Check List

[BrendanS]

Luckily there's usually at least one of these at busy ramps that will help out the hapless Mondeo owner who's just smoked his clutch /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Doesn't have to be a 4x4 and certainly not off road tyres, but a car with a decent bit of weight (traction) and low end grunt is certainly a good idea. Really depends how heavy the boat is. Lots of Ribs launch with relatively small cars, but once your looking at 21ft and above sportsboats, then 4x4's are typical

 

[DavidJ]

The alternative to Nav lights is of course to rig up some legal ones but it's something else to fall off/dismantle. I would bet that no one has ever been prosecuted for having nav lights on and it's much much safer at night.
Looks like you have your wheels well sorted. Enjoy your mobility
David

 

[hlb]

Advanced Towing Tips

When following a cue of traffic that you want to pass. Leave a big gap. Then start excelerating whilst traffic is coming the other way. Brake and hang back again, then excelerate again. Carry on doing this and eventualy there will be a gap in on coming traffic. So you can pull out and wizz past. Dont try being up some ones arse, then pull out or you will just look silly, in middle of road and going no where.
If you need to see behind you. Wiggle the trailor about and look in mirror.
If you need to turn round. Find a junction on opposite side of road. Never on your own side. Then you can see the trailer going round. If you try the other way. You can see bugger all!! Always Before having to reverse. Think about what I just said and if necesary go round the block so that your always turning toward the drivers side or right as you sit at the wheel.
Take wide turns especialy on tight turns. The trailor will cut the corners.
keep the revs higher than normal, change down soon when revs start to drop. Dont wait till you have to change down or you will finish up changing down two or three gears and going much slower.
Fit big wing mirrors.
On normal roads. Keep towards the middle of road if there are alot of parked cars. straddle both lanes round towns if you have to and stop others trying to overtake. do the same on small roundabouts. Acording to the book, your not supposed to do this, but if you dont some pillock will try to pass you and force you to stop behind parked cars or your traior wil cut into them at roundabouts. The degrees of course all depends on size of boat, width and width of roads and conditions. Take comand of the situation where you have to.

<font color=blue> Haydn

 

[Guest]

Got a Frontera 2,2 16v long wheel base and twin axle snipe trailer is that OK

 

[Guest]

Thanks, took your advice and just ordered a Garmin 725e hand held with a 1mtr underwater submersible capability (hope I don't need to talk that far down or I'm in trouble)

 

[BarryH]

Snipe trailer is ok, they been makin'em for years. Errmm Vauxhall Fronterer, bit gutless really. Will do it, but not my choice of tug. You'll really notice it on the hills with loads of cog swapping. Should drag the boat around though. 2.2 litre seems a bit small in that kinds motor, IMHO. Made by Izuzu and badged by Vauxhall.

 

[hlb]

But an Isusu trooper will eat it.

<font color=blue> Haydn

 

[BarryH]

But the Trooper was made to work whereas the frontirer is made as a fashion accesory type thing. Maybe I've got a bit complaisant running a V8 Rover with plenty of grunt.

The 2.2 lump in the vauxhall will be all spinny spinny rev wise with all the power up at the mid to top of the rev range, forget torque figures. Not the best for pulling up the slips but the low box should sort that out. Trooper would be a better bet. though.

 

[jon_bailey]

Check the plate on the trailer. This will give an all up weight and trailer weight. Take one from the other and you'll have the maximum weight of boat that can be carried. As previosuly stated remember that manufacturers quoted weights are always much less than actual.

If you PM me with an e-mail address that will accept attachments I can send you my spreadsheet with all of the equipment purchased together with their costs.

 

[DavidJ]

Bit of confusion here. The badged up Izuzu Troper is (was) the Vauxhall Monterey ( I had one and it pulls like hell) The Frontera (had one of those too) with a 2.2 is a totally underpowered vehicle even without towing. I guess the fitting of a 2.8 unit later on made it much better.
David

 

[BarryH]

Yep Trooper is same as Monterey. And the Frontera is also an Izuzu as is the Midi Van. The Arena van is a Renault Tragic, sorry Trafic and the Rascal is a Suzuki. So what do vauxhall make

 

[Guest]

Re the Frontera, that is all I have so it will have to do, I am paying for the annual mooring at Chatham so it will only be the odd day out down the South coast, I will just have to take it easy, although my boat is only 2,852lbs + trailer (don't know that weight yet). I bought a portable electric winch (clips over tow hook) for it which seems a great bit if kit, it pulls 6000lbs so should be no problem pulling the boat onto the trailer or whatever other reason you need one. Only bought it becuase it looked good and I have heard of people breaking hands and wrists on the manual winches, this can just be a back up, I can use it from the boat with the remote control.

Boat details :-

Approx. Weight: 2852 lbs. (1283 kg.) w/5.7 GS Volvo Penta (mine a bit lighter maybe with 4.3 ?)
Cockpit Depth: 35-1/4” (.90 m.)
Transom Width: 90” (2.29 m.)
Transom Deadrise: 19 degrees
Draft (drive down): 33” (.84 m.)
Fuel Capacity: 45 gal. (170.3 L.)
Maximum Persons: 8 or 1150 lbs. (518 kg.)

Thanks for all the brilliant info, very exciting, 6 weeks today and I'm off in it.

P.S. Is there a special grease for trailers going in salty water? someone mentioned that you should smother the ends of the cables where they go in to stop water getting in. Bit worried about the trailer getting rusty, so after initial launch will have to hose it down well everywhere.

 

[Guest]

PM sent, cheers

 

[Renegade_Master]

Right now it goes like this "Chatham Marina Chatham Marina good morning this is (boat name) requesting your instructions to lock out over" they then come back and tell you to proceed on green light and moor stb or port side. Their pretty friendly staff Richard, Dan and I think its Rebecca. CGN

"Sun Coast Marine sea school in the sun"

 

[Guest]

Clive, I am doing my VHF course with the guy who has the training rib at the Marina, it is next Sunday. I will concentrate on the Mayday one first, may need it before I reach the lock gates to get out!! L.O.L.

 

[BarryH]

There is a grease made specifically for boat trailer bearings. Most good trailer/caravan shops stock it and most chandlers. Good idea to try and water proof the cable ends. but most nowdays have glands fitted to help stop the ingress of water. Basically you between the devil and the deep blue. Trailers don't like salt water, but thats where the boat normally goes.
I try to launch into fresh as much as poss. There's times that its just not possible

 

[Chris771]

Re: Launching

Have to agree with Barry here. I have learned many lessons with trailers over 20 years of towing boats.

Nowadays I never, ever put trailers into salt water. With my first couple of smaller boats I did and always had trouble with rust and seizing cables and short bearing life whatever I did, including using Aqualube Grease on most things.

My last trailer, an Indespension Roller Coaster 7 used with a few boats in the range of 7 to 7.3m was only ever immersed into fresh water (Launching into canal basin just inside sea lock) and after 10 years of use was still in near new condition.

When I brought present boat (Artic Fox - Beneteau 760 - about 3500 kg all up) home from Bangor last autumn there was simply no other consideration given - I just had the boat lifted out and hosed down to remove the salt water before putting her on to my new SBS 4 wheel trailer. That will never go into salt water, into fresh and even then I hose it off afterwards to get rid of any mud.

Bottom line based on 30 years experience of boating and over 20 in the oil industry is that steel and salt water do not mix well. there are various precautions you can take to slow corrosion, but once you get salt into the structure it will continue to fizz away whether immersed again or not. The humidity in our climate provides plenty of water to enable the electrolytic action of corrosion to take place.

For me it is fresh water......or ..... none. then again, if you intend to buy a new boat and trailer every couple of years it is not worth bothering, it will be someone else's problem.


Chris

 

[Guest]

Re: Launching

Hi,

I have the problem where i have bought a boat which includes commissioning (if that is the word) at a place to be agreed. I have now chosen Chatham MDL Marina, seem to be very nice people there, to keep the boat. I mentioned this to my dealer who wants to launch the boat at a nearby slipway to save the lifting fee of £80 - £90 or so from MDL. I was concerned that my brand new trailer will be submersed in sea water and the left in storage at MDL. I mentioned this to the dealer who states that the lifting fee would be down to me, I am in the position where I have to choose either to pay the lifting fee or spend a day washing, cleaning and greasing up the trailer after the launch. It sours the excitement of delivery somewhat, but is still a choice I have to make, what would you do? I did ask if the dealer could launch it on some old trailer and for me to take delivery of the new one, but they do not have an old one. Why on earth is there not a trailer that you can swap the road wheels with solid rubber wheels just for launching? I have got into this boating lark and find some very strange things going on that nobody seems to be getting a grip off, what is it with them? I am sure that with the brains on here we could all develop a trailer that did away with all that nonsense. To me it is TOTALY stupid to have to put up with the worry of a rusting trailer, they are not exactly that cheap either, but I guess the manufacturers love it, what interest would they have in making a trailer with a lifetime warranty?

 

[Chris771]

Re: Launching

Sounds like you are between a rock and a hard place there. Up here in the Northwest dealers seem happy enough that I had spent £60k on a boat not to even ask for money for putting it on it's trailer and setting it up for me.

Maybe Dickies are just nice people? If you really have to put trailer in salt water, then I think I would go to my local canal basin afterwards and give it another dunk in and out a couple of times. It is not only the wheel bearings and cables, salt will lie inside all the box section tubes and insidiously do it's thing over the years.

My Trailer cost £3k+ and that is quite a lot of lifts even if you do have to pay for the odd one. Some small dinghy trailers do have a little piggyback launch trolley, but that would be impossible with a big heavy boat. The other option of changing wheels/axles is not really practicable either.

So, I think if you have to immerse in the salty stuff, then just make a really good job of washing it with fresh water afterwards.

Developing a trailer with a lifetime warranty is also easier said than done. Using either stainless steel or aluminium would add very significantly to the cost. Stainless would also be very heavy and you would exceed the towing limit and aluminium is also subject to galvanic action and stress fractures over a long period. Probably some sort of easily worked composite in a few years ifs the best we can hope for.

With a boat trailer the main, and conflicting, criteria are that it needs to be both strong and as light as possible. To make it last another 20 years would mean thickening the gauge of the steel, then it would be overweight.

Think you'd better just wash it well, or move north and get a lift for £20 - £30.


Chris

 

[BarryH]

Re: Launching

One thing that I've done in the past is to coat the inside of the box sections with a good thick coating of Waxoyl. That and a good rinse through with the power washer once every six months or so.

The bearings and brakes just have to be stripped at regular intervals, cleaned, regreased and put back together. They should be looked at on a regular basis anyway and you soon become familiar with the layout and operation of the things, which can only be a good thing anyway.