quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
A new to me boat is in the near future. Before your tell me, I already know what BOAT stands for. The boat is 23' pontoon and will be docked at a local river.

Anyway, the boat does not have a trailer and is 600 miles away. I am debating whether or not buy a trailer.

Moraine?

I'd buy the trailer. Before we talk about the trailer, do have a full size truck or SUV big enough to pull the trailer? 4WD is really helpful launching on boat ramps where the back wheels might be in slippery moss and spin. Launching is typically 2 person job with BOTH parties knowing what they are doing because things can go wrong.

One of the funniest afternoons I ever spent was at a dockside bar on 4th of July at lake Texoma watching couples scream at each other while launching boats after a day of drinking. A bunch of people didn't know what they were doing and it was hilarious to watch with an audience of 200. On the flip side I watched one 38 footer pull up, the boyfriend went to get truck trailer and I instantly realized it was the chicks boat as she expertly loaded it on the trailer.

Watching a big yellow 1970s Cadillac with a trailer go under water on a fishing trip as 10 year old is forever seared in my mind! Go out with someone who knows what they are doing a few times.

Always have said the best entertainment for money spent is a lawn chair and a case of beer and go set near a boat ramp!

I'll try to answer some more of your questions.

I have a capable tow vehicle. Ford F150.

The boat will be kept in the water at the marina during the season. Walk down, untie and set sail.

The trailer I am looking at is new, not used, so it should not require much in maintenance costs for the first few years.

I do not have a space to store the trailer. I will have a few options and it will probably cost between $100-200 a season for storage.

During the winter the boat will be kept in indoor storage. Either stored by the marina or there are a couple underground mine storage locations within an hour and half drive. Cost will be between $55-100 a month for the mine. Im still waiting to get marina pricing.

If I have a trailer the boat may be taken out once or twice a year to use at another location.

I also had the thought if I buy the trailer and after a year or two I realize I am not using it I could always try to to sell.

What type of trailer, bunk or crank up needs to be considered also. I went with a crank up and they are really narrow. Watching that thing tilt back and forth going down the road always made me nervous. Never had an issue, just felt weird.

Do you have a truck large enough to haul the trailer and boat?

Speaking of boat trailers, China bombed my trip to Michigan today.

Pay extra for good tires. Have a spare, a means to jack up the trailer, jackstands, and breaker bar with the socket for the lug nuts. Check the lugnuts after 50 miles of driving.

Just skimmed through, some people mostly boat at one location, others move around. Say near Atlanta one was targeting Lake Lanier(sp?), never planned anywhere else. In that instance one could pay a service to take it out of the lake.

Say one also lived in a condo, no place to park the boat & trailer.

Then there’s the issue of maintenance, cleaning & fiddling. If away, off site, harder to do. Yeah, back to the tow vehicle, is that already covered?

I say it all depends.

A 23' pontoon is pretty portable. At some point, you're going to say, "Gee, I wish I bought that trailer."

Even if it's just to drop it in Lake Erie for a day or 2.

quote:

Originally posted by Roady toady:
What type of trailer, bunk or crank up needs to be considered also. I went with a crank up and they are really narrow. Watching that thing tilt back and forth going down the road always made me nervous. Never had an issue, just felt weird.

I have the same concerns. Those narrow ones are a recipe for disaster, grinding a hole through your pontoon is far easier than it seems. Around here a skilled aluminum welder can stay busy in the spring patching up pontoons.

A simple question about track width is warranted. Something like 4’ have it delivered. That narrow thing is suitable for local moves if you are careful and don’t have any strange off angle approaches and take care around turns.

I think owning a trailer is a big plus because it gives you the opportunity to move the boat wherever/whenever you desire to move it without the hassle of paying someone else to move it. A trailer allows you to pull the boat out of the water to clean it, perform maintenance, move it from one body of water to another at your convenience.

I lived this decision path earlier this year.

Lost my 80 year old maternal uncle to cancer. He passed and my aunt was left with a number of challenges- the boat was a major pain because of no trailer. Their daughter was not mechanical and knew nothing whatsoever about it, plus the boat was on a lake two hours away from my aunt.

It was a nice, well-maintained older 27 foot twin engine cruiser.
Problem was- my uncle had winterized it and it had several battery cut offs and the boat had multiple covers plus a full custom cover.

It was moored at an unmentioned lake marina where they had “rules" about who could work on boats, and owners were not allowed to do own maintenance, blah blah.

And it was dead winter and I couldn’t get down there for the time required to resolve things until later.

She hired one marine mechanic who couldn’t “find" the battery cutoffs (you know what was going on there) and so the engines could not be started and that was a problem.

Therefore it became a major money trap. I was 17 hours away. Getting anything done turned out to be a PITA and expensive.

An original trailer would have resolved the problem virtually immediately as I would have pulled out the boat and moved it away to their property and ended the slip rent. (Supposedly there were no suitable rental trailers available locally at the time).

I grew up living by the water and cannot comprehend not having a boat trailer when possible.

She ended up donating the boat and there was still whining because of the no-trailer situation.

Pay the lic.,bonded ,insured guy to tow it.
No one wants to look at your empty trailer.
(

It's only money)