Over the last decade or so, I have repeatedly become curious about this kind of composite material-the slide bar-possibly being used on boat trailers and boat handling support and storage equipment. We encounter the same application when a boat hull transitions from the flat part at the back up to the v-shape at the bow.
Several years ago, I was gassing up on I-75 just north of Corbin, Kentucky and a competitor in the belt business (though we didn't know each other at the time) walked up to me and asked me what I was hauling on my trailer. I had two large impact beds assembled and lined up end to end and he said he thought it looked like some kind of boat trailer. We stepped back together and looked at it and both agreed that it did indeed look like it would make a great boat trailer. We thought about it, laughed about it, and forgot about it- for the time being.
On another occasion, I was riding along on an Interstate and pulled up beside what I'd call probably a $40-50,000 boat. I'm usually real low in trying to guess the price of a boat. But I just know it was a real expensive new boat. The boat trailer looked like a flatbed with a very badly rigged up set of bunk supports made of old wooden blocks stacked up in certain places and then an old piece of carpet thrown over them to protect the hull from dings and scratches. It looked so odd to me-almost out of place. Just imagine a boat the price of a small house being transported on some rigged system of support- in all probability- because it had worked to some degree, sometime in the past and it was easy-but most of all because some contractor needed it to be cheap. Who would have even imagined that there has not been an engineered support and haulage system that these companies could use to standardize in the way these large crafts are handled during transport. It appears you just have to find an old-timer who has learned to do it over a long time-from trial and error if you can.
I have grown to learn, in fact, that there is no limit to how much these new boats can cost and the sorts of sensitive, fragile electronic equipment including navigation, GPS, radar, sonar, depth finders, radios and computers, etc that these boats can contain. Since that day on the Interstate, I have been drawn to observe the bunk rail systems on hundreds of boat trailers, have even taken hundreds of pictures and have noticed that they all incorporate either roller systems or wooden boards covered with carpet or some combination of the two- but usually one or the other and for the most part do not match the hull profile of the boat it is handling very well- if at all.
I recently contacted the NMMA (National Marine Manufacturers Association) in Chicago, and discussed this idea with the Director of Product Certification and he told me that there had not been any significant real boat haulage design improvement in 20-30 years. He said the trailer had become more of an afterthought and seemed to have become so competitive that the focus in the industry has been just good enough and as cheap as possible with very little thought given to improvement or special features. He said the industry has been reduced to the lowest common denominator-cheap, cheap and cheap. He also said that there hasn't been any real innovation in this industry in years. He also said he thought this slide bed system would probably be a real good idea. He said that because of competition in boat trailer manufacturing- there simply has been very little profit to support even the minimal style or design features and for sure no development monies have been available to improve or innovate with haulage.
But, at the same time, during the last couple decades-people have decided to spend huge amounts of money in what some call "their little playthings"- signing on for a financing arrangement similar to a house mortgage for buying the biggest and fastest and prettiest boat they can find. These same people simply assume that the boat makers have designed the safest and most efficient haulage unit(trailer) that will support and transport their property "correctly". In reality, most boat makers defer to the boat trailer manufacturer to do the best they can, as cheap as they can with the same old technology as they always have-basically the same trailer for every boat.
I recently visited a custom boat trailer maker in Illinois. I was astounded to find out that they did not design or engineer haulage units at all. What they meant by "custom" was that they could paint the trailer and match the color closely with the bunk rail carpet- supposedly to go with the towing vehicle. They utilized no engineering, no special knowledge of a boat hull and a one size fits all catalog of, equipment available.
I have given this a lot of thought. They again simply "stack wooden blocks wherever you can reach, cover it with carpet, and then strap it down" on a trailer however they need to-to make it work- as best they can. Anyway, that's the concept.
In 2018, I decided to apply for a patent and to introduce this new bunk rail system to the market place. When I did, I found out that someone else had patented a molded plastic cap to replace the carpet on wooden bunk rails- over 20 years ago. That patent expired a couple of years ago. It failed because there is no way to effectively attach plastic to the substrate because the extreme expansion and shrinkage of the plastic will not be held for very long with a mechanical method of attachment. We do the same thing but we bond the plastic to the rubber bar by vulcanizing which creates a permanent bond unaffected by impact, abuse, or weather extremes. It provides the slide surface in the same way.
The composite bar that we manufacture is an engineered solution for this particular application. Every component in the bunk rail- the Polyethelene slide surface, the cushion rubber, and the t-channel that provides support and strength- is predictable and has specific design and performance parameters that can be used to engineer our solution. You show us what we need to do and we can design haulage equipment to do it. The rubber cushion does much more than a cushion. It provides extensive vibration isolation and impact damping for a smoother and quieter ride.
Let me share a short story to make this point. There used to be a large TrusJoist plant just north of Hazard in eastern Kentucky. I used to sell them some very big belts. I got a tour one time of the entire plant. The very first thing they told me was about how imperfect, inconsistent, unpredictable "wood" is. This fact was the basic reason this plant was even there. You see, what they made there was OSB (Oriented Strand Board). They make OSB from wood chips and shredded up wood. They compressed large sheets of wood under heat and pressure with a binder to create OSB- a predictable, consistent, and highly engineered wood. Their point to me was that you can layout two boards of wood(two 2 X 4's-if you will) side by side- and one will always be different from the other. Even though dimensionally the same width and length- they will weigh differently, support different loads, have different fastener retention, each responds to moisture, climate, and mildew differently- so you see basically wood is very unpredictable.
I would submit then, that we've never in the history of boat haulage been able to properly "engineer" or properly design a correct boat haulage trailer- that will dependably protect and safely support and transport a boat without damage to the hull or sensitive interior components. Everything we use right now in the way of a bunk rail has had to be designed with the "good enough" approach in someone's judgment because it has to be competitively cheap- rather than specifically designing in the features of load support, impact and vibration protection, long life and low friction and nonmarking sliding surface(to allow EZ on and Ezoff loading as needed by actual product specification.
My grandson and I visited the Patton Museum a few months ago. General Patton said the secret in his style of leadership was to tell his soldiers what to do and not how to do it. He said people are creative enough to figure out for themselves how to do it with the resources they have. He pulled a tank battalion out of battle, drove 150 miles in two days to relieve the men in Bastogne. He told them what to do and they figured out a way to get it done. Now, I'm suggesting the marine industry needs the ability to create a better load support system for our boat haulage. It is a more correct way to do this and will immediately provide a safer, more permanent, and more dependable support system that will protect this prized and expensive cargo. The design can vary depending upon the size and weight and shape and even color of the hull- of a particular boat and enough flexibility is built into this haulage system- to get the job done right.
This composite bunk rail system I feel is what this industry needs to allow haulage to be approached in a professional and predictable manner. It will allow boat manufacturers to create new boat designs and innovations. I am excited to work with the marine industry to upgrade and improve to the next generation of boat haulage. We've been doing it underground on belt haulage for years These products are not new now. We've experienced what they will do and what they won't. It's now a very price competitive upgrade- that works.
Thank you.
Tim Gabhart
