less the same position on the trailer for the side decks.

Have you launched the boat from the trailer yet?

It looks like the side boards are bent against the hulls, which could make it not want to slide of?

I have rollers on the side of the cradles, but I am not sure if this absolutely necessary.

About the slipway, and distance from keel to ground on the trailer: That was also my biggest concern.

I have only used one slipway so far, but that went better than I feared. You don't have to float the boat of. As long as there is enough water to carry the back of the boat when it tilts of the back rollers, its okay.

When I pulled it out of the water again the bottom of the bows were about 10cm lower than the back rollers, but it was still easy to pull the boat onto the trailer with the winch. The rear sliding tubes have to be sturdy tho. they carry the whole boat at one point.

Bo said:

Looks great! I came up with something very similar after getting inspiration from this forum also. I have some details here: https://www.monarisa.org/2019/02/21/trailer.html

[Timo]

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Rod and Rune. The rollers sound like a solution to the waterline issue. What kind of rollers do you have on your trailer, Rune? I can't find any in the pictures above.

[Rod McLaren]

I agree - rollers  need to be part of the set-up. I would like to modify my trailer to incorporate them into the design. It likely won't happen this year - sailing season is short here on the Canadian prairies. 

[Timo]

I think both Canada and Finland "suffer" from short sailing seasons, so now it's better to concentrate on making most of the current one. When you get the rollers incorporated, please, do write something on your blog or post a video. They both are great source of information, especially as you have unique experience in both Tiki 21 and Mana 24. My Wharram catamaran building project is still in an evaluation/planning phase, and actually waiting for couple of other projects to be finished...

[Rune M. Christensen]

You can see the position of the rollers in the first picture I posted.

Here is a closeup.

Its just standard cheap rubber boat-rollers. I have cut them to the width I wanted. The bottom one carries all the weight. I think the inner diameter is 25mm, and It rolls on a piece of galvanised water pipe.

Timo said:

Thanks for sharing your experiences, Rod and Rune. The rollers sound like a solution to the waterline issue. What kind of rollers do you have on your trailer, Rune? I can't find any in the pictures above.