old boat trailer
I was thinking about using an old boat trailer (15’) for a camping/canoe trailer. The suspension is usually leaf spring on these. As I read the previous threads I am worried about the canoes surviving the ride. Anybody uses such a trailer or see why this would not work? Great topic.
boat trailer for canoes
It will work, and it will be jumping at every bounce, transfering that shock to your canoes. Think if the shock will harm your canoes- Royalx should be fine, but I wouldn’t use a stock leaf spring boat trailer with wood canvas or lapstrake canoes. Boat trailers can be modified to reduce shock, see my post above.
Dave
Depends on the weight
Trailex says no more than 15 psi for the model I have. Combined weight of boat and trailer is maybe 150 lbs, about 20 of that is on the hitch, so only 65 on each tire. Even at 10 psi they look and feel completely inflated, certainly the sidewalls are not bulging at the bottom at all.
Mike
Yup…
and don’t try what I did. The 15# recommendation struck me as too low to avoid excessive tire heat on the freeway so I pumped 'em up to 25psi. Boy, did that puppy bounce around!
I switched mine to 12" wheels, available at any RV/marine outlet, and the improvement was rather dramatic. Smoothed the ride out quite a bit and the extra clearance helped offroad.
Take care.
Holmes
The “cheap crude leaf spring” is the way
to go if you want a properly sprung trailer for the load. Leaf springs are so easy to adjust that with a little common sense you can probably do it yourself. Removing bottom leaf or two is very simple. Then fine tune with tire pressure. AND you can easily reverse the situation by putting back the removed leafs.
The sophisticated (is that the opposite of cheap crude?) coil and torsion bar springs are almost always over stiff for light applications. As these are so over sprung adjusting tire pressure does little. There is very little you can do about it other than replace the whole axle. A little expensive and beyond most of our skills when welded on.
Hope this is clarifying and helpful.
:^)
Mick
Can be bad, real bad.
Watched helplessly as one of these beat a canoe to death on the road ahead of me. The problem is not enough selection in weight settings. 750 was too light as trailer weighed 750. 2000 axle was too heavy as canoes only weighed 50 pounds X6 loaded. The trailer was under loaded/over sprung about 1,000 pounds!!! All that extra force was transmitted to the canoes. Two were severly damaged. Other four slightly damaged. None escaped!
:^)
Mick
boat trailer
I’m using one when I haul more than two boats.
Consider how you pad your paddle boat.
The springs are definately too stiff, even when you reduce to the minimum amount of leaf spring.
One can still absorb shock to the boat with proper, maybe even excessive padding. I’m using 2" of close cell foam w/ canvas and mastic covering.
The trailer seems well behaved, even over railroad crossings, but I feel much better with a fat foam cushion on the 'yaks.
Seems to work for us.
By the way, the whole setup with new tires is still less $ than a new Yakima rack with cradles…
Check out
the custom made trailer on this website. mrtp.net
it’s small holds up to 8 kayaks and the rack comes off easy and you can put a boat on the trailer. Or the rack can be made to fit another trailer if you already have one. Rack and trailer is under a grand. I own one and love mine. Good luck with which ever you go with
Shawn
Trailer
Nice looking unit at that site. For me, I am still planning to get the trailer from Rufus.
Tail lights/Turn Signals
DOT requires tail lights and turn signals to be no more that 18" from the rear of the tow. This means if the kayak is hanging 2’ over the rear of the trailer, it is not in compliance.
Envision being rear-ended and having a couple boats destroyed, and then be judged “at fault” because the trailer lights were not in compliance.
Then your insurance can deny your claim too.
I think a trailer is a great idea, but one has to look at all the angles.
Hmmm
– Last Updated: Apr-30-06 5:44 PM EST –
You know how to ruin a day...So, what kind of trailer would be good for kayaks up to 18'?
Just called mrtp.net and they say the trailer they use is for a 17 foot boat, so I guess you could go up to 20 feet and be good with theirs.
Rufus
who is Rufus.
regarding the tail light, isn’t there a unit out there that attaches to the end of whatever you are carrying? seems like a simple solution to me anyway.
Paul
Rufus is just another kayaking
enthusiast that has a trailer he built for sale in the Classifed Ads.
Where did you read that?
I thought most states allowed four feet, and that’s what the CastleCraft site says too.
Mike
It’s four feet in my state
Never heard of an 18" requirement.
Troll?
Yep, it’s the law
I have the Harbor Fright trailer for my kayaks and I checked with the local LEOs about the overhang. They said 18" max. I went to a local truckstop and got an LED stop/taillight, mounted it to an aluminum tube, and bolted it to the trailer with U-bolts. This allows me to extend the tube when the boats are on the trailer and then retract the light when I’m hauling over stuff or empty.
I’m still trying to work out the spring rates but I’ll get it figured out eventually.
Google Search
– Last Updated: May-02-06 8:18 AM EST –
Did a google on "trailer overhang limit" and got this for Texas: http://www.dot.state.tx.us/MCD/onestop/size&weight.htm 3' in front and 4' in back.
Here it is for Virginia: http://www.dmv.virginia.gov/webdoc/citizen/hauling.asp same requirement as Texas. I got this by adding "Virginia" to my search at the end.
I was searching as well
found a few US DOT documents that had the 4-foot rear, 3-foot front spec and said no state was allowed to set the limits any less than that. It was written in the usual government language so I wasn’t completely sure if that’s what it meant, though it seemed like it. Found nothing in any NY State documents about it.
As a practical consideration, I do worry about the overhang, which in my case is about 2.5 feet. I hang a flag on the stern of the boat for whatever it’s worth. And I do worry about being rear ended, and having the boat spear into my car (I hope it shatters and crumples before it gets too far inside). If I had to drive through a lot of urban or suburban sprawl to get where I was going I probably wouldn’t be doing it this way. Fortunately I don’t have to deal with that.
Mike
Thanks
I think this last post with what I found puts the legal requirement to rest. I really liked the suggestion that if you exceed that just create an extendable mounting that has additional lights on them. That should solve anyone’s concerns if they want to be 100% legal, like me, as I am an attorney …
Hmmmm
I tried to find where I read 18" and couldn’t come up with it, so I guess I am just full of it.
Sometime we retain bad information- sorry to create any false concerns.