Two Bears":23ilvuqf said:
Wow, Les, my education progresses. I've regularly pull a car hauler with electric trailer brakes, but never a boat. I really like the idea of in cab control. My truck is a 3/4 ton Chev which is overkill but nice. On the last leg home I hit snow on a long downgrade. The road had been warm, then the storm, snow and 26 degree temps left about 2 inches of packed ice with powder snow on top. I had truck in 4 wheel & creeping down but was really afraid the trailer brakes would apply, lock up and the trailer would jackknife. I really felt I had no control for a while (hours & weeks it seemed). I lucked out, but don't want to go there again.
My reading past trailer threads and discussion with the dealer left another question about trailer length. My present trailer does not come to the back of the boat so there is nothing for an outboard motor brace to brace against. I tie a piece of 2x6 between the shaft and the motor mount and drop the motor down on that for support. The Suzuki manual says to use a support, and not use the catch on the outboard. On our "walkabout" I hit several batches of bad road at speed that really threw the truck and trailer around. In the trailer threads I saw two mentions of getting an extended trailer (24'), but that comes with an (*) in the EZ Loader info sheet. Needed?? Another question: Weight. Looking at my single axle trailer on our trip it was very overloaded, but I never actually weighted it. On long trips like that it gets canned foods, lots of food and water and lots of gear and more fuel is left that I would have liked so I suspect it was much heaver than I normally think, so should I go for the 5200# weight?
Chuck
Hi Chuck,
I'm right there with you on liking in-cab control. Right now the only two choices are all-electric (RV-style) brakes or electric-over-hydraulic brakes (EOH), which also happens to make the choice between drum (all-electric) and disc (EOH) brakes.
Because electric brakes have been used forever in RV applications (and utility trailers, and car haulers, etc) they're cheap so they're offered (at least by EZ-Loader) for the same cost as surge hydraulic drum brakes.
Surge disc brakes aren't much more expensive but adding the electric controller is. It's easy for me to tell folks that it's the "best" system (from a mechanical and logical standpoint) but I'm not the one that has to write the check. And then there's the old "good enough". Hundreds of thousands of trailers (except boat trailers) have used electric drums brakes for eons, and they generally work. But there's also a reason most of us want to see disc brakes on our vehicles; they tend to work better. How much you're willing to spend to get the control you want is really up to you and what you perceive as "important" or even "better".
I have a hard time recommending RV-style all-electric brakes on full time saltwater trailers. Mostly because I'm conservative and we don't have years and years of use on that style brake yet. It may be that the Fulton brake system works out just fine but even for EZ-Loader only about 20% of the trailers equipped with brakes are all-electric; and those tend to be in inland areas.
I can hardily recommend the electric-over-hydraulic systems...just bring money (unfortunately). I wish the systems were a lot less expensive; if they were every trailer I sold (that required brakes) would have the EOH system on it for full in-cab control along with the performance of disc brakes.
If I were only launching and retrieving in saltwater on occasion I'd likely give the all-electric brakes a try. Since they're drum brakes I'd definitely order the trailer with the factory brake flush out system (if used in saltwater).
Onto the "controversial" engine support (man, this one is likely to get me in trouble :roll
:
Let me set the scenario...we have a trailer onto which we've placed our boat. Generally speaking the boat has some movement potential relative to the trailer depending on how it's tied down and what the roads are like. We also have an outboard (or two) on the transom of our boat. It's firmly bolted to the transom so it moves with the hull (if the hull moves).
So what we create with an engine support is a triangle made up of the hull/engine, the trailer, and the support. So if the boat moves (and it will) all the load from that movement is directed through the engine support to the lower leg of the outboard (and therefore to the outboard's hydraulic system). How is this a good thing? I don't think it is and I've never recommended the supports.
When an outboard is tilted all the way up (particularly the 4-strokes) most of the weight it transferred forward ahead of the transom. There's typically less that 15 to 20 pounds of weight on the lower unit with the engine full tilted. I don't understand a manufacturer not having supports on the engine that will deal with that amount of weight.
But...if that's the case and the manufacturer recommends a support (or you just really want one) I'd recommend doing two things. First, tie the boat down better. Transom straps rarely keep the boat
down because they're at an angle. In order to hold a boat down the strap must be at 90 degrees. That's why I always use a gunnel strap rather than transom straps. And two...once the engine is tilted and placed on the support, release the hydraulic pressure (usually accomplished by turning a screw on the side of the engine's mounting bracket) on the engine. That way the engine can "float" and any shock transmitted by the movement of the boat and trailer will not be directed to the engine's hydraulic trim/tilt system. Of course you need to make sure that the support holds the engine's lower unit down as well so that it can't bounce up.
Trailer size:
The difference between the 4700 and 5200 EZ-Loader 19-22/24 is the winch stand; the frame, tires, and axle are the same. There's about $85 difference between them so it's really your choice.
The 19-22/24 designation means that the standard trailer has a tongue length designed to accommodate a 19 to 22 foot boat. the /24 means that the trailer can be ordered with a 2' longer tongue to accommodate a 24' boat but regardless the trailer frame itself is the same; it's only the tongue length that changes. I've not usually ordered the 24' long version for the C-Dory 22 because it's not needed to fit the boat but some folks like a bit of extra length and it's not an expensive addition.
If you're current single axle trailer is a 3700# model you really shouldn't be too much up against it. The boat hull starts out right around 2000 pounds (depending on year, interior, etc) and typically you'd add about 800 pounds for engine, batteries, rigging, and accessories bringing the total to 2800 pounds. That would leave you 900 pounds for fuel, water, and gear; not impossible but that's a lot of stuff!
On long trips tandem axle trailers are usually preferred as they track and ride better in addition to having the benefit of four tires on the ground (in case of a flat or in case of an emergency stop). We used to spec the 4000 pound EZ-Loader tandem (no longer available) so really the 4700 is a lot more than you really need.
Sorry this got so doggone long...
Les
