So I'm thinking of using this with a small piece of trex decking on the inside of the boat.

I'd go through the bow, through a small piece of trex, and then bolt down that metal plate to the trex.

I'd squirt alittle 5200 in the holes and cover the trex with 5200 on the side that would be touching the boat.

The idea of adding the trex in-between the bolts and the boat is to distribute force

Wadaya think?

Looks good to me. I'm phone so brief. I like to keep the eye down low so I don't have to lift the boat onto a trailer roller. Crank the winch and up it comes. But if it sticks out too much fly line (if you fish that way) will get caught under the eye.


It is possible to bury most of the eye so loose line doesn't get caught. Gouge a hole and slobber epoxy putty.

Thanks Sandy, I could use epoxy, but I have some 3M 5200 I was thinking of using.

Any thoughts on what might be better.

5200 might be good because of its ability to flex.

Read a few threads on here from you and others regarding bow eye placement. Got it low, but not to low. About in line with my winch at 10" off the trailer floor

"In line with the winch" will probably force you to lift the boat onto the roller before turning the winch crank. Almost every boat/trailer combo I've ever seen works that way.

If you put it down low--all the way to the bottom--the boat comes up automatically, but then the strap points down. Some say that's no good because the front can now bounce up and down.

But it doesn't. I use a big winch strap from side to side, going through the oarlocks. The boat doesn't move and I don't have to bust a gut lifting the boat onto the trailer. It's not a big deal but it is something I do that most other people do not.

I like it that way (me doing what everybody else does not). Everybody imagines a boat bouncing issue that doesn't exist. I've never tried 5200 for water proofing the eye bolt so I can't say. Seems like it would be good. i use roofer's caulk (brown colored sticky butyl caulk).

Ok, my winch will be down low. Read an old thread regarding this, I'll go with the fast cure 5200, live and learn right?

Looking forward to more pics. I like people who build boats.

One more thought. I may be making too much of this. But maybe not.

If you put the eye bolt on the bottom of stem you don't have to lift the boat onto the trailer roller first. You just crank the winch and up it comes.

However, if you do that you really have to strap the boat down well in the middle because the strap from the winch points down to the eye after it's all loaded up, which might maybe let the front bounce.

If this seems like an issue you can, after initially loading the boat, unhook the strap, pull out a bit of slack and re-route the strap under the stem beam of the trailer and then up to the eye bolt. And tighten up. That pulls the boat down one more time. At the front.

I used to do that. It's less trouble than walking from the winch to the rear of the trailer and busting a gut getting the boat up onto the roller first. Now I don't even bother with that. But you can. If you want.

I have a bad 69 year old lower back. I ain't liftin no boats if I don't have to.