Trailer woes

[Ron]

There is nothing really wrong with the base trailer. Tony had no idea that he was screwing it up. Other than building it with single axle brakes, Venture probably did not know what Tony was doing. Assuming you did most of the work yourself, you'd be spending less than 1,000 to get it right. Figure around 400 for the brakes and another 200 for the tires, maybe 400 if you wanted to replace the wheels as well. You'd have to pay extra for disc brakes on any new trailer.

[Mangodoc]

My final decision for a temporary solution to my trailer problem is to pay to have the boat and trailer loaded on a flatbed and moved for me. I got a guy on uShip with a 40' trailer and winch doing it for $850 for the 600 mile trip. I'm not afraid of trailering the boat for short distances at low speeds for launch, recovery and storage, but I have nightmarish visions of bad things happening when a tire blows on the interstate because the rig is overloading the tires. Eventually I'll want a more permanent solution, and when that time comes I'll weigh the advantages of upgrading wheels, tires, brakes, leaf springs, winch, etc with just replacing the trailer altogether. I appreciate all the advice, especially letting me know how much overweight my rig is, and look forward to more when I consider a permanent solution.

[Mangodoc]

The adventure continues. The trailer guy arrived, we started winching the boat and trailer onto the flatbed and got 2/3 of the way up when the boat trailer bottomed out because the flatbed ramp was too steep. After an abundance of head scratching, I finally paid a tow company to lift the boat and trailer up using two trucks, drive the flatbed underneath, and lower them onto it, as follows:

IMG_0872.JPG (30.52 KiB) Viewed 5855 times

It worked (at great expense), as evidenced by:

IMG_0881.JPG (25.83 KiB) Viewed 5855 times

and we drove home without further incident. Once arrived, I paid a marina with a travel lift to take the boat and trailer off like this:

IMG_0899.JPG (28.39 KiB) Viewed 5855 times

So Trinity is finally home, we've been sailing and all is well. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't wasted the money replacing bearings, light kit, five tires, hiring a flatbed, two tow trucks and a travel lift, and had invested all that money into a new aluminum trailer with 15" tires and electric brakes and hauled it myself, the right way, the first time.

[Mangodoc]

For the last six months I’ve been storing Trinity on the old trailer, <.5 miles away from the boat ramp, and I’ve launched and retrieved her at least once a month since then. The old trailer has done OK rolling along at 20mph, but I wouldn’t go too much faster. Since I really want to be able to trailer Trinity all along the Gulf Coast, and I had a good year last year, I’m replacing the trailer with something safe. I explored several options, mostly thinking I wanted a fancy aluminum frame, but it seems there’s really only a trivial advantage to aluminum, so I’ve opted for just upgrading the original VBT-5800 to a VBT-7900 for $3650. I’ll salvage all the custom parts off the old trailer to bolt onto the new one. I’m adding a 2’ extra long tongue, LED lights, radial tires and a spare tire and bracket, delivered to Pensacola, and the total runs right at $4500. That’s a lot for a galvanized trailer, but having the peace of mind of knowing the trailer has the right specs to carry this boat safely is worth it to me. Plus I’ll have a fully functional old VBT-5800 with new tires, hubs and brake pads to sell or use for some other purpose. I’ll post pics as I get the new trailer up and running.

[Mangodoc]

It’s a done deal, and Trinity is now on her new trailer. Moving the custom parts to the new trailer was tedious (had to cut the old bolts off), but went well. If I had it to do over again I would replace the bolts and brackets with U-bolts, but the old way is fine too. Retrieval on the new trailer went basically well; the new trailer bears the weight without flinching, but I failed to compensate for the 1” increase in the wheel radius and damaged the port ama on the guide post as I pulled her out of the water. Repair won’t be a big deal, but I’m a little upset that I didn’t predict the problem and adjust the ama supports to prevent it. But all in all things went well, I’m extremely excited about feeling safe trailering for extended distances at speed, even in the heat of our Southern summers. I’ll post a summary with contact info for the dealership I used on the site later.

Wish me luck as Trinity and I hit the road and the water this spring.

[Hull52]

I hope to have my Mark I ready to take to a local boat yard for launching some time In the middle of the Summer. I think the flatbed is the only way I'm going to get it from my home to the Delaware River, where I'll launch it. Wonder how much it'll cost? Are there flatbeds with a travel all lift on them to get the boat onto the flatbed?

Any trouble with overhead wires, etc., once on the flatbed? Any suggestions to make life easier.

Thanks

Lou

[Mangodoc]

In the middle photo above, you will see that the boat was on her own trailer, and both were placed on the flatbed. Even so, she still came in just under the wire for legal trailering. If you are putting your boat directly on a flatbed with the mast down, it won’t be a problem.

[Hull52]

In the middle photo above, you will see that the boat was on her own trailer, and both were placed on the flatbed. Even so, she still came in just under the wire for legal trailering. If you are putting your boat directly on a flatbed with the mast down, it won’t be a problem.

Yes. Mast up would be a problem. : )

[Cruissser]

Glad to see you finally got your new trailer!! Sounds like a very reasonable price too. After buying new brakes a spare tire and several other items for my 4000 mile trip down to Florida and back maybe I should have looked into what you did.

The trailer performed well though, really not many issues, but I am planning on putting on 14 inch tires if I can get away with it. It would give me a better load capacity and peace of mind. Things were balanced out well after a trip or two to the local scale a a few adjustments to the axles.

I also added a PVC pipe on the side to hold the boom and lines. I take it off right before I put the boat in the water and place it back on when I pull the trailer out. During our trip we did spend time in the cabin and this allowed us to keep the cabin from being cluttered.

Randy

[Mangodoc]

That sounds like a great idea! I may even make an extra cover for the boom and mainsail to protect them. I would love to see a picture if you have a chance.