All the tilt-up Potter 15 trailers I've noticed have three keel rollers
plus two pivoting wooden bunks with carpeting. The secret is in the
adjustment of the roller and bunk height. The weight of the boat should be
primarily on the keel rollers. The bunks should be just touching the hull
lightly to stabilize the boat from side to side. Before I had that figured
out, I replaced my solid bunks with homemade roller bunks made from
off-the-shelf hardware store parts. I needn't have bothered. As Dave Kautz
has indicated, the carpeted bunks allow easy launching as long as the boat
is not riding heavily on them.
Even with my homemade rollers, there has been no indentation of the hull
where the boat sits on the rollers, but my plywood backed hull is probably
stiffer than the newer ones. The boat has been living on the trailer for 32
years.
Do you have a tilt-up trailer? If not, probably none of this makes makes
sense. We are talking about tilt-ups, not float-off types. I don't think
any Potters made in the past few years have come with tilt-up trailers.
Harry Gordon
P14 #234, Manatee
Mountain View, CA
>If I read between the lines correctly, you all have rollers and not bunks.
>
>Maybe I have been backing into the water too far, I'll try next time as the
>water won't be warm enough for comfortable wading in Minnesota. Its my
>recollection that the bunks once dry stick to the hull and don't slide
>anywhere. I have always had to float the boat off (submerged hubs and all).
>I have seen some kits that convert bunks to rollers, but have also heard
>that bunks are best for boats that live on the trailer most of the time,
>especially with lighter weight hulls.
>
>So do tell. Do you have rollers? If so, are you leery of "denting" your hull
>by leaving the boat on the trailer 99.9% of the time?
>
>Mike Calva
>"Panacea" P19 #719