Shorelandr Bunk Issues

[CDENsomnia]

I wanted to post a heads up to those of you with a Shorlandr trailer. My trailer is about 4 years old and has been used quite a bit. It's mostly indoors but outdoors about 3 months out of the year. I noticed a broken bunk and so decided I should replace the bunks. At first I was just going to do the large front bunks because other than the broken bunk they seemed very solid. I decided since I had the boat off the trailer I should just do them all. Good thing I did because I found the bunks on the rear were rotten and since shorelandr used terrible hardware I found 4 screws on various bunks were broken off. Check your bolts on the bunks and feel the screws on the sides to see if they are in place. The one good thing about the design of the brackets that attach the bunks to the trailer is they cradle the wood. So even if a screw comes out the bunk should stay in place for a period of time. The first picture is the screw head on the top of the bracket and you can see it's missing from the hole.

 

[rsg1963]

Wow, looks great now! Nice work.

 

[Ronnie]

Nice work and thanks for the heads up.

Did you make your own bunks or buy them pre made?

 

[scokill]

This is common to all trailers.

 

[CDENsomnia]

Nice work and thanks for the heads up.

Did you make your own bunks or buy them pre made?

I made my own bunks. It was fairly cheap and now I know how they are out together. If I needed to do a replacement quickly I probably could do that now. The bunks from the manufacturer were like 80 dollars a bunk with shipping. I don't think I spent 80 dollars on the whole project.

 

[CDENsomnia]

This is common to all trailers.

Yeah agreed. I think what was surprising was the terrible hardware they used especially to keep the bunk in the bracket. It cost nearly nothing for good stainless hardware that should last longer than 4 years. I also oversized the hardware a little to gain some strength and longevity. Only time will tell if it's any better.

 

[Betik]

The screws on my trailer were braking off too. I had to replace at least half of them.

 

[itsdgm]

Looks nice. Great job.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Better then new now!! Looks great!

 

[txav8r]

Those look great! The wood in the bunks is just pine and will rot. The hardware is galvanized, but it will rust quickly in the bunk. So 4 years is probably a good time to change them out. Pressure treated might buy you a little more time, but short of stainless hardware, your still going to be changing them, especially because of the holes wallowing out. Through bolting presents a whole 'nother set of concerns, but bottom line, these are wear items and checking them without removing them won't show what you have. Good that you got them fixed!

 

[jameskeller76]

I wanted to post a heads up to those of you with a Shorlandr trailer. My trailer is about 4 years old and has been used quite a bit. It's mostly indoors but outdoors about 3 months out of the year. I noticed a broken bunk and so decided I should replace the bunks. At first I was just going to do the large front bunks because other than the broken bunk they seemed very solid. I decided since I had the boat off the trailer I should just do them all. Good thing I did because I found the bunks on the rear were rotten and since shorelandr used terrible hardware I found 4 screws on various bunks were broken off. Check your bolts on the bunks and feel the screws on the sides to see if they are in place. The one good thing about the design of the brackets that attach the bunks to the trailer is they cradle the wood. So even if a screw comes out the bunk should stay in place for a period of time. The first picture is the screw head on the top of the bracket and you can see it's missing from the hole.View attachment 58187 View attachment 58188 View attachment 58189

Where did you get the carpet? After only 1 year of use the stock carpets are already starting to wear through.

 

[scokill]

Those look great! The wood in the bunks is just pine and will rot. The hardware is galvanized, but it will rust quickly in the bunk. So 4 years is probably a good time to change them out. Pressure treated might buy you a little more time, but short of stainless hardware, your still going to be changing them, especially because of the holes wallowing out. Through bolting presents a whole 'nother set of concerns, but bottom line, these are wear items and checking them without removing them won't show what you have. Good that you got them fixed!

Yep. I look at it like changing the oil and sparkplugs, etc. Speaking of....it's time for me to check my bunks.

 

[CDENsomnia]

Where did you get the carpet? After only 1 year of use the stock carpets are already starting to wear through.

I was in a pinch so I got the carpet from Home Depot. Seems to be pretty tough but would have liked thicker carpet. My friend actually replaced his bunks at the same time and ordered the fulton carpet and that stuff was crazy thick however you would need a air stapler to get staples through it. I also took the extra step of gluing the carpet to the bunk before stapling. I think this should help to keep the carpet from tearing but we will see!

 

[CDENsomnia]

Those look great! The wood in the bunks is just pine and will rot. The hardware is galvanized, but it will rust quickly in the bunk. So 4 years is probably a good time to change them out. Pressure treated might buy you a little more time, but short of stainless hardware, your still going to be changing them, especially because of the holes wallowing out. Through bolting presents a whole 'nother set of concerns, but bottom line, these are wear items and checking them without removing them won't show what you have. Good that you got them fixed!

I ended up going with pressure treated wood and did replace all hardware with stainless so hopefully that will buy more years but in all reality I don't think the bunks will last more than 5 years...maybe.