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Dr. David Fleming
02-15-2010, 06:37 PM
Does anyone have any experience of how strong the steel loop built into the Donzi bow is? The one for attaching the trailer winch? THese are often used to tow a disabled boat and some seem to be sort of loose after this type of tow. Some of these have nuts you can tighten down - after a little snugging it seems like they are crushing the glass?

The marina owner here in MI says they are strong enough for the boat to be lifted. Looking at this loop and at the ones in the stern, I doubt of a 22ZX could be lifted by this trailer attachment as the steel itself does not look that strong.

Also wondered if anyone had any experience with the relative pulling strength of the transom loops? How about the pop up cleats? and of course the stationary bow cleat used for anchoring?

Anyone ever pulled any of these attachment points out of a hull or had to fix them?

Thanks,

Tom Smith
02-15-2010, 06:44 PM
On my 18' 2+3 we lifted the boat off the trailer by the ring on the stern and the one in the middle of the foredeck and it worked fine, but the one on the bow is not made for that, not on mine anyway. It's just two bolts through the fiberglass and the bow stem. Yours may be different though.

gcarter
02-15-2010, 07:14 PM
FWIW, the hull is probably 3/4" thick at that point.
If you were to pull steadily and not snatch it, you could probably pick up the boat w/it.

gcarter
02-15-2010, 07:20 PM
My transom is 1/2" thick since I added three more courses of 24 OZ. Knytex to each side. If backed properly I could probably pick up the rear of the boat w/the two stern rings, but that's not what they're designed for.
I wouldn't try a lot of stuff with anything attached to the deck alone.
The deck just isn't that strong.
I'm talking about 22's.

Just Say N20
02-15-2010, 07:26 PM
On the older hulls (60s & 70s), it seems the wood that was used as backing for the U-bolt is frequently rotten. Pulling strongly on it compresses the rotten wood, making the U-bolt loose.

You can squeeze up to the bow, and re-tighten the nuts, but it will loosen up again when significant force (like towing) is applied, because the wood will "crush" more.

Eventually, if you repeated this process enough, you would be tightening the nuts against the hull, but that would be putting the pressure on a relatively small area, as opposed to it being spread out by the wood that was originally there.

That bolt on my 16, is 3/8" stainless, and feels pretty stout. If the foredeck lifting eye was missing for some reason, and I had to lift the hull, now that I have a new, larger white Oak block behind it, I would lift the boat with it briefly.

gcarter
02-15-2010, 07:39 PM
What Bill said....

http://www.donzi.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33711&d=1200965027

But this is what I ended up with;

http://www.donzi.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=52755&stc=1&d=1261253201

The glass is probably 2" thick there

mattyboy
02-15-2010, 07:50 PM
there is no hardware on a ZX that I would use to lift it, the eyes are not located in a clean lifting spot with out the lifting hardware or strap putting stress on the hull finish. those eyes are stritcly for trailer tie downs