Trailers - I don't know jack

[Tim Ford]

Wasn't sure where to put this thread, in Building or General Chatter. Uff da

I went with a friend today down to a trailer dealer. They sell Load Rite trailers. They had some

-14 ft - 1000 lb cap. trailers
-14 ft - 1250 lb cap trailers
- 16 ft - 1500 lb cap. trailers

Now, I do not know jacksquat about trailers. But from the look of these, the tongue is really long and the axle is so far back that it looks like 80% of the boat weight is going to be forward of the trailer axle. That doesn't sound right, to me. I reckon these are powerboat trailers, and they compensate for all the weight of the heavy O/B engine by placing the balance point that far back.

IMG_2519.JPG

So the question is: what are you guys doing for trailers? DId you have one built to more appropriate specs? Venture and Triad will do this, not sure Load Rite will. Is your trailer axle more or less directly under the i550 balance point? How long trailer did you buy? How much does the ass end of the boat hang off the trailer?

I need to know this.

[jray]

Lots of options out there, bigger is better to a point. A 20' trailer sprung for a 3000 lb power boat will work but shake everything you have loose. I bought a Shorelander 18' part# SLB18LN, not overly expensive and though a bit stiff, it pulls quite well. The boat hangs off the back of the bunks about 2.5 feet (best guess without shoveling it out to measure) tongue weight, I can lift it by myself, but prefer help. Figure it's no more then 175-200 lbs.

[Justwannagofast]

Curious, what are trailers going for in your area. ?

[jray]

Paid $1,500 for mine back in 2011, delivered locally.

[i550sailor@aol.com]

Is anyone installing bracing/cradle to the bottom of the trailer, for the keel to be lowered onto, to put the keels weight onto the trailer? for storage/trailering?. I am watching craigslist for trailers, I missed a galvanized trailer for $250.00 by just a few hours, there are deals out there.

[Tim Ford]

funny, because that is just the other question I had, i5fittysailor. Ideally, I would love to be able to lower the bulb on to some sort of support on the trailer. Maybe someone has already done that, made that, but, as is typical, I have not been paying attention to trailer stuff, just build stuff, so now it is time for trailers!

[Chad]

image.jpg

I built a box to hold the keel on the trailer. I chopped the middle foot out of the 2nd of three lateral beams, so the keel box could be as low as possible and clear my garage door. I have three inches clearance from the axle to the keel box.

Putting the keel just forward of the axle works well for balance. It's nice to support the hull where the frames are, so the aft bunk will almost have to be f169, so you need 14' of trailer from the nose support to the back end.

[Kevin]

Capacity is mostly dictated by the tires. For long road trips you want the higher capacity larger wheels to lower the rpm's of the trailer tires. That equals less heat in the bearings. You also want to pump up the tires to rated pressure because flexing tires = heat = blowout if you aren't careful.

My 14' 1250lb trailer feels a touch small on the open road. The aft bunk is bolted to the back of the trailer and frame 169 sits right on top of it, so that worked out perfectly. What I don't have is much tongue available. Boat sits about 18" from the car and ramp launching puts the car into the water (forester just gets the tail pipe in the water). I wish I had 2 feet of tongue up front and higher capacity tires. But then again, she rolled down to southern Indiana just fine and she always floats off the trailer eventually.

Cheers, Kevin.

p.s. Make sure your aft bunk has an opening for the keel to pass through. And rig a hoist off the mainsheet to hold up your keel while you launch.

[ryderp]

I bought a Ventura 1300 trailer. It could have been made just for an i550. The back cross-brace lines up perfectly with frame 169, and there is a cross-brace right under where the keel lets down.
I took the powerboat bunks off and made some sailboat bunks. I also bolted a wood platform on the middle cross-brace to hold the keel bulb

I've taken the boat to Maine twice and to Indiana (about 5,000 miles total) with no problems

[Tim Ford]

Excellent info, thanks people.

Phil, is that a VENTURE trailer seen here (top of the right hand column) : http://www.venturetrailers.com/bunk.html#
the VB 1300?

[noemar]

Any photos on trailer bunk layout?
noemar

[Chad]

Not sure what you're asking, Noel.
Kevin had some good pics of building his transverse bunks using the upside down hull as a mold- see his blog for those.
As far as I can tell, everybody has a bunk at f169 (split in two, with a gap for the bulb to pass through), and another bunk at either f53 (me) or f89 (Kevin). See the current front page for a comparison of Jeff, Kevin, and Ron's forward bunk set ups. Hope that helps?

[Tim Ford]

I wish there were a higher resolution version of that front page photo. I wish I wish...

[Chad]

Straight from Kevin's pic farm:
https://picasaweb.google.com/m/zoom?una ... Height=268

Or Jeff's:
https://picasaweb.google.com/m/zoom?una ... Height=416

And there's a shot of my trailer in this blog post (before the keel tray, and before cutting the bulb gap in the f169 bunk):
http://i550knotracing.blogspot.com/2011 ... e.html?m=1

[Tim Ford]

excellent! thanks Chad.

[ryderp]

Tim,

The VB 1300 is the one shown in the picture and is the one that I have.

Phil

[ryderp]

Here is a picture of my trailer. You can't see the platform for the keel bulb from this angle, but it was made out of four layers of 1/4" hydrotek and was curved to fit the cross brace.

Trailer.jpg

[Tim Ford]

Thanks, Phil! This has been really helpful.

[strider]

i550 trailer frame.jpg

Here's Team Recovery's latest version of an i550 trailer. The idea is to get the boat as low as possible on the trailer. When done, the trailer will have skid plates from the first straight crossmember to the dropped ones so that hitting things like speed bumps won't damage anything. We also have had issues here with dropping off the ends of the ramps and taking off the axles on the way back out so this trailer will ride on the skid plates for that type of situation. It will use the half torsion axles which are also adjustable to set ride height. They will be mounted on adjustable “chassis” so you can set fore and at balance. Gross Vehicle Weight Max is set at 2000 pounds with 12” wheels - puts the capacity somewhere around 1500 or so but we can go higher. This one will be treated and sealed (no penetrations to the interior of the tubing) then simply painted but they can be anything from powder coated to galvanized (best). And yes, we will build to order, so if interested just PM me and I'll send you the specs and pricing.

[Tim Ford]

Excellent! Good info, "Gloria" (wink wink nudge nudge)

[strider]

I really did have to ask her for special permission to post.

Joe

[i550sailor@aol.com]

Is anyone installing bracing/cradle to the bottom of the trailer, for the keel to be lowered onto, to put the keels weight onto the trailer? for storage/trailering?. I am watching craigslist for trailers, I missed a galvanized trailer for $250.00 by just a few hours, there are deals out there.

Update: I bought a nice trailer on craigs list today for $200.00. I have a friend who has an Open 5.70, his trailer bunks appear to be taken from the mold,,, We are thinking how easy it would be to lay strips of scrap fiberglass cloth, laid up on plastic, on the overturned hull, after painting. They would quite literally fit like a glove, and be simple to do?.

[Justwannagofast]

Going with fibreglass bunks, is the way we will be doing our trailers. Seems like a good way for the boat to sit properly for transport. Should also help with launch and make retrieval much easier.

[i550sailor@aol.com]

What do you think Geoff, 6" or 8" wide?, to give plenty of support.

[strider]

Look at how Farrier does the trailers for the new F22. Just about perfect.