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The Importance of Polyurethane Boat Trailer Rollers for Loading and Unloading of Boats

19 May 2016

When a sleek boat floats on the water, it looks like it could sail away on the smallest breeze. The reality of the matter blows this illusion away, consuming the romanticism of the scene with heavy-load engineering physics. A water vehicle, when land-locked, is a heavy cargo. Sure, the trailer cradles the delicate fibreglass hull as it’s driven from a storage facility to the waterfront, but what then? There’s a big gap between the edge of the trailer and the water. Polyurethane boat trailer rollers bridge that gap. They support the boat as it’s transferred from the trailer, moved down the dock, and launched.

There’s a duality to these little launch aids. They have to be tough enough to withstand rocky ground, yet they also have to offer the kind of pliancy found in soft plastics and hard rubbers. Polyurethane is the secret ingredient in this feature set, for this rugged polymer is imbued with invaluable loading characteristics. Capable of carrying the weight of a boat without leaving a mark on the hull, polyurethane boat trailer rollers navigate rough docks without cracking or wearing. The structure of the plastic is just soft enough to avoid such expensive marking events but still resilient enough to hold its circular shape so that the roll of the boat remains fluidly level across a rough dockside area.

The familiar hourglass shape of these dock-cradling aids varies from one application to the next. Some are simply shaped as flattened skid panels to shift the hull over the last few feet of a sandy embankment. Others are rollers and “vee” stops, the high-tensile plastic boat supports that guide a soft-bottomed water vehicle towards its natural habitat. The plastic is remarkably tough, obviously, but it also possesses other desirable properties. Metal would rust and some polymers would crack, but polyurethane resists the detrimental properties of fluids, including water and most oils. And, if the load should prove to be particularly heavy, then the polymer will resist the abrasive rubbing effects caused by the excess weight. Remember, this plastic prevails in every industry. It’s used to resist the friction caused by mined minerals and ores as they’re excavated and brought to the surface of a roughly operated mining installation, so polyurethane boat trailer rollers are more than up to the task of guiding a boat, no matter how heavy, to its watery domain.

Also imbued with UV resistance characteristics and superior cut resistance, boat rollers made from polyurethane will not crumble or crack when exposed to salt, sunlight, oil, or petrol.

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