Magic Tilt Trailer

I have a Magic Tilt trailer for my H16. It was previously modified to not tilt.

Does anyone have any experience using a trailer for a Hobie cat that can tilt? I am hoping that it could possibly make it a lot easier to load/unload the boat.

_________________
Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

I never felt the need for a tilt trailer. As long as the trailer was backed part way into the water, the boat came off and on easily. As a precaution, I would unplug the lights first. I did this for almost 30 years.

Looking at your pictures, it appears as if the tires are full size, 14 or 15". My trailer tires were 10". That could make a major difference in loading or unloading.

_________________
Howard

I have a tilt-trailer for my H-16, but have never used the tilt function. I have used tilts on other boats that were heavier.

Older trailers were higher off the ground than they are now. Idea behind the tilt trailers was to enable you not to dunk the trailer axles in the water, by letting the boat climb onto or off of the trailer in shallower water. You can get a heavier boat onto the trailer or off the trailer in much shallower water than the technique of floating it off the trailer. Also, the weight distribution as the trailer is loaded is better. With a non-tilt trailer, if you're not floating the boat onto the trailer, you'll have the weight on the rear roller for quite a while. This can end up quite a lot of weight if your boat has some water in it, besides the motor and other crap.

With beach wheels, you'll never have a need for the tilt function. Your boat will go onto the beach wheels relatively level.

Launching into water, I'm not worried about getting my H-16 floating. I load and unload with the sails not on, and a significant amount of the bows on the shore. My rear rollers on the trailer are still going to have some shore between them and the water. Coming off gravity is on your side. Going back on, you've got a lift to get the bow onto the trailer. Tilting the trailer would make this lift a lot less. Once the bow is on, it's grunt and groan to push the boat onto the trailer. If you have one other person, there's really not a lot of grunting and groaning. By myself, at 63, it's a bit of a tussle.

I'd try loading and unloading without worrying about the tilt. What the tilt will do for you is get the trailer rollers down nearer the ground. After you've done this a bit, you'll see whether getting your trailer to tilt is worth the effort. As I said, my trailer tilts, but I've never used the tilt ability.

Jim Clark-Dawe

The wheels are 12". When loading the trailer, the larger wheels do make the angle of the hulls a lot steeper (along with the mast angled back further) before the center of gravity of the boat is past the back rollers. At that steep of an angle it also puts a lot of stress on the rudders against the sand.

I don't put the trailer in the salt water. Unloading/loading, I put the trailer wheels just short of the water's edge. Unloading is pretty easy.

I used to stand on the trailer frame and pull the boat up onto the trailer using the dolphin striker rod. Now I manually pull the bows up onto the trailer's rear rollers and then use the trailer's 25' x 2" winch strap/hook wrapped around the front crossbeam (next to the mast step) to winch the boat up onto the trailer (so much easier on the back and you can stop winching when the transoms are just out of the water to open the drain plugs).

I am 68 today and usually sail solo, guess I should have asked for beach wheels for my BD.

The lights are sealed LED submersibles.

The guy in this video has a really big trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEKE4owuah4

_________________
Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

I have 2 trailer of similar design as shown in the photos. One is clamped shut like the photo and the other has a latch for tilt. It is easier to load the tilt trailer when the boat is on the ground. Your tailights would need to be mounted differently, as they would be the first thing to hit the ground when you tilt.

_________________
JKK
83 yellow/ white decks Hobie 14 Corando turbo
82 yellow hulls Hobie 16 Cat Fever
84 yellow hulls hobie 16 Yellow Nationals
plus a few extras that I'm restoring

So, why not just change the wheels/tires to a smaller diameter to get the trailer just a little bit lower in order to facilitate easier launch and recovery? Seems like the tilt feature just complicates things. I am 53 and can easily take my boat on and off the trailer using my cat traxx beach wheels, but I have done it also without the beach wheels and just offloaded onto the sandy beach.

_________________
Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

I'd think about a winch if you want to make this easier. It's easier than changing the wheels.

Jim Clark-Dawe

With the magic tilt trailer, you leave the trailer with boat on it, tilted between sailing trips so gravity becomes your friend and any water that may get into the hulls from condensation to a small "leak" will drain out the plug holes...Keeping the inside of your hulls dry is always good.

_________________
Bill 404 21SE

I agree that unloading the boat off the trailer is easy.

The tilt feature may cause a problem with my tail lights, license plate and sails in my toy box (no end cap).

Probably also don't want the trailer's tilt working when stepping or lowering the mast since you have to stand on the tramp at the rear crossbar.

A lot has to do with whether the beach is flat or sloped as to the angle of the trailer and height of the rear rollers (tides make it more interesting).

_________________
Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

I would hook the winch around the front crossbar at the center. Do not hook it to the dolphin striker and do not pull the boat up onto the trailer by pulling on the dolphin striker, it isn't designed to take stresses like that, it is designed to take downward loads from the mast and trapeze systems.

_________________
Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

From the look of that trailer, the pivot point is so far forward, make sure the mast stand will not hit your vehicle when tilted. Harbor Freight has remote control electric ATV winches for $50.00 I use it to help step my mast and power it with a small 12v battery.

_________________
Buxton
18' T16 Silent Lightning (16' T2 Hybrid)
11' H16 White Lightning
79' H16 Green Lightning

The mast stand is far enough back.

When in storage I would not be able to tilt for hull drainage since front crossbeam would hit the mast. Also the center of gravity of boat is too far forward of fulcrum.



Decided that there are too many new problems if I were to use the Magic Tilt.

I have seen some people load their boats backward (bows in the back of trailer), not sure if there is any benefit of this way. Would not be able to drain hulls this way. Also harder to take off trailer since rudders would hit the rollers. Probably could work with beach wheels.

_________________
Tim
84 H16
82 H16
87 H14T
Tortola Sails: 115222
Blue Prism Sails: 88863
Clearwater, FL

Beach wheels definitely help with loading and unloading for sure. I would still look at changing to a smaller diameter wheel and tire, just seems like an easy and inexpensive way to drop the trailer down a couple of inches.

_________________
Marty
1984 H16 Yellow Nationals Redline, "Yellow Fever"
Lake Martin, 'Bama.

You already have underslung crossbars so the overall height probably isn't bad. I went to larger wheels and will underslign the crossbars at some point.

I don't see the need to tilt. Ever since I got beach wheels I use them just about every time, unless it's a concrete freshwater ramp.

_________________
'00 H16 #104691
'78 H16 #32692 ex-rental [gone]
Old Holsclaw trailer
My Hobie 16 pages