Ideas needed for Lifting a boat off trailer

[stmichael]

A buddy of mine needs to do some repairs to the hull of the boat.(scraped along some rocks and the fiberglass has taken a beating).

The Boat is a Stratos (fiberglass)Bass boat

150 Mercury Outboard

We were talking yesterday as we were changing the lower unit oil, and he asked me how to lift it off the trailer so he could do the repairs (trailer bunks are int the way). I was hoping that I would be able to ask the question here and someone may have an idea or two. What I thought was to use a forklift (that he has) and a strap to go under the boat about 2 ft in from the motor (from one of the forks), and another strap under the boat as far as the other fork spread will out.

Once this is up in the air, he will be able to repair the hull. Other than this being relatively dangerous is it possible? The thought was present to hang a couple of hoists from the I beams, but, they are 20 ft in the air.

[bigb56303]

that idea sounds okay and yet a bit dangerous, if i were you i would have some kinda jack stand to be able to put under it just incase anything happend and to stabilize it, you dont want to cause any damage to the boat our yourselfs if something gave way good luck, i wish i had a forklift some days

[minneman]

how bout wrap and tape carpet to the forks one on each side of the engine, and avoid the straps? less chance of the forklift failing than the straps.

[stmichael]

I like that idea, will there be enough of the forks under the boat? The motor sticks out approx 2.5 feet the forks I believe are 5 ft. is 2.5 ft. I realize that there is more weight in the back of the boat with the motor and stuff, will the rear end be heavy enough for this to work?

Maybe the forks are longer...I did not measure them.

[Deitz Dittrich]

If it were me, I would take it to a boat landing and put the boat on crooked.. That way the part that was blocked by the bunks would no longer be blocked by the bunks.

[Surface Tension]

What you are proposing to do can be done with the trailers tongue jack, truck tires for cushion, a couple beams, and cribbing. You'll need all that to support the hull regardless of what method you take boat off and you'll also have to make sure your damaging the hull when you set it down. I'm hesitant about giving instructions how to do this because if done wrong can damage the boat or worse yet get someone injured plus I can't give every step without being there.

I can give a quick idea how to do so but can't go into much detail on how best to support the hull without being there. The boat will have to be pushed back 1' on the trailer to get started and tires chalked. Lay the trailer tongue on the ground. Your stern is at its high point, use your cribbing, beam and tires to support the hull at the transom.

Raise the tongue jack to its highest point. The rear of the trailer will lower as you jack up the tongue and stern of the boat should be off the trailer. Now you'll need the cribbing toward the bow on both sides of the trailer out far enough so that you'll be able to roll the trailer out. Next span a beam across the cribbing, use the tires under the hull. Can't get the beam under the hull? Using the tongue jack lower the hull onto a set of temp cribbing under the keel. Lower the jack leaving the boat on the cribbing, now slide your beam under hull, use the tires as a cushion and to stabilize the boat. Raise the jack again. Remove the temporary cribbing under the keel and set the beam onto the outer cribbing. You should now be able to roll the trailer out from under the boat.

As you can see there will be situations you'll encounter that can't addressed in this post. Placement of tires, cribbing, beams is critical. Blocks for cribbing should be 4' in length.

[stmichael]

Thank you ST. We will be extremely cautious. This process will be done very slow, and to make sure that we have enough support to handle the boat effectively. This will be one of the weekend projects coming up. maybe in a couple of weeks. I just wanted to get prepared for what is about to happen.

Mike