New trailer opinions/recommendations

J

justgotaboat

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Jun 18, 2009
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31427
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anyone have any opinions on boat trailers? I need a new one. I recently had another incident with my current one and I think it's the final straw. Looking for suggestions for make/model, roller/bunk, etc.

I have a 2001 245 sea ray weekender (dry weight of 5500 pounds i believe) so I assume a trailer that can handle 7500-8500 pounds. The boat lives on the trailer in my driveway and makes local trips of 15 miles to the nearest lake and several trips a year to Lake George which is approximately 240 miles one way. I'm assuming Dual axel with surge brakes. I am not thrilled with the bunk trailer I currently have but am not opposed to bunks or rollers.

I presently have a dual axle venture trailer with 8525 gvwr I believe. It's a bunk trailer. The most recent incident was this while driving down the highway at 70 mph, the wheel decided to fall off. Rim and all. Luckily we did not wreck, cause an accident, or kill/hurt anyone. However I think this is the final straw for this trailer. I don't trust it anymore and add this major problem (and expensive tow bill) to the long list of problems I've already had.... and I'm done with it.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks for the help
 
Personally I find BoatUS "Trailer Assist" at $14/year to be priceless! Also, check your boat insurance policy to see if you have towing on that as well. If so, send them the receipt and you'll likely get a reimbursement check that does NOT increase your rates. I rely on my auto insurance carrier for towing for my vehicles and have been told numerous times it will not increase rates using it (check your agent/carrier).

Are you sure the trailer is shot? If the frame is fine perhaps two new axles might be the solution? Why buy a new frame (if fine) when the rest can be replaced, upgraded?
 
I hear aluminum trailers are the best. The one thing I would change if I could was to avoid a bunk trailer, first the bunks don't always align with your hull and you may have to change them which I had to do, I have a Sea Ray 245 also and a 2400 Maxum. Also with a bunk, sometimes you have to go pretty far down that boat ramp(low tide) to get the boat off the bunks, well I once went to far and the trailer went off the end of the ramp and got stuck. No more bunks for me thanks!
 
I am in the same situation, my trailer is a 1999 loadrite galvanized roller trailer. My axles are getting pretty worn, and I seem to lose one bearing per season, resulting in a wheel flying off if I don't catch it in time. Thinking about replacing the axles, but then I probably will have to replace all of the leaf springs too.

bearing buddy makes a kit that can be used to seal the axle, even on roughed up spindles. http://www.bearingbuddy.com/spindle.html -- has anyone used this? I didn't come across it this year until a few days after I was done repacking all of the new bearings. Might give it a try before I junk my trailer.

If I do go new, I will go with an aluminum, rollers, torsion axles, electric winch. Definitely disc brakes. Surge or electric over hydraulic ( EOH) is the question I haven't answered yet. My boat is a bit light for EOH, and it's a very costly upgrade. But still considering it.
 
EOH is the way to go. Much better control and it is adjustable control. I will never own a surge trailer again.
 
Frame appears to be fine. It would be new axelse and hardware.....and fender and mounts. it's more the fact that we are constantly having issues with this trailer. I mean CONSTANTLY!!!

Since we have owned it (7 yeears maybe) we have put multiple sets of tires on it due to an undiagnosable issue where we would just wear through a set of tires in a few hundred miles. After fighting with venture and constantly swapping parts and pieces trying to correct the issue we finally sent us all new axels and hardware and replaced everything. They claim an axel must have been bent, however we've had multiple people look at it and no one could find anything. Which required trips all over the place and some serious money just for a lot of head scratching. (Also not my driving/towing. I've worked with numerous trailers in the past and nothing like this, and I am not hard on vehicles) all of which was over the course of a few summers.

Discovered early on that they never put all the hardware in to hold the fenders on. It was missing multiple bolts and some were lose (probably a result of missing some and rattling loose)

We then discovered the trailer was set up wrong and rubbed a hole in the fiberglasss of the hull. Reset up the trailer correctly. Which was hard enough to find someone willing to work on it... Had to fix the hull fiberglass/gel coat

Just before retrieving at the launch we discover a broken u-bolt holding the axel on. Field repair and then fix and repair correctly.

Emergency brake cable rusted out and had to be replaced

Tires are still wearing at an excessive rate, we just recently replaced one because it was near bald in a few hundred miles again.... which was the same issues we had before they replaced both axels.

And every time it's down we lose our boating ability since we trailer everywhere. And it's constantly one thing after another.

Most of these things we were extremely lucky and caught before being on the road and breaking down. But I feel like we are excessively diligent in our up keep and maintenance of the trailer and stuff still constantly is wrong. I mean how often do you check you u bolts on a trailer? For us it seems like we have to check everything before and during every trip, and yet we still had a wheel (tire and rim) literally fall off)

And I can't blame the guys working on it because it's been multiple people that also can't find the issues and I always go back over the work after it's done.

I feel like this trailer is a lemon and I'm ready to be done with it
 
I had excessive tire wear. I switched to radials and the problem went away.

Surge brakes have worked well for me (although we did add another axle after this photo). The brand is Float-On. Boat is 30x10' and 7,500lbs (per truck scale).

IMG_2915.JPG
 
quote:
Originally posted by GeeBee

EOH is the way to go. Much better control and it is adjustable control. I will never own a surge trailer again.

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Even on a light boat? I probably weigh in under 4,500 lbs - and have a decent size truck. Lot of trailer problems over the years, but since I converted to disc, never thought of braking as an issue. But might have to look into it a bit more.

Sad to hear that the lemon in question is a venture, I guess mostly based on price that was the brand I was looking at for my replacement. What do others suggest?
 
Surge brakes (disc) have been fine on my large rig. Float-On doesn't recommend "electronic" things that get dunked in water (especially salt water). Then again, it was a nearly $10,000 trailer! Solid darn thing too.
 
Definitely go for disk brakes. If I had it to do over again I would also get EOH. As far as brand of trailer, my last two boats, 28/29 foot, have had aluminum Ameratrail trailers. Well made and I have been very happy with them. Manufactured in Florida.
 
quote:
Originally posted by mixman

Float-On doesn't recommend "electronic" things that get dunked in water (especially salt water).

Click to expand...


EOH doesn't put anything electric into the water- the actuator has a pump which is electric, but just like with surge brakes you are pumping brake fluid to each caliper to brake. Just saw a complete kit on Eastern Marines web site for 1,300 - not as expensive as I remembered.
 
My trailer is a load rite galvanized - despite the problems with my axles getting scorched up, and now I go through bearings at an absurd rate - I have no complaints. And that is probably my fault, not keeping bearings well enough greased for constant saltwater use.

I will probably go aluminum for my next trailer - but galvanized is certainly popular.

They offer Kodiak Stainless Steel Disc Brakes as an option; I am very happy with these brakes. Would consider upgrading the hubs, but not sure what they offer.

I could not tell from the web site if your model is leaf or torsion. I think I will go torsion on my next trailer - mainly because you can easily/cheaply replace the spindles without replacing entire axles (at least that's what I was told) - and worn spindles is why I keep losing wheels and need a new trailer.
 
quote:
Originally posted by alk
EOH doesn't put anything electric into the water- the actuator has a pump which is electric, but just like with surge brakes you are pumping brake fluid to each caliper to brake.
Click to expand...


The few times I've used a ramp I've had nearly half the truck under water in order to get the boat to float off. Perhaps that is why surge-brakes were recommended for my application. With a nearly 10,000 lbs truck I have never had an issue getting the rig to stop (disc brakes on all 6 wheels).
 
With a 24' long boat, a dual axle trailer would be fine. I had a 27' and utilized a Tow Master triple axle setup with brakes on all axles. It was a surge setup that worked beautifully. My trailer also used bunks. The best support for a boat is on bunks, but they do have some limitations which were mentioned above. I would still go with bunks again personally. I believe Tow Master was made by Nextrail. They really makes some nice aluminum trailers for boats. http://nextrailtrailers.com/
 
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