Rugged Launch Wheels - Fitting Advice

[reyes]

Hey all

New Honwave owner as of today! So, pleasure to be joining everybody as an absolute novice.

Tomorrow's plan is to get these new wheels installed (attached) and was hoping to get some confirmation/advice on a couple of things:

- Has anybody used these wheels on their Honwave? I'm slightly nervous at being as close as I'm going to be to the rubber at the bottom of the transom?
- Nuts on the inside of the boat or outside? I expect outside to avoid any potential damage when folding the boat up.
- Sealing the wood after drilling - what would you do it with? I have some CT1 for sealing the nuts/bolts as it's good stuff, but smearing some on that exposed by drilling sounds worthwhile too?

Any guidance appreciated!

[Limecc]

Welcome!
Someone will be along with wheel advice soon but I wouldn't use CT1. Purafux PU40 from Toolstation is 1/3rd price of Sikaflex and is the same stuff. Everbuild is owned by Sika.

[reyes]

Welcome!
Someone will be along with wheel advice soon but I wouldn't use CT1. Purafux PU40 from Toolstation is 1/3rd price of Sikaflex and is the same stuff. Everbuild is owned by Sika.

Thank you for the welcome, and advice. I've never used that stuff so that's great to know -- I'll grab some of that later!

Other than price: any reason you'd recommend against CT1???

[CRF999]

Suggest you look up my old thread New Honwave T32

In it I detail my process of fitting wheels that look exactly like you are about to fit.
Although I must make it clear mine are the REMOVABLE type and not permanently fixed. Although I am sure the same issues will apply.

In that thread I give various dimensions of the stand off's and clearance to hull.
I can tell you now in hindsight those are absolute minimums. Now they have had a bit of use and loosened up they are OK pulling forward but if you push back they rub on the wedge shaped rubber trim under the hull.
Do your own measurements at least 3 times and try to rig it up with clamps etc to be certain before you drill.

I would suggest 20mm stainless steel stand off's behind the bobbins they supply to go through the plate frame and a 12 - 15 mm minimum clearance between the wheel and hull at nearest point. BUT !!!! you need to make sure that does not bring you to close to the edge of the transom which would weaken it, or worse still into the air deck !!!!
I bought new longer SS bolts to suit that I machined to exact length so there would be little of no thread sticking out of the Nyloc nuts. I sealed in place with white Sika flex and got some neat little white plastic nut covers to cover the nut and thread ends which are INSIDE the boat.

When folding up I use 4 short lengths of pipe insulation to go over each vertical pair of stand off's / bolt heads. So far there are no signs of any marks on the boat and they are only slightly flattened when taken off.
Its all folded up for winter or I could take photos.
I did 3d print some spacers to test the Idea out they look like this.

Note i used the bobbins that came with the wheels and essentially just made very thick washers to go underneath them, I just did the 3 d all in one for speed .

[PeterM]

Love the idea of pipe lagging to protect when folded up .

That'll be going on mine when I next get it out... eventually!

[Limecc]

Other than price: any reason you'd recommend against CT1???

CT1's silicon based, marine applications use Polyurethane.

[reyes]

Suggest you look up my old thread New Honwave T32

In it I detail my process of fitting wheels that look exactly like you are about to fit.
Although I must make it clear mine are the REMOVABLE type and not permanently fixed. Although I am sure the same issues will apply.

In that thread I give various dimensions of the stand off's and clearance to hull.
I can tell you now in hindsight those are absolute minimums. Now they have had a bit of use and loosened up they are OK pulling forward but if you push back they rub on the wedge shaped rubber trim under the hull.
Do your own measurements at least 3 times and try to rig it up with clamps etc to be certain before you drill.

I would suggest 20mm stainless steel stand off's behind the bobbins they supply to go through the plate frame and a 12 - 15 mm minimum clearance between the wheel and hull at nearest point. BUT !!!! you need to make sure that does not bring you to close to the edge of the transom which would weaken it, or worse still into the air deck !!!!
I bought new longer SS bolts to suit that I machined to exact length so there would be little of no thread sticking out of the Nyloc nuts. I sealed in place with white Sika flex and got some neat little white plastic nut covers to cover the nut and thread ends which are INSIDE the boat.

When folding up I use 4 short lengths of pipe insulation to go over each vertical pair of stand off's / bolt heads. So far there are no signs of any marks on the boat and they are only slightly flattened when taken off.
Its all folded up for winter or I could take photos.
I did 3d print some spacers to test the Idea out they look like this.
Screenshot 2023-09-17 171216.jpg

Note i used the bobbins that came with the wheels and essentially just made very thick washers to go underneath them, I just did the 3 d all in one for speed .

Thank you very much for the reply...

I just took a look at your post but can I ask:

- Is where you had to drill into the transom at all similar to what as shown in a pic attached to this post?
- I take it you mean stand-offs in order to push the wheel away from the hull so that it allows the drilling to occur slightly higher?

I did actually share this same pic with the marina I bought mine from and he (the owner) mentioned it's not an issue to drill there.

Any additional advice appreciated -- I can't wait to get this sorted. The only other thing left is taking delivery of a trolley to move this 20HP lump around (I'm strongly tempted to get a Maxima in the future so thought I'd get something that would suit that too!)

Thanks once again.

Jon

[CRF999]

yes that looks a similar position to mine. the bottom holes went through the fabric glued onto the transom. they were still a good 10 - 15 mm above the airdeck inside because I also used 25mm stainless penny washers to spread the load. I also managed to avoid having to drill through the data plate inside the transom.

By stand off I mean a solid piece that replicates a big stack of washers so that the aluminium backing plate that carries the wheels was further away from the transom by that extra 20mm. I can fit my hand down between the mounting plate and the transom.

This was not so as to drill the holes higher as such. It was more allow the drop arms to click into the open position and stop them from fouling the rubber corner strip that joins the airdeck to the transom.
Looking from the side so that the wheel looks like a clock face and the transom is vertical It also shifts the point on the wheel that is closest to the rubber corner strip from the 1pm to 2 pm position for setting the 12 - 15 mm clearance the instructions recommend.

Hope that helps.

If you are really desperate I could try and open it up and take a photo or two.
Its just difficult with a lack of space and the constant rain here.

As a futher asside I use the starboard bracket for attaching a removable stainless steel bracket that holds my FF transducer in the right position. As long as you drop the wheels BEFORE you get to shallow it prevents you from ripping it off.

Regards Clive

[CRF999]

Oh just thought of another thing. Drilling from the outside I did not use and ordinary drill bit I used a woodworking brad drill bit with a depth stop so that the spur tip only just broke through inside.
I could then use that to locate the drill to go from the inside which makes a nice neat cut to the fabric and fibre glass both sides of the hole.

But I am pedantic.

[reyes]

Thanks very much Clive. I didn't see a notification for this so thought I'd go it alone and speak to the Marina, which I did yesterday.

So, I went to attach the wheels yesterday and inflated the boat up first and I'm glad I did. The position of these specific wheels, in order to even achieve <10mm clearance means I'd be drilling further down than what that previous picture suggested.

The marina's reception has kindly said "we'll speak to one of the workshop on Sunday (when they're back) and see what they think, and order some others in if need be". A bit annoying as I've taken a long weekend to enjoy the boat (and I'm a contractor so don't get paid for time off!)

I'm now thinking of ordering these: https://marinestore.co.uk/launching-tro ... 0-174.html which, incidentally, are similar to what I'd already ordered before receiving a recommendation from the marina to get what I got - ha.

Slowly edging closer to using the boat!