Buying a trailer .Help!!

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chi-girl

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I've ordered a stock trailer from a place in southampton but they keep moving the delivery date even though they said at the time of odering it was in stock.

i need it for a 5mtr shetland and they said it would be £1499.
they now say i'll have to set up the rollers myself to fit the boat and to be honest ive had enough of them now so am looking for reliable trailer makers/dealers localy. new or very clean used.

any one recomend a dealer or maker around chichester or between brighton and southampton.
 
I don't think it's unusual for the customer to have the trailer setup as it typicaly involves putting the boat in a sling and hanging it above the trailer whilst adjusting things to get the nose weight balanced correctly.. I wouldn't expect the trailer supplier to do that for me but having only gone through the affair once with a 2nd hand trailer, I may be wrong.

continual deferment is probably enough to look elsewhere but check expectations on who'll setup the trailer for your boat first:)

this was my experience when I collected my boat, a fairly involved job that the marina handled superbly charging £50 for trailer adjustment and standard charge for the lift... I was expecting alot more than £50 as it took them a good hour to set things up with 3 staff on the job to do so.

 
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i thought that as its a lightweight small boat that they could at least help.
maybe im expecting too much but i bought a new outboard from them last month plus paid extra for the fitting that they may feel inclined to help with the trailer seeing as im paying full price for it.

I wont get a used trailer from eBay because it will most likely prove troublesome but a used from a reputable source would be considered.
 
chi-girl said:
I wont get a used trailer from eBay because it will most likely prove troublesome but a used from a reputable source would be considered.
Click to expand...

yep, understand the caution but there are bargains to be had if you look so would suggest at least doing so.... the trailer in the video was purchased off fleabay at a cost of £1800 with a retail value more than double that.. it was 3 months old and used once to transport a boat from a canal to a river then sold on, effectively brand new and never been in the water... the money you'd save would go towards the lift out and setup of the trailer... worth a look I'd say
 
220488548109 on eBay


this is identical to the one i ordered. from the same place aswell.

they said it was instock but they may have made a mistake and sold it to someone else. i dont mind the wait its just that i wish people would say they made a booboo and say sorry but maybe i expect too much.

it looks like i would have to swap the boat onto the new trailer myself. i dont suppose it would be that difficult to do.
 
I would adjust your trailer yourself, not that difficult as long as you take your time and have the boat supported either at the front or back rollers and adjust the boat height via a block of wood and a good heavy jack on the keel, keep an eye on the horizontal level take a good reference fron the boat.or take measurments fron the adjusted legs and each side should be the same.

I did mine and started at the back jacked from the keel up at the back (front stayed supported bt the front rollers), to the required height of the rollers and keel rollers, fixed in position and released jack and moved to middle of boat, jack from keel to required height,moved all rollers to there position and height and do the same for the front.

Might take a few hours but at least youve done it, and if you ever need to make minor adjustments you know what to do.

as far as price i was luck to pick up a snipe twin axle demo for £2000 should of been new £3800.

mark
 
You may find that even if a boatyard sets up the boat on a trailer you may have to fine tune the trailer even more. I found out that when I bought my boat and trailer allready set up by a boatyard that the axles needed moving foward 8 inches as the trailer was out of balance and the nose weight at the coupling was too heavy and there are recommendations as to how heavy or light the coupling should be when you attach it onto the back of your car.
 
just to be clear on this Chi (Quay) Girl:) get it wrong and it can be quite dangerous... if the trailer weighs down on the towball too much the front of the car / 4x4 lifts and you lose traction, especially downhill when you need it most.. if it's too light, I believe it burns out your clutch or something along those lines... needs to be balanced so you can lift the front of the trailer up by hand without busting a blood vessel... there's a weighing machine that gets it spot on if you want it more accurate than that description
 
i presume its like a caravan we had that was loaded at 50kgs nose weight but will check with manufacturers.
the old trailers has negative noseweight and i cant do any more to balanve it so i need that new trailer asap.
 
Having done quite a lot of towing over the years, hitch weight is typically between 50-75kgs. Too much weight will affect the steering and safety of the car and too little will put additional stresses on the hitch due to too much vertical movement - which in turn can cause snaking when towing and a noticeable pulling/pushing from the trailer as it 'bounces'. Once you have established if there are any specific weight recommendations for your vehicle, a set of bathroom scales under jockey wheel will get you close enough to correct weight. Remember to allow for things like fuel and other boat contents too - stow these evenly either side of trailer axle(s). Probably best to set up with fuel tank half full, so that in normal use whether you have full tank or empty, it won't be too far from optimal balance. :)
 
Just to throw the spanner in the works, noise weights vary, my landrover disco 2 auto has to have a nosie weight of 110 kgs this is recommended by snipe and also by landrover, towing 3.5 tones on a landy with 50kg noise weight is to light.

When you get the trailer consult you trailer manufacture and also the vehicle manufacture, axles can be moved easy when the trailer is jacked up and supported by blocks, it just a case of moving the axles forward to increase noise weight or backwards to lighten, or like i did i moved the boat further on to the trailer to give me my noise weight then moved the winch post up to the bow secured all bolts double checking.

have the confidence and time to complete it and you will,

rbcoomer is right, its easy to do and remember things change with trailers, twice a year i recheck weights and bolts and how the boats sits, i have had 4 sealed for life bearings fail this year ??? and 1 full axle of braked shoes, could never afford to get some one to do the work, at 35-50 per hour plus parts.
 
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i managed to change the bearings on the trailer when i first bought her, it was a case of watching my husband do it for yrs and he wanted me to be self dependant and have the confidence to do a lot of stuff myself and only pay the experts for something we couldnt do
 
That is the way i run things, have to admit my bearings were a right pain in the arse as they are press fittied to the drum and trying to knock out the brocken outer race was an hour long affair, then i went to buy the bearings and £40 each, then found out on the net that the bearings i need are from vauxhall nova/astra mark 1-2 cost £14 each. refilled new bearings with lucas oils full marine grease and so far there holding up, (last one was done a week ago)
why pay when you can have a go youself, it a brill way to be, yeh agree sometime you cant, i even removed the engine in mine twice now never ever removed an engine from
anything in my life(other than a petrol (strimmer)

going back to the trailer, i think its all self explantatory, when we brought ours i had no means of lifting the boat or useing a slip, so i blocked the boat up while moving the trailer forwards took about 5 hours out and another 5 in, but done it and it cost me no a penny
 
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