Trailer Bunks

I have recently obtained a 12 foot Valco on a tilt trailer. I am seeking info about adding tilting/movable bunks to better deal with shallow water launch sites. Any ideas or experiences offered will be appreciated. On 7 April 2019 "Old & Slow" posted a question about movable bunks. That is the only reference I could locate on topic.

The only thing I could think of looking into that might hold the weight is the roll out pickup truck stuff (like a rollout/sliding tray). I would imagine you would need a double bunk, one to mount the rolling or sliding mechanism to and the actual bunk the boat sits on. Or some sort of hinge setup that works like drop down attic steps. Another thing to look at to get ideas is some of the pontoon boat trailers. Our local club has a shared trailer that slides under a boat sitting on the ground and then with cables and a winch, it lifts the boat to trailer it around. You could also look into a wide trailer with a drop axle so the boat sits a lot lower and would be easier to launch/retrieve.

Thanks for the info. I will look at pontoon systems. The post by "Old and Slow" was actually dated May 5,2019. He did include pictures of movable/tilting bunks. Other than that post I have not found any info here or other web sites.

Here's a couple of styles of pontoon trailers. I think it would be tough to come up with something this style for a smaller boat though. I'll add a picture of one of my boat trailers that had the drop axle. It shows that you can get the boat down lower so you wouldn't need to get into the water too far.

Making modifications to my little trailer may be well beyond my abilities. Glad to see your projects. Obviously more than one way to get the desired results. I was looking through some older posts today and another idea that has possibilities is using vinyl house gutter over the bunks. Appears a few people turned the gutter over onto the bunks. This seems to have made for a slicker surface allowing the boat to go on and off with less physical effort. Since I have a piece lying around I will give this a try. Maybe begin with half of bunk to start. Thanks JL8Jeff

XCopper said:

I was looking through some older posts today and another idea that has possibilities is using vinyl house gutter over the bunks. Appears a few people turned the gutter over onto the bunks. This seems to have made for a slicker surface allowing the boat to go on and off with less physical effort. Since I have a piece lying around I will give this a try. Maybe begin with half of bunk to start. Thanks JL8Jeff

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That's what I did to my current trailer, I put the vinyl gutters on and they work well. I went with the larger 4"x3" gutters because the vinyl is thicker so I figured they would hold up better.