Small Boat Ownership - Trailers & Trailing
If you are fortunate enough to operate from a mooring, then this article isn't for you. Similarly, for those with access to a secure off-road compound adjacent to your launch site, then much of what is to come won't have much relevance either. I say fortunate, but that isn’t quite true as both those options limit you to one venue with a restricted fishing range. The ability to take off anywhere in the country when either the fishing or the weather warrants it, for me at least helps keep excitement levels high. You can certainly get to know a place when you fish it regularly. But at the same time you can become stale and restricted in your thinking. However, regular trailing can have its drawbacks too, not the least of which are trailer road-worthiness and reliability. And of course compliance with the law, all of which can conspire to make the trailing leg of a trip more demanding than the on water bit. Small boat fishing isn't only about dangling a bait when and where you want. You first have to get there, and as many a seasoned small boater will testify, the actual fishing can account for less than half of the total time investment when you include all the preparation, bait gathering, trailing, launching and sailing out. Then it all has to be reversed with the added 'bonus' of cleaning everything off later.
If, as in my case, you live some way inland and always launch from an exposed open shore, then trailer road-worthiness is every bit as important as boat sea-worthiness. For me, the days of poorly designed painted trailers with unsuitable hubs and remould tyres stand as a distant stark reminder of lost fishing days and costly disappointments. But that is how it was 30 years ago. You put together your own boat, then bought some box section steel and welded up a trailer to fit it. Many is the time I've had cars flash me on the motorway and point to trailer wheels belching out smoke. Bearing failures were a pretty regular occurrence. Red hot wheel nuts melted into the hard shoulder of the M6 on a freezing winters morning is not the best of starts. Broken box section frames caused by rot on the inside where you can't paint it; collapsed axles due to poor suspension units, and tow hitches jumping off the car are now thankfully things of the past. And lets not forget struggling to get the boat back on with a heavy swell lifting it off a set of central rollers and crashing the hull down onto the side supports. If you've never experienced any of that lot, take my word for it, you'll never want too. All of which should help concentrate the mind on seeing a good trailer as an investment. A crucial part of the unit in fact, and not something ancillary to it.
At its most basic, a good trailer is galvanised to prevent rot; comes with a geared winch for ease of retrieval when winching on dry; has reliable quality hubs that are made to at least put up some sort of a fight against sea water ingress, and is fitted with a self centring swinging cradle to guide the boat on straight regardless of sea conditions. At one time it would have been possible to summarise that lot up in just two words – Indespension RollerCoaster. If, as the cliché puts it, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, then Indespension should be feeling pretty pleased with themselves as their competitors appear to be handing out flattery by the bucket load. But this innovation I am told cannot be used on every type of boat. Orkney boats and RollerCoaster type trailers allegedly do not sit well together. Orkney's semi displacement boats are built to give good performance with smaller and lighter engines than other types of planing boats, and need their primary trailer support along the keel. Use of a swinging cradle providing support either side of the reinforced keel area could invalidate the guarantee. This said, I have seen Orkney's on RollerCoasters.
Boat trailers from reputable dealers such as Indespension, Rapide, Snipe and the like are all very good, though as with any list, it would be possible to rank the trailers on it in terms of overall quality. To some extent this would be subjective as all have their strong and less strong points. So enough said about that. The only individual trailer I am going to single out here is the Rapide. For years I have been banging on about the inadequacies of braked trailers. When towing a unit on the road with a combined gross laden weight exceeding 750 Kg regardless of vehicle, the law says that your trailer must have brakes. The trouble is that you can't take a braking system designed to stop a car that might at worst get splashed with rainwater, then dunk it in the sea and still expect it to carry on functioning regardless. What often happens is that on the morning of following trip when you release the handbrake to get the unit off the drive, it won't move. Worse still, the brakes are not fully seized on, but are stuck in a position that overheats the hub with all the problems that can bring. And unless you open the hub up for flushing and regular maintenance, that is what will happen. On many occasions I have suggested externally fitted disc brakes for ease of flushing and repair. Rapide have now produced such a system. Time will tell whether it is going to be a winner. So fingers crossed, and not before time.
The likelihood is that if you buy a boat from new, trailer suggestions and sizing will be part of the deal, and if you buy second hand, chances are it should already be on a suitable trailer. That won't always be the case however, so ensure the trailer you choose suits the boat and what it is you have in mind to do with it. In terms of physical dimensions, the axle should be wide enough to prevent the hull making contact with the mudguards, and long enough so that after adjustment using the winching post, the back of the boat over-hangs the last roller by no more than a couple of inches. It doesn't matter how much extra length there is between the winch and the tow hitch. If this upsets weight distribution and overall balance, the U-bolts holding the axle in place can be slackened to move the axle to get the unit balance right. Vital adjustments such as these cannot be done with a fully welded trailer. When fully laden with tackle and fuel in the places you intend to regularly store it, you want around 80 pounds of weight on the tow ball of the car. You can check this by putting the jockey wheel onto a set of bathroom scales. To get the overall laden towing weight for brakes compliance, put the unit onto a weigh bridge. If a public weigh bridge isn't available, ask at your local builders merchants.
Where rollers come into contact with the hull you get an immense amount of pressure at one point. A good trailer will spread that loading across many pressure points. In the days before the self-centring cradle, we used to use skids, particularly for cathedral type hulls. These were long lengths of wood fixed to metal supports with a piece of carpet wrapped around the top for protection. Skids spread the weight beautifully well. But a well designed swinging cradle will do it better. These often come with different overall carrying capacities. Different capacity trailers can have the same overall dimensions, but with four sets of rollers on each side as opposed to two. This is to spread the extra weight loading, so its important to ask the question. Similarly, suspension units come in different weight categories. The important thing is that they don't hit their limit under full load going down a bumpy road. This happened to me once over in Ireland. The result was that not only did the axle buckle in the middle, but the units actually started 'tearing' the metal at the point where the bolts had gone through. One final part of the trailer affected by weight is the tyres. Conventional car tyres are no good. Okay, so your car might be heavier than the boat, but it spreads that weight across four points rather than two. Car tyres are usually 4 ply. You can get 6 ply, but an 8 ply is better as it offers increased wall strength to cope with the weight. Tyres also have a date moulded into them. Car tyres don't usually last long enough to exceed this. But boat tyres can. Sunlight will perish the rubber, as will weight concentrated at one point for long periods between trips. During prolonged lay ups, jack each wheel up and give it a quarter turn.
Generally speaking, the bearings a trailer has fitted to it will be the ones you will need to stick with. Reputable trailer manufacturers know this and will normally use good quality units, particularly in view of them regularly disappearing under the waves. If the hubs you have are not fitted with grease nipples, my advice would be to have them fitted. It’s a simple job requiring nothing more than a suitably threaded hole. Salt-water getting into the hub then being churned into the grease on the journey home is what kills bearings. A grease nipple allows you to get rid of this water by pumping in fresh waterproof grease at the top of the slip to force the water out before starting the homeward journey. Alternatively, fit bearing saver hubs. We've had these on our trailer for years have yet to have a bearing failure. Essentially what you have is a small reservoir of grease under pressure from a plate with a strong spring at the back of it constantly forcing new grease into the hub on demand. All you have to do is remember to top it up periodically. One thing I will say about bearing savers is that if you do unfortunately suffer a failure, getting the actual bearing saver bit off can be the devils own job. We had a tool specially made for the job which Indespension have made working drawings from and might at some stage market.
Most small boaters carry a spare wheel. But how many I wonder also carry a spare hub. This is particularly important if you make long journeys out in the sticks on bank holidays when a bearing failure could mean the complete loss of a trip. Carrying a hub in one of the dry lockers on the boat is one answer. But why not let it work for you. Indespension for example do a drop down leg with the spare hub and wheel fixed to it which converts the trailer on demand into a three wheeled unit for ease of pushing. I've also seen simple fixed position home made versions using a plate and two U-bolts. Carrying a spare hub is all very well. But you also need the right tools to make the change. Hubs are usually held in place by a large castle nut and split-pin, so the right size socket, a good knuckle bar, and pliers will be useful. Get a socket for the wheel nuts too. Removing them with a knuckle bar is far easier than with a wheel brace. And to complete the set, make sure you have a jack. Your car jack very likely won't do the job. The best jack is a small trolley jack, and the important thing is to keep your trailing tool kit, jack and spares in the boat, not in the car. The day you trail using some one else's car leaving your tools in the boot sat on the driveway at home is the day your bearings will go.
Finally, a few words about hitching up and actually towing. There are good tow hitches and there are poor ones. For peace of mind that the hitch won't jump off the tow ball, go for a quality cast version with a secure locking system. Also check it is on properly before setting off by lifting the hitch up by the handle. This should also lift the back of the car. If not, start to worry. I'm not sure about safety lanyards that apply the brakes if the boat jumps off. They sound good in theory. But I can't see a boat surviving jumping clear of the car at 60 mph. I would feel more at ease knowing I have a good tow hitch, and loading the boat up properly so it is not grabbing at the tow ball every time you go over a bump through being back heavy. Too little nose weight causes this. As was said earlier, you should aim for around 80 pounds to keep the pressure on the tow ball. More would be good, but then it becomes harder to lift on and off. Weight also needs to be spread evenly from left to right within the boat to help keep it stable. Badly placed weight is what leads to the trailer snaking all over the road, particularly on a long straight run such as a motorway. It is often worse when going down hill rather than up, and can be brought on by passing lorries. Watch for lorries in your wing mirror. Then just as they are about to come past, ease over to the left slightly to widen the gap until they have passed.
SEE THE VIDEO VAULT – Dinghy trailing