Anyone actually use the pa 14 cradles?

New owner of a pa 14 here and loving it. I am building a storage cart to keep the boat in the garage and make it easier to load in back of pickup. I have a set of cradles and understand they need to be 67" apart on center. I have not been able to find any pics of where the boat actually rests on them. What parts of the boat do the cradles lie under? Or do you just slide it on till you get a good snug fit? I just need a visual of how they look with a pa14 on them so I can design my storage cart. Thanks for any pics or description of where the cradles rest under the boat.

We have sold thousands of sets of cradles, so yes. People use them a lot.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Where should the cradles be on the boat? What part of the boat should be nestled in the cradles? Guess I worded the question wrong.

The spacing is 67" center to center. Find the best fit for the forward and then 67" aft for the aft cradle should do it.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

I wanted the weight of my PA14 to be distributed equally on the cradles. So I started by putting the hull down on the garage floor. By rolling it over a broomstick dowel and noting the "tipping point", I was able to determine the fore-aft center of gravity (COG). This was marked on both sides with masking tape. Then I flipped the hull upside down and placed the cradles equidistant from the COG. I started with them 67" apart (each 33-1/2" from COG), but found that the scalloped shape of the cradles fit the port-starboard contour of the hull when slightly further apart, I think around 71" or so on my ysk. So I mounted the cradles to my trailer 71" apart. But then when I put the PA14 on the cradles, the full fore-aft surface of the aft cradle did not contact the hull. The fore edge of the aft cradle was bearing the load, leaving about a 1/2" gap between the aft edge of the cradle and the hull. So I had to shim-up the aft edge of the 2x6 that the aft cradle was mounted to by about 10-degrees in order to get it to lay fully in contact with the hull.

Bottom line is that 67" is a good starting point, but the cradles are not shaped well to the port-starboard hull contours at that distance and will probably need to be custom fitted. Good luck!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

I turned my hull upside down and fit the cradles to the hull and locked them in. I honestly don't know what dimension, I just placed them where they had the most contact area with the hull. Until this week I had 5 Hobies mounted that way.

now I just have 2

I use the cradles on my Trailex double trailer since 2012. I have the original Hobie cradles made out of fiberglass material I believe. They don’t have the flex like the new ones but I actually prefer them over the new version.