How often do you check your jackstands?

[Todd Dunn]

This is the first year I have had the boat at home. I find myself resetting the jackstands every 2 weeks or so. In particular, since this has been a very rainy winter here on Mount Desert Island, ME, I find that I check and often reset the stands after every rain/freeze cycle. Am I over doing it?

By reset, I mean that I back the stands off until the pad is no longer touching the boat and then run it back up. If the chains seem loose, I shift the stand to tighten it.

TD

[Figment]

Is the boat in the driveway, or out back on the lawn?

If it's out on the lawn (on earth that hasn't otherwise borne any significant load in the past decade or so), you can certainly expect that kind of movement with each freeze and thaw.

Are you overdoing it? well yeah probably. But you're certainly not doing the boat any harm with these frequent adjustments. In your place, I'd err on the loose side of things. I'd rather have the boat wiggle a bit in the breeze (the mast is down, I assume) will all weight on the keel than have the stands apply too much pressure to one particular spot.

[A30_John]

During these days of 50+ degree weather, then three days later nearing zero with wind chill, I check my stands every couple of days. What I'm watching for is either the boat sinking into the ground during the rainy weather (thus causing the stands to push hard against the hull) or the ground freezing during the cold weather and pushing the stands too hard into the hull of the boat. I keep the stands snug, and back them off or tighten them when necessary. Once things have been cold for a while and the ground is hard and stable, I don't check them as often. I think a lot depends on the ground your boat is sitting on. If I wasn't able to check them frequently I'd follow Figment's advice and loosen them a little more.

I once asked my boat hauler if he'd ever seen a boat come off its stands. He said he'd heard of one falling over due to loose stands - the wind blew the boat back and forth on the stands and over a period of time loosened them until something gave out. It sounded like boat hadn't been checked for some time.

I think it's also important to have plywood squares under each leg of the stands. without them, the stands can sink into the ground during a thaw and loosen up.

[Tim]

Last winter, my boat shifted more on the stands than I had ever seen before. I'm not sure why, since the boat was on a good gravel driveway, but nonetheless the lesson is that it's always good to check the stands when you think about it, if not on a regular schedule. At a minimum, high winds or widely fluctuating temperatures should be cause for a looksee.

Better to check too often than to have a problem!

[Eric]

I obsessed about this question the first year I had my Triton in the yard. This is year three and I have adjusted them once or twice. I tend to be on the boat most weeks puttering and will check the near side stands on my way by if my hands are free and I happen to think of it.

After I cut a hole in the hull and saw the layup for myself I stopped worrying about it so much. I keep the stands adjusted to make sure that any interior measurements will be correct, but I think it is unlikely that the frost will cause any permanent deformation. I'm guessing that old bulkhead tabbing is the biggest risk...

[grampianman]

I sympathise with sailors in the North country, but here in Florida I have not had any kind of shifting as has been described in the thread. I also did not have the cash for purchasing jackstands. I have constructed two horses/trestles which support the boat from moving side to side. The keel is supported with blocks in two places. The horses are made of two fifty gallon steel drums and a wooden beam made of three ten foot 1x10 screwed together. I did it this way so I could pull the trailer out from under the boat. She took all the wind from Hurricane Wilma and at no time have I had to adjust any of the wedges under her.
This is not an original idea of mine. I found it on another website where the boat owner built the supports with legs. At $5 a drum, it was a no brainer for me.

Cheers,
Ian
Wing & a Prayer, Grampian 23