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Cewlcid

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anyone have a suggestion as to best way to bottom paint a grady 208 on a bunk trailer.
 
Other than that, you are left to paint on the trailer and then reposition a few times to get the areas you could not get to.
 
You may as well roll the trailer out from under the boat so it’s easier to get at all areas. I recently did some work on my trailer and did the same thing. I didn't have to work under the boat. I would recommend additional blocking under the chines at midship if you are working under it.

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Cewlcid said:
anyone have a suggestion as to best way to bottom paint a grady 208 on a bunk trailer.
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Pulling the trailer out from underneath the boat is pretty easy with a small boat - but you still need to take your time and double check your cribbing as you go, of course. I don't know your skill set, but to give you an idea, someone that's had experience with this can do it less than an hour. Paint where you expect to put cribbing, let it dry for a few days, then pull the trailer out. The spots you'd use are the two aft, corner chines and under the bow keel, where it is still horizontal. A solid surface to put the cribbing on is important.

When placing cement blocks, use two at a time at the aft corners, rotating each layer 90*. You'll likely need two layers of 2 blocks, then a final layer of a single block. Make sure that any wood you use is oriented such that the grain is perpendicular to the bow keel - it IS possible that the bow keel can split the wood if the grain is parrallel to it.

Your other option is paint what you can. Let it dry. Then jack the boat off the bunks enough to let the boat lean to one side. Paint. Let dry. Push the boat over to the over bunk and paint. Secure the boat in each position so it doesn't accidentally tilt over on you.
 
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The adjustable jack stands make it easy.
Use blocks under keel and stands to lift and then to prevent tipping.
Worth evrry penny vs blocks.
 
where are you located?. I have extra boat stands you can use. Im in southwest Ct
 
I have painted both my 208 and my other boat many times and hate the job. The 208 has a roller trailer and that can make things a bit easier but since you have bunks you have two options: pull the trailer out from under the boat and block or use stands, or jack the trailer and boat up a bit at a time and alternating sides and use boat stands to keep the boat up while you lower the trailer back down. The problem with the later method is that access to the bottom of the hull especially near the axels can be pretty tight and you will be squished at times. The advantage to that method is that you still have the trailer under the hull and should the boat stands slip, the hull will fall onto the trailer.

The advantage of the first method is that you will have much more room to work under the hull but moving the trailer out is more work.
If you use stands alone ( no trailer) I also advise keel cribbing aft and fwd in addition to a keel boat stand although blocking can be used instead of a keel stand.
I am getting too old to do all the work these days.

One other method I have used and makes the job easier is to raise the hull off of the rollers ( I suppose you could do that with split bunks), place jack stands under the corrners and actuallu unbolt and remove the roller carriers to make more working room.
Honestly, if I weren't such a miser I should just have had the work done at a marina.
 
I'm not sure where you live but I bought my boat back in Maryland this last October from a dealership called Tri State Marine and when I bought the boat, I noticed a piece of paper in their office with their current rates for bottom painting. I don't remember the exact figures but I believe a boat like mine was around $500-700 to do? Which to me seemed like a no brainer as out here in Seattle when I had my last boat in 2020, some places $100 a foot, or more, to bottom paint your boat for you. Could be something to where you might want to look around first and see if it would be the same price roughly to have it done for you?
 
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In the Jersey Shore area I was quoted last season a price of $95 per foot for paint removal, barrier coat, and antifouling bottom paint. That works out to $2000 or so. I didn't go that route because there was a long waitlist, well into the boating season.
 
Haven’t tried this method yet. Not sure if it’s just theoretical on a boat this size

www.auroramarine.com

Getting Under the Trailer Bunks to Clean the Boat Bottom - Boat Cleaners, Boat Maintenance & Boat Protection Products - Aurora Marine

Jim Smith Asked: How do I get between the trailer bunks to clean & polish my boat bottom. I want to apply your VS721 Bottom Coat on the bottom of my boat, but it’s on a trailer and I need to get at the bottom that is supported by the bunks so I can clean Read More...
www.auroramarine.com www.auroramarine.com
 
That is similar to one of my techniques but instead of blocks, I use boat stands. The challenge of this methods is that you need less clearance to clean the hull but need a lot more to sand and paint.
In the past, I would paint what I could get to and then slide the hull aft to expose the areas under the rollers. This works as long as you can get the boat to slide. In the past I used a come along tied to a power pole to winch the hull back.
 
Stinkpot said:
Haven’t tried this method yet. Not sure if it’s just theoretical on a boat this size

www.auroramarine.com

Getting Under the Trailer Bunks to Clean the Boat Bottom - Boat Cleaners, Boat Maintenance & Boat Protection Products - Aurora Marine

Jim Smith Asked: How do I get between the trailer bunks to clean & polish my boat bottom. I want to apply your VS721 Bottom Coat on the bottom of my boat, but it’s on a trailer and I need to get at the bottom that is supported by the bunks so I can clean Read More...
www.auroramarine.com www.auroramarine.com
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I can guarantee the person writing that "how to" never actually did it. I only quickly scanned it and didn't look at it very close, but two things caught my eye that are totally false:

-- "You may need a friend to help keep the tongue down". Yeah, right. You may need 5 friends to pick it back up again!
-- The use of the bottle jack to lift the front of the trailer. Bottle jacks have a very small lifting range. No way that's happening without lot's of blocking - and even then, it's only going to lift about 6".

And... I wouldn't be surprised if you broke the front of the bunks in Step #5.
 
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I agree especially about lifting the tongue or trying to pull it down for that matter. His method may be OK for small and light hulls but anything heavier is a different story. The bottle jack as you mention is not ideal either. A garage floor jack offers a lot more range and will slide as the trailer is raised. The bottle jack just starts to lean. That said, boat stands really help since you can extend them for each lift segment
 
In the end, there's no "one best" way to take a boat off a trailer... unless I'm at work and then I can just lift it off with the overhead lifts!

It's not rocket science, either. As a dumb, 17-year old kid I decided to take our boat off the trailer in our driveway one day, just to see if I could do it. My dad came home from work... stared at me and then the boat, then back and simply said "Make sure you put it back on when you're done". If a 17-year old can do it I don't doubt anyone here can't do it even easier.
 
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