Mast Carriers
My latest used WR had the factory metal mast crutch tops and there was no padding left.
The other thing was that the forward crutch was about 10ft in the air (seems to be the factory standard).
I cut off the forward crutch to make it shorter (not too short to clear the tow vehicle and the amas that may be mounted on top of the main hull!).
Then I got a large bow stop and a couple of brackets and bolted it to the cut-off top of the pole like this.
I did a similar thing with the aft support, only this time I used a large keel roller wheel. This helps when rolling the bast back in order to set it on the mast step ball.
One other thing I did to the aft support is make it not pivot anymore. The pivoting one made it really difficult to load the amas on top of the main hull for compact travel.
Instead, I cut the pivoting tube off flush with the metal runners. I put a bolt all the way through both the cutoff crutch tube and the trailer runner support right at the bottom.
At the top, just under the runner, I clamped the cutoff tube to the runner support. This left a 18" "socket" permanently affixed to the trailer, and flush with the runner.
I then bought an aluminum tube with an outer diameter the same as the inner diameter of the permanently-affixed "socket". This is now the crutch - it slides into the "socket" tube and bottoms out on the bolt that goes all the way through at the bottom.
When I want to put the amas up, or launch, I completely remove the support out of the "socket".
I am thinking of drilling a hole in the support "socket" a bit higher up that I can use to lift the crutch higher for an easier time during mast-raising.
