Should i buy this trailer?

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by briguyny

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST! You are an absolute wealth of knowledge. I have moved on and am currently looking at a few different trailers. I get a weird vibe from this trailer. I need a tandem with brakes to get it where I need it, but I might just pick up an inexpensive single axle for a few hundred bucks just to get it out of the water to clean and paint it.

Please allow me to spout off a little here. This is experience talking, and, while boring, can save you LARGE $$$$ later on.

Don't think that just because you have a single axle trailer you can't go long distances.. You have to go by what the trailer is rated at, not the number of axles. If you look at my trailer you'll see that I only have one axle, yet that trailer and boat has gone from New Jersey to Florida to New Jersey. That's a total of a little over 2400 miles without so much as a whimper.

There are several things you need to keep in mind when trailering..

First, like Reelapeelin just said, (as long as the trailer is rated for the weight you're carrying), the real secret is tongue weight. I know that people set theirs for more or less, but I usually set mine for as close to 300 lbs as I can get it.

Next on the list is brakes. If you have a lighter tow vehicle like I do (Jeep Cherokee) the extra stopping power of trailer brakes will keep you out of trouble and make it easier on your car/truck brakes. Mass and inertia will kill you if you don't have trailer brakes.

Next up is tires.. DO NOT SKIMP HERE!!! Buy TRAILER tires, of the highest rating you can get. It's the cheapest insurance to avoiding a breakdown on the interstate that you can buy. I like 14" personally, but 15's are fine also.. I just find that 14's are usually easier to find for some strange reason.

Lastly, carry extra sets (one set for each wheel) of bearings and a greese gun filled with wheel bearing greese. Nothing wrecks an outing faster than sitting on the side of the road waiting for your friend to come back to you with some bearings because your's failed.

Lets talk about that for a second here. We all know that bearing buddy's are great.. but just because you filled them at the start of the year does not mean you're ok. Check them before every trip and make sure they have greese. Look at the back (inside) of your wheel rim and check for excess amounts of greese coming out by the axle... that's a sure sign of a failed seal. Water loves to enter through failed seals, especially when your bearing buddys don't have any greese in them to provide pressure to keep the water out. Water plus no greese = a bearing failure on the road.
We've all seen it happen to someone that thought they were ok...
Check your bearings before every trip!!!

Red skys at night...

[chumbucket]

All good advice. The other thing to add for distance towing is a spare tire and wheel mounted to the tongue. A couple guys I know like to have a spare hub with bearings all lubed in the tow vehicle. You can get the hub in a nice plastic carry case to keep the grease in check and not all over your tow vehicle.

[briguyny]

I am going to look at a Shorelander tomorrow. It says its "rated for 3500lbs plus." My V21 = 2350lbs. Yamaha 150 = 350lbs Gas (60 Gallons @ 7lbs per gallon) = 420 and maybe 150lbs of extras = 3420 Total. Too close? What do you think? Here's the link:

http://longisland.craigslist.org/boa/1773784852.html

Let me know what you think if you get a chance.

[bradford]

Originally Posted by briguyny

I am going to look at a Shorelander tomorrow. It says its "rated for 3500lbs plus." My V21 = 2350lbs. Yamaha 150 = 350lbs Gas (60 Gallons @ 7lbs per gallon) = 420 and maybe 150lbs of extras = 3420 Total. Too close? What do you think? Here's the link:

http://longisland.craigslist.org/boa/1773784852.html

Let me know what you think if you get a chance.

Keep looking, that one has hardly any crossmembers. Plus be wary of rebulit galvanized trailers to be sure their pretty new zinc paint job isn't hiding a rust problem.

[Destroyer]

Gas is lighter than your figures. It's only 6.15 lbs per gal. The trailer looks flimsy.. I'd keep looking.