Recovering Bunks

[DWill3332]

OK Guys, this may be a stupid question, but here goes anyway. I need to recover the bunks on my trailer. There are a few places where the carpet is worn thin and/or torn. I thought about putting the boat in the water and letting the son and son-in-law (both capable of handling the boat) take it out while I took the trailer home and worked on the bunks. That is still an option. I was looking at the bunks and I have four, 10' long 2 X 6s' on each side. What do you think about taking one bunk off at a time and recovering it? Do you think the other bunks would hold the boat? At least half of it would be in the grooves. The other thing I thought of was bracing a 4 X 4 under one of the support ribs and jacking it up slightly.

Any suggestions?

[chill'nthemost]

When I did mine last year I dropped my wife and friends at the lake and took the toon back to my garage. I needed to replace the wood too, so I had new everything ready to install prior. Since I used full plastic caps instead of carpet I used carriage bolts instead of lag bolts to attach the wood to the brackets. I had the caps pre- cut and pre-drilled. I was able to change out all 4, 20ft long bunks in about a hour and a half. I used my 3/8 air impact gun to tighten the carriage bolts so the head would be pulled flush to the top wood surface. My timing was perfect, I knew I was on borrowed time with the old bunks. When I dropped the boat off, one of the old carpeted bunks floated off the trailer. The wood was so rotten there wasn't anything for the lag bolts to hold on to anymore. I believe the bunks will last much longer with plastic caps instead of carpet. That wet carpet is great for wood rot. The plastic caps last forever and since they are attached with stainless screws can be removed and installed on new wood down the road if necessary. The plastic has made launching and loading soooo much easier, I love them.

http://www.easternmarine.com/Self-Cente ... e-86296-0/

[lakerunner]

How old are the bunks? If more than a couple of years old and not treated I say replace carpet and bunk boards. Get them ready and then launch the boat. If you use treated remember no wood can touch aluminum. The glue and carpet give adequate separation.

[DWill3332]

Thanks for the responses. I guess the best way to recover them is to let the kids take the boat out for a couple of hours and take the trailer back home and swap the bunks out.

The boat is a 2007 so I guess the bunks are about 4 years old. I am pretty sure they are treated lumber under the carpet. I may just go with all new materials. I checked out the plastic covers and they look interesting. I have never seen them. Are they easy to cut? I would have to cut them down to fit 10' 2X6's.

[chill'nthemost]

I doubt you have pressure treated wood. They use sapwood like pine for P.T. You should use a heart wood like Doug Fur (if I'm wrong, someone correct me). They use sapwood because it's easy to penetrate the wood with the chemicals used to make the wood P.T. Sapwood is no where as strong as heart wood. I used Doug Fur and then applied a wood preservative. The caps come in 4 ft. sections and are directional left and right. I cut them with a wood chop saw. It made a straight cut, but I'm sure you could mark your cut and use a hand saw. You could easily rip the carpet again at any time. Everyone has their own opinion, but I'll NEVER use carpet again. Carpet is a lot less expensive, but I think it's worth the money to not deal with wood rot. And, after seeing how the lag bolts fell out, I'd only use carriage bolts. Just saying...................

[oldmn19]

I have plastic on my bunk boards on the toon trailer, and carpet on the Bass boat trailer. I will only ever use the plastic again. Lasts and doesn't keep the wood damp. I strongly suggest the plastic cover over treated wood rails.

[2buoysandagirl]

Has anyone tried using TEX or some other synthetic wood material popular for decks these days? I had some trouble finding 20' lengths for the bunks I need to replace and I called a relative who works at a lumber yard and he suggested using the TREX because it will NEVER rot! I thought it might just be a stroke of genius and haven't come up with a reason not to try it? Still plan to wrap in carpet for protection and aesthetics, but even if the carpet wears, you'd be rubbing on plastic, not wood.

Just wondering if anyone has tried it or thought to try it?

Randy

[lakerunner]

Unless your trailer has close support brackets the Trex has to much flex

[chill'nthemost]

Lakerunner is right, you would have to have a brace every 16". Even if you had that setup, I'm not sure why would carpet over them. I think the look of the Trex would look cool. You can get it in different colors too. Love my Trex deck.

[DWill3332]

Before I came to my senses and traded my two jet skis for the pontoon boat, I looked at using Trex for a walkboard between the two skis. The fact that it would not rot was what attracted me to it, but it was too flexible and would not make the span without flexing. I went with a 12' 2 X 6 and covered it with carpet.

Now, it you wanted to use it as guide rails, where it did not have to hold any weight, it might work. But unless you can support it all along the span, I don't think it would work as a bunk. Maybe someone will come up with a more rigid composite that could be used. It appears there could be a big market for it. Any inventers out there?

[tooned-out]

to make the trex more rigid, why not just just screww two of the trex together , or you could screw a trex on top of a treated 2x4