Home made Cradles

Hi! I´m about to start a project to remove the rollers of my trailer and add hull cradles to it...instead....
I have thought about having some made os stainles marine steel at local welder here are the plans...

I need some help because I have the boat moored all summer and I would need to know the curvature of the hull at the bow and at the stern more or les where the cradles would sit.


This way I can have the cradles made with the wright curvature...

I´m sure I saw a scale template somewhere arround...Think it was in a post about bottom fixes.

Thanks

One thing you should consider before making your cradles is how you plan to get the boat on them. If you are planning on pulling the boat forward from the bow make sure that the back cradles are wide enough for the widest part of the boat. Think about this if the back cradles are the exact fit of the area they will be supporting and the middle of the boat has a wider part, which I would be sure of, then you will be pinching the middle of the boat while pulling it into the cradles and crushing the side.

Later,
Dan

Thanks, I had not thought of that one!

Yeah I had that problem when trying to make my hull cradles. I had originally noticed it with the rollers, and saw that the boat kept slipping off of them in the beginning, due to improper placement of them. So when I made the cradles I did something a little more complicated, but that works great. It basically entails a sliding track for the rear cradles. Your rear crossbars have to be of sufficient integrity for it to work, though because I drilled holes all over the place(mostly because I messed up with measurements). You basically just measure out all the widths between the bottom of the hulls and do a little math to see how long your tracks need to be (my measurements are available somewhere but based off of an H14). For the track, I just ripped off some stainless steel drawer tracks from an old desk. I imagine closet door ones would work too. Then I just used a few bolts and washers and rivets to build them. For the cradles, I had two from a Cat trax or whatever u call those beach wheels things. Those worked for the rear, and for the front, I used cradles I found at West Marine. (I have no idea what type boats they are normally used for, because they were really thin).

The whole thing is really alot easier than it sounds. Took me maybe 3 hours at most. I might be able to take pictures when I get home in a week or so. Just some ideas to kick around. Good luck