To trailer or not to trailer...

M

mailbox101

New member
I am finally taking delivery in the next few days, and am using the remaining time to second guess myself. Saving money by not getting a trailer seemed an easy choice at the time as I live in an area that has many miles of delta and ocean coast to explore. Now I wonder if I am just being stupid by buying a trailerable trawler without a trailer. The main trade-offs is that I lose Tahoe and would have to motor up or down the coast if I want to explore Northern CA or the LA/San Diego area rather then towing there and exploring from there. Financially I see the pros and cons as listed below, but wonder what else I am missing. I also wonder if there are any places that rent boat trailers and whether that might be a better option. Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

Pros
Higher resale price.
Cheaper fuel at gas station.
Can resell to people further away.
No haul fees for maintenance.

Cons
Higher initial cost.
Storage fees, registration, and insurance.
Higher used price - harder to resell.
Additional registration and maintenance of trailer.

Thanks,
David

PS If this subject has already been banged out and I just missed it in the archives then please steer me towards it.
 
If you already have the tow vehicle ,Get the trailer now they will set the boat up for you .I just bought a Alum tandem trailer 5000lb for a venture 23 ($3500).The 26 will cost about $4000-4500 you can put this right in with your bank loan . And if you don't have a second home you can write the interest off.

The trailer will allow you to go to many of the Gatherings which you would not do without one . Yes resale will be more fuel cost will be less and maybe your boat ins .might be less because you can pull the boat out if there is a storm coming . Good Luck with your decision
 
Lake Tahoe,Lake Shasta,the Delta, Catalina ,Lake Powell etc...... Trailers get more expensive about 2-3 times a year . If you decide you want one later , it will cost more as the raw materials get shipped elsewhere and the price goes up . I would get one !!
Marc
 
Only you can decide if a wandering cruising style fits your needs. When we are home, we put the trailer in storage and mostly day-trip. And it's very enjoyable. BUT, the best part (for us) about these boats is the fact that they are easily trailerable. We've cruised all over the country and that wouldn't have been possible without trailering. Since you did ask for advice, I'm all about the trailerability of these boats.

Good luck with your decision, and welcome aboard.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Lots of good advice here already!

You will NOT want to go up and down the California coast to LA and San Diego in a a C-Dory or Ranger Tug! The ocean out there is frequently rough, with even 40 foot and larger boats taking a pounding, and there are very few sheltered harbors between Monterey and Santa Barbara. We had a thread on this about a year ago and there was universal agreement on this!

Also, the con "Higher used price - harder to resell. " is well offset by the larger market available to sell a trailerable boat to, and most people buying a used boat want a trailer, anyway!

Trailering opens up a whole new vastly expanded area to cruise your boat, and the boat can be used to stay in overnight when traveling: "Boaterhoming" we call it!

Buy the trailer, you'll be glad you did!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
I use my trailer maybe 3 times a year and it's still worth it! The convenience of being able to pull your boat from the water for a number of reasons is critical in my opinion. It's also a major hassle when you go to sell it. You will have a much better chance of selling with a trailer vs. not.
 
If you own waterfront property in California and don't have to pay slip fees, no trailer makes a little sense - though if you own waterfront property in California you can damn well afford a trailer even in today's economy....

Seriously, where in CA can you find a good salt water marina with slip fees that won't eat up the cost of a trailer in a couple of years?

Don
 
You are gettng your boat and that is a great start, and if you have much water around you that should allow you to have a great time on your boat. But, ....getting out with others and traveling their waters with others is fun, ya meet some great folks. Take and draw a 500 mile circle around where you live/store your boat. That opens up much, much great opportunities even for long weekend trips!!

I guess it is sort of like buying a pair of blue jeans,...and not getting a belt or suspenders. When ya get'm out of the wash they are fine for a little while without a belt...but, not long there after,....you get'm "wallered" out a bit...and a belt/suspenders would be great to have. Same thing happens with boats....particuarly if you snoop around on this site much....you will want to go to the events and be with the others. It is a blast!!!

Good point made about getting it worked into your loan but if no loan is involved, but as stated...they are not going down in price. Hauling out for maintenance is not far off unless they are going to perform maintenance on a wash stand at a storage facility. Generally around 20-25 hours on a new motor, then in about 100 hours... and that is just the general motor maintenance. If something breaks, and things often do...what is the agreement you have with the dealership as far as them coming to the boat to fix it?? Ponder a bit on some links and just realize the things that folks get done at their dealership after they have had thier boats out for a good full weekend trip. You will need some work done, and if you do not, you will be one of the first owners in history to not need something fixed. OK...a lot of the time it is minor stuf, and some of us had rather fix it ourselves, or re-work something ourselves to a different standard than the factory QC or dealership QC had....but others do not... You have to be honest with where you will be on this.

Now anyone could just ponder "Wild Blue" travel log over the last ...18ish months....and WOW...only about 95% of that would not have been possible without the trailer, the cat or the Blonde. (Hi!!)....and several other boats on our site too.

In the last 12 months I have been in Pugent Sound waters, Gulf Coast waters, mid-east coast waters in the Carolinas, the Chesapeake Bay NE waters, and much time on the Cumberland River system. Yep, a trailer for me please...and a good one.

If you are going to leave the boat in a slip...check out some other links on this site for bottom paint/epoxy for the bottom of your hull.

Be honest with yourself that this is a new boat, it will need something fixed, it will need regular maintenance...and just have a plan for that if you do not have a trailer. Have a known good maintenance plan...and realize that not all dealerships that are dealerships today, will be a dealership at the time you need your boat work done. Some and/or most of that could be figured out already as to where and how you store your boat.

The Boathouse where I keep one of my boats on a wash stand indoors using fork lifts to put the boat in/out of the water has on site maintenance, and, my motor shop also does "out calls."....but at some point...some time...you will have to take the boat somewhere for some work...more than likely.

Some at our marina have the same type hulls, so 2 or 3 of them "share" the same trailer, or rent it from who ever owns it. There is also maintenance on the trailers too, and you do not want to be the guy who you only hear from when ya need something.

Just something to ponder while waiting on your deal to go thru.

Enjoy your boat and welcome to the C-Brats!

Byrdman
 
Hey Mailbox 101, though I do not have a C-Dory yet, I have been monitoring this site now for many years. (At least 2004) It seems to me that the major allure of the C-Dory is its portability. You have done well in your pros and cons. Ooops, several other responses have come in while I was pondering a response. Byrdman and Sneaks covered my points. The did it with better aplumb than I would have.

To sum it up, you should ask yourself, in two years, am I going to tell myself more often, "Darn, I should have bought the trailer" or "Boy, I sure am glad that I did not get into that boat anchor" (meaning the trailer)? I suspect that the answer will be "I should have bought the trailer." If so, just go w/ the trailer now. An additional point would be that you will be covered in case of the unexpected. We see it all of the time. Someone gets into the boat and then something changes and you need to resell in a non-timely manner. If you have the trailer, it will already be there and you will realize top resell.

Just my two pennys adjusted for a very large buy out. I wonder if the Gov'ment will cover part of those two pennys for me?.

Sam
 
Our 16 footer lives on the trailer, although right now it is in a slip about 35 miles from home. It will be there for about a month and a half. We like to get a slip for a short time, before and after the busy summer season. Usually we put an ad for a sublease running on Craigs list and get what we want at a fair price. The rest of the year we keep her safe and clean under cover, on the trailer, at home. We might put in at a ramp once a week for $5 or $10. Also we will trailer to C-Brat get togethers 2 or 3 times a year. Then, once a year, it's off to our service place about 70 miles away (EQ Marine).
For us the plusses of having a trailer far outweigh the minuses, and in the somewhat longer run, it saves money.
 
Get a trailer.

1) Much cheaper to store the boat in your back yard than an expensive slip.

2) Easier to fiddle with your boat in your own back yard.

3) Less corrosion, electrolysis and wear and tear on the boat when it lives on the trailer vs a slip.

5) Cheaper fuel.

5) Portability..(that's one big reason you bought a trailer boat, right ?) Do you want to do the same trip over and over?



With that said, there might be some negatives for you.

1) You will need an adequate tow vehicle, for a 26 that will probably mean something with an 8500# tow rating (you have to add the weight of the boat, trailer and contents. This is a major $$$ expense if you don't already have a capable vehicle. This should be a consideration BEFORE you buy a heavy boat.

2) You might not be comfortable with towing.

Have fun with it!

...Roy
 
Count another vote For the trailer! If you figure the cost of bottom paint and it's maintenance alone, the trailer makes good monetary sense. I hate to think of the things we would have missed seeing if not for the trailerability of our boat.

Even towing a 10,000# plus load is worth the effort. You won't necessarily need a Diesel for your boat, but it wouldn't hurt.
 
Joe Said:
Also, the con "Higher used price - harder to resell. " is well offset by the larger market available to sell a trailerable boat to, and most people buying a used boat want a trailer, anyway!
Click to expand...

That's the best reason to buy a trailer if you are not serious about keeping the boat. If you are going to keep it, then availability for maintenance houlouts and travel are the next best reasons to have one.

Lots of good advice already, from many well experienced boaters.

Best all around advice is from Byrdman: "figure out how you are going to use the boat. What are you going to do with it?" and then look at how a trailer fits into that need.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
You're in California, I see. We went from a non-trailerable boat (shipping cost $4000) to a trailerable boat. And let me tell you several of the advantages:

1. They're not building more slips in Calif. Slip costs are going up every year. In San Diego, with exceptions, they're ~$10/ft/mo or $250/mo. And every politician wants to tax those rich slip holders. A tax on a hole in the water.

2. The maintenance is lower, Your boat isn't in salt water, and requires less maintenance. Such as bottom paint. Journey On has bottom paint, but it lasts for years, and doesn't need to be cleaned every month. Not as much corrosion from salt.

3. It's at home. You can work on it without going to the marina. In our case that's 50 miles to the nearest available marina. We had to pour a pad for our boat, but not everybody has to do that.

4. Travel. This year, we did the inverse of your trip, San Diego to San Francisco Bay. The travelogue is at : Journey On's Travels We stopped at Catalina Island, the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, and San Francisco Bay. Each part of the trip took a couple of hours, instead of days. And as mentioned above, going from Pacifica around Pt. Conception is not a good idea in a 25' boat.

That trailer is relatively cheap, and in the long and short run will pay for itself.

Boris
 
I will also agree that you need to buy the trailer, unless you have it in a dry storage, and are only going to use it in one place. Forget the idea of running to San Diego or the Channel Islands. Only once have I had weather going South from San Franscisco which would be conducive to doing the trip in a C Dory. It is not unusual to find 50 knots and 10 to 15 foot steep seas at Pt. Conception and Pt. Arguello. Just going to Catalina from Long Beach, would be a bit rougher than most folks want to do in the afernoon, with 17 to 20 knots of breeze!

You will probably want a 3/4 ton truck for the 26 footer. So consider the costs of a tow vehicle--diesel is desirable for the torque, but the larger gas engines can handle the load. Diesel is 30% more effecient--but the fuel costs more by up to a dollar a gallon.
 
Thank you to everybody who took the time to reply here and in the PMs. Just for the record that makes 16 for and 0 against, including an offer to sell me one at a very reasonable price. Particularly thank you to Byrdman for his comment about buying a pair of blue jeans and being honest with myself about how I will be using the boat.

It's amazing how much sales pressure there is to get everything for the boat right away. Just the other day I discovered that the 'must have' list of electronics runs $10k - $15k, despite the fact that I have always been happy with a map and compass and taking sightings off the shore. When I posted, I thought the choice was whether of not to take the one the dealer was offering, and to decide quick, before delivery date, yes or no.

After reading the responses, I can see that a trailer is more then an accessory, it is a component of the boat, enabling it to reach it's full potential. Choosing one should not be done as an afterthought, merely grabbing an accessory, but should be an careful, deliberate, independent decision in order to make sure that I end up with the trailer that is right for me. Fortunately, there is a ton of material in the archive here to help me with that.

Once again, thank you very much.

David
 
David,

Congrats on your new boat, and I hope you have much fun with it. I am not sure what was recommended to you for electronics, but the $$ seem quite high, even if the dealer/supplier does the installation. I believe your approach of adding it when you need it is fine...

Steve
 
mailbox101-

You're going to want to have your hands on that new boat all the time for the first year or two you own it, just to look at it, think about it, do the modifications you want, and ready it up for trips.

Later, after you've got it all set up, you may want to leave it in a slip in a marina, but working on a boat that's remote from your home is much harder than having it on a trailer in the driveway or in your garage. All your tools and materials are right there at home, and you never know what all you'll need to complete the job.

I get just as much fun out of having the boat home to work on it as I do cruising around, and I can do it for 10 minutes or 10 hours, and whenever I want, not having to travel to it and commit to a half-day, day -long, or weekend period to do it.

More reasons to have that trailer!

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
No such luck here. I live on a steep hillside. Even my driveway is above grade, and it's not even big enough for my 16' Gregor. The consolation prize is that at least the marina is only about 10 minutes away, and they do have trailer storage.

My old boat is 74 years old and required a lot of upkeep so I got a second set of tools to keep dockside. Got cheap ones too so I don't get upset when they become corroded from being dropped in the bilge one too many times.

Anyway, thanks for the thought.

David
 
My boat is in a marina five to eight minutes away. I love it, especially when the salmon are in and there is a one plus hour line at the launch for launching in or hauling out. I use my boat more and get to use it more per day because time is not lost launching or retrieving it.

That said, I love my trailer. It is a super heavy duty galvanized model (yes, aluminum is better, just ask the Florida guys) with tandem axles and it hauls the boat great, steady for hundreds of miles increasing my usability and flexibility of the whole system. You'll need at least a 3/4 ton truck and if you don't have one, you bought too much boat or you'd better be prepared to pay through the nose for marina accessed repairs (which as Patrick said, are inevitable). The trailers too take maintainence and that must be upkept or you'll regret it. Still, for repairs in the off season, and especially DURING the SEASON, for tinkering in the yard, a trailer is a great thing to have. Of course, so is a circular driveway and a shelter large enough to hold your boat on its trailer...... oh the costs of our addictions. CW.
 
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