If you are just towing local this stuff may not be that benificial in the long run. Due to tires dryrotting and brakes rusting over time instead of wearing out from thousands of towed miles. However most CD owners initially think local waters. When they find out the CD can tow great distances and we live in the greatest country on earth with freedom to roam they venture further than originaly planned. SO, I would recommend the best trailer set-up if your budget allows. Both for your safety and LESS towing stress on you and of course accident avoidance. Better to have good brakes and live to boat the same day. Instead of filling out accident reports, insurance forms and having your boating plans interupted. The value of your trailer will be worth more should you decide to upgrade to a bigger boat in the future.
Radial tires for sure are the way to go. Smoother, quieter, cooler running, longer lasting. Especially on rubber melting HOT southern roads and in extreme northern cold offers greater rubber flex. I have a tandem trailer that had bias tires on all axles. I replaced them when I got the rig with more bias ply tires. I then began to swap to radials after getting educated. I now have two radials on the front axle and two bias tires on the rear. ( On a normal vehicle you shouldnt mix radials and bias ply tires). After just a few thousand miles the difference between the types of tire is easily seen. The bias have dramatic wear compared to the new looking radials. These tires are balanced as all tires should be. Insist yours get balanced. Lots of tire guys feel it is uneccesary on trailer tires. An unbalanced tire just hammers your suspension at freeway speeds and is not good for the tire.
Recommend 14" tires. For some reason lots of places don't stock the 13" tire. Slight benifits include: A better quality tire and a greater brand selection, Easier to find especially in remote areas, Less revolutions PER MILE allows the tire to run cooler and last longer, the same benifit is passed on to the trailer axle bearings for the same reason. A bigger tire will scrub less in a tight turn. A 14" tire can be had with greater load capacity than a 13" tire lasting longer and hopefully preventing failure on the road.
You might have to back the boat a dab further in the water but I feel a moot point when you consider the benifits.
Recommend dual axle brakes. Look close at every boat trailer you see and you will notice variations. Disk or drum brakes. Brakes on the rear axle? Brakes on the front axle? Brakes on both axles? No brakes at all? Surge brakes? Electric over hydralic?
In general most of the weight is over the front axle. When they put the brakes on the back axle they are lightly loaded. The result is they are very easy to lock up and slide, but they really don't do a great job of stopping anything. Once A light turned from red, to green and then right back to red. My trailer did a very looooooong skid when I moderatly smacked the brakes. The truck had way more braking reserve to stop me but the point here is the trailer brakes are smoking and I am barly slowing down. And this was on a dead flat DRY stretch of road. Another instance: I am tooling down the highway at 65mph, nightime. Dead flat highway. WAY up ahead I see a van ( he rode my blind spot forever before he passed me). Pull over into the breakdown lane. Traffic on my left so I can't move to the fast lane to give him some room. So I just lift off the gas and coast. Just before we get to the van he makes a sharp left turn across all lanes of traffic and down thru the medium. Again hammer the brakes, anti-lock rear brakes locked, lots of smoke and we do the slide for life. That dipstick almost killed us. No time to soil myself.
Brakes on the front axle are generally better at stopping simply becuase more weight pushes down on the tires
Brakes on both axles are as good as it gets. You want the trailer to stop the trailer and the truck brakes to stop the truck. The benifit here is that ALL your brakes will last longer. Ford trucks for example have fantastic brakes with excellent stopping power. However, if you hammer the brakes the front rotors on the truck get very hot. Ford rotors are prone to warping easily. That is the pulsation you feel in the brake pedal when you lightly push the brake pedal when slowing down. So, pay now for extra brakes on the trailer, have better braking power all around, and save money by not warping the tow vehicles front rotors.
Remember on a steep down hill another job of trailer brakes is to prevent a jacknife. The tow vehicle can almost always stop better than the trailer. The trailer brakes is what keeps the trailer from passing the tow vehicle on a down hill panick stop. This situation is made worse when the road is wet, snowy or icy. Again tandem brakes is the best set-up.
Radial tires for sure are the way to go. Smoother, quieter, cooler running, longer lasting. Especially on rubber melting HOT southern roads and in extreme northern cold offers greater rubber flex. I have a tandem trailer that had bias tires on all axles. I replaced them when I got the rig with more bias ply tires. I then began to swap to radials after getting educated. I now have two radials on the front axle and two bias tires on the rear. ( On a normal vehicle you shouldnt mix radials and bias ply tires). After just a few thousand miles the difference between the types of tire is easily seen. The bias have dramatic wear compared to the new looking radials. These tires are balanced as all tires should be. Insist yours get balanced. Lots of tire guys feel it is uneccesary on trailer tires. An unbalanced tire just hammers your suspension at freeway speeds and is not good for the tire.
Recommend 14" tires. For some reason lots of places don't stock the 13" tire. Slight benifits include: A better quality tire and a greater brand selection, Easier to find especially in remote areas, Less revolutions PER MILE allows the tire to run cooler and last longer, the same benifit is passed on to the trailer axle bearings for the same reason. A bigger tire will scrub less in a tight turn. A 14" tire can be had with greater load capacity than a 13" tire lasting longer and hopefully preventing failure on the road.
You might have to back the boat a dab further in the water but I feel a moot point when you consider the benifits.
Recommend dual axle brakes. Look close at every boat trailer you see and you will notice variations. Disk or drum brakes. Brakes on the rear axle? Brakes on the front axle? Brakes on both axles? No brakes at all? Surge brakes? Electric over hydralic?
In general most of the weight is over the front axle. When they put the brakes on the back axle they are lightly loaded. The result is they are very easy to lock up and slide, but they really don't do a great job of stopping anything. Once A light turned from red, to green and then right back to red. My trailer did a very looooooong skid when I moderatly smacked the brakes. The truck had way more braking reserve to stop me but the point here is the trailer brakes are smoking and I am barly slowing down. And this was on a dead flat DRY stretch of road. Another instance: I am tooling down the highway at 65mph, nightime. Dead flat highway. WAY up ahead I see a van ( he rode my blind spot forever before he passed me). Pull over into the breakdown lane. Traffic on my left so I can't move to the fast lane to give him some room. So I just lift off the gas and coast. Just before we get to the van he makes a sharp left turn across all lanes of traffic and down thru the medium. Again hammer the brakes, anti-lock rear brakes locked, lots of smoke and we do the slide for life. That dipstick almost killed us. No time to soil myself.
Brakes on the front axle are generally better at stopping simply becuase more weight pushes down on the tires
Brakes on both axles are as good as it gets. You want the trailer to stop the trailer and the truck brakes to stop the truck. The benifit here is that ALL your brakes will last longer. Ford trucks for example have fantastic brakes with excellent stopping power. However, if you hammer the brakes the front rotors on the truck get very hot. Ford rotors are prone to warping easily. That is the pulsation you feel in the brake pedal when you lightly push the brake pedal when slowing down. So, pay now for extra brakes on the trailer, have better braking power all around, and save money by not warping the tow vehicles front rotors.
Remember on a steep down hill another job of trailer brakes is to prevent a jacknife. The tow vehicle can almost always stop better than the trailer. The trailer brakes is what keeps the trailer from passing the tow vehicle on a down hill panick stop. This situation is made worse when the road is wet, snowy or icy. Again tandem brakes is the best set-up.
