Trailex Trailer Retrofit for the Sunfish

[Alan Glos]

I have always wanted to own a Trailex trailer for my Sunfish as I like the light weight and soft ride, but the cost was always out of my budget. Then last summer I bought a Sunfish that came on a nearly new Trailex trailer. I ended up reselling the boat but kept the trailer. However, I was not wild about the four small carpeted pads that came with the boat and passed for bunks. They did not provide much support and risked damage to the hull where they were positioned. I ended up building two proper bunks and bolting and lag screwing them to the curved aluminum frames that are bolted to the main fore and aft center beam. I carpeted them with two layers of indoor/outdoor carpeting and the result is good side-to-side support.The wood bunks were constructed out of 2" thick white ash and finished with Waterlox wood preservative. These bunks are heavy, about 10 lbs. each, but frankly the extra weight may help reduce some of the bounce that Trailex trailers been prone to. Two large holes on the outboard ends provide good tie-down positions. I also moved the wheel assembly about 12" aft of the balance point to get better balance. I test drove the rig yesterday, and all seems well. Time will tell, but this seems like a good retrofit. Comments?

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY

 

[tag]

Looks great!

 

[minifish2]

Excellent, excellent, excellent! One of my peeves about the Trailex is just that, that the support on the hull is inadequate. When you are looking at boats that have been trailered that way you can sometimes see the pad indentations - and in any event even if you don't see it, you know that it is compromising the hull. Laser sailors would never put up with that (and Trailex knows that, of course, which is why they don't try passing this off to Laser folks and instead give them a gunwal support version), and Sunfish sailors shouldn't have to either. Your bunks should be standard issue.

Since they aren't (yet) you would be doing the world a public service by selling those bunks. The most difficult part for most folks is getting the template form right - which you have figured out. Once you've done one correctly it's a world easier to replicate than do another from scratch.

Good job!

 

[L&VW]

Looks great!

Nice job. I've only cartopped my two Sunfish, so the following opinions are based only on the following observations:

Watching my own unloaded single-axle trailer in the mirror, I'm astonished at the sharp, high, and irregular bounces it can produce. The jarrings the trailer must re-transmit to the Sunfish must be awesome. With only 130 pounds resisting those impacts, is it any wonder structural foam can break free? Some irregularities in the roadway must cause impacts like the Sunfish being hit repeatedly with a giant hammer! I'd expect that a trailer carrying two Sunfish would reduce the impacts by half—is that what some of us are seeing?

A Sunfish owner can't put too much "soft" between the hull and the trailer—IMHO. I'd start by putting one standard shock absorber diagonally between the [temporarily-loaded] axle and the trailer body, as is seen in some single-axle automobiles. (I'd even use a "second-hand" shock absorber).

Caution: I'm NOT an engineer!

 

[signal charlie]

I like it. We had a trailex and I thought it was too light, bouncy and it fishtailed a bit. By adding that weight and moving the bunk forward you most likely fixed all of that. Your boat will ride better on those bunks too, less chance of slipping around.

Nice blue Sunfish too, we have one like that