Thinking About a Boat

gkainz said:
following this thread has pretty much convinced me that those times I get a wild crazy inkling of that urge to "buy a boat" I would be better off to sit down and drink a beer until the urge passes ...
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Having a boat brought much enjoyment. Can't even guess the amount of time on the rivers and lakes me and my best friend spent fishing.
 
Henning said:
For salt water boats and fishing/diving gear, Salt-X is a wonderful substance, a little bit goes a long way too.
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Thanks I have never heard of that. Right now I use salt-away with a garden hose attachment that mixes it into a spray. It looks like that salt-x is about 30-40% less expensive and does the same thing.

Salt is a *****. Spend a lot of $$ on fluid film, corrosion-x and salt away.
 
dell30rb said:
Thanks I have never heard of that. Right now I use salt-away with a garden hose attachment that mixes it into a spray. It looks like that salt-x is about 30-40% less expensive and does the same thing.

Salt is a *****. Spend a lot of $$ on fluid film, corrosion-x and salt away.
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Yeah, same stuff really, one just has better marketing. For dive and fishing gear we would just take a big Rubbermaid water trough meant for livestock, fill it wth water and a cap full of Salt-X and throw everything in it, or mix up a bit in a spray bottle with water and just spray everything down then rinse it after a few minutes. Makes a big difference.
 
jesse said:
I think we just need to trade the Sierra for a fancy boat with the horsepower for water sports. Keep it at the lake in the summer. I'll split the dock fees.
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Just fly down here and borrow mine. We'll call it a test drive. :)
 
jesse said:
I think we just need to trade the Sierra for a fancy boat with the horsepower for water sports. Keep it at the lake in the summer. I'll split the dock fees.
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Maintaining a boat in the water vs maintaining a trailer is a pretty even trade of hassles.
 
Henning said:
Maintaining a boat in the water vs maintaining a trailer is a pretty even trade of hassles.
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Yeah, for me it's just a matter of convenience really. With the size of my boat I'll just keep trailering. But, if I got a whole lot bigger, I'd bite the bullet and leave it in the water in the summer.

Being able to drop by with the motorcycle on an evening and cruise around for a bit would be a nice feature compared to heading out to the airport, picking up the trailer, burning ten thousands gallons of gas, then having to reverse that whole process at the end of the evening.
 
jesse said:
Yeah, for me it's just a matter of convenience really. With the size of my boat I'll just keep trailering. But, if I got a whole lot bigger, I'd bite the bullet and leave it in the water in the summer.

Being able to drop by with the motorcycle on an evening and cruise around for a bit would be a nice feature compared to heading out to the airport, picking up the trailer, burning ten thousands gallons of gas, then having to reverse that whole process at the end of the evening.
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There is definitely a convenience factor in keeping it in the water, but you pay for that convenience at the fuel pump. Personally I agree though, there comes a time/size when the convenience outweighs the cost.
 
In Ohio we looked at the convenience aspects for docking the boat and decided that keeping it at our house was more convenient. More accessible to work on if needed, etc. The idea of motorcycles to the lake for an evening out is very appealing, though.
 
Henning said:
There is definitely a convenience factor in keeping it in the water, but you pay for that convenience at the fuel pump. Personally I agree though, there comes a time/size when the convenience outweighs the cost.
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I'd say that is somewhere in the 20' range. Also fresh vs salt makes a big difference. A fresh water trailer with no brakes will require very little maintenance. A tandem salt water trailer with brakes is going to require lots of work on an annual basis.
 
dell30rb said:
I'd say that is somewhere in the 20' range. Also fresh vs salt makes a big difference. A fresh water trailer with no brakes will require very little maintenance. A tandem salt water trailer with brakes is going to require lots of work on an annual basis.
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Depends. I've decided to just ignore the brakes on my boat trailer, so that reduces MX. :)
 
I was somewhat kidding ... I have a 5th wheel trailer, ATVs, snowmobiles and a jeep that all try to throw the "work on" vs "enjoy" out of whack.

The biggest problem with this setup is my wife is deadly afraid of double towing, so that presents a bit of a problem to the "camping with toys" weekend. Fortunately we camp with friends who have Class A and Class C RVs so can usually find an empty hitch somewhere in the group to give the toys a ride out of town. A couple of them own boats so we do get weekends on the water. :)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Depends. I've decided to just ignore the brakes on my boat trailer, so that reduces MX. :)
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For me I need brakes, even with a 2500 its a must for good brakes.

I cant remember how big your boat is, but if you tow it every time you use it - might be worth fixing. For a single axle trailer you can probably get a brake line kit, new hubs/bearings/brakes and a new actuator for under $400 and install everything in 1/2 a day. With freshwater it might actually last 10 years
 
It depends on the vintage of 2500. My 04 RAM didn't care if it had trailer brakes or not, stockers were great. My 97 C2500 sucked even with trailer brakes on both axles.

It's a low priority. I can't go fast with it anyway due to truck limitations.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
It depends on the vintage of 2500. My 04 RAM didn't care if it had trailer brakes or not, stockers were great. My 97 C2500 sucked even with trailer brakes on both axles.

It's a low priority. I can't go fast with it anyway due to truck limitations.
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I did 2-3000 miles trailering this year with several 6-7hr round trips. Have had one incident where I would have wrecked without good trailer brakes. Boat + trailer are around 7500lbs and the truck is a '94 k2500 with 4.10 gears and hydroboost brakes. New pads and put 3500drw rear wheel cylinders on it.

I can definitely feel when the trailer brakes kick in and have had to make one pedal to the floor stop where the truck ABS was working. Someone pulled out in front of me.
 
We towed the 5K lbs boat/tandem trailer for 20 years with no brakes (had none from factory in 1976). I bought a parts boat for $350 which came with a nice '01 tandem axle trailer with dual axle surge brakes which I swapped out my trailer for. Night and day difference in towing even on our 1-1.5hr trips each way. It was noticeable from the first stop. I never felt I was unsafe with the normal 1/2 ton trucks, but it is definitely an item which helps a ton when adjusted properly.
 
jesse said:
I had a really great smartass response that quite frankly wasn't very nice.

Than I got to thinking about it, and our boat thread is not a place for people to be dicks, the boat thread, is the happy thread, lets keep it that way!
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Fire away buddy..... I have thick skin...:yes:....;)
 
I found a local marina offers 'boatel' service. Not cheap but it solves winter storage and trailer issues. Also, the boat sits inside in their warehouse reducing the wear from UV exposure and corrosion.
 
Henning said:
There is definitely a convenience factor in keeping it in the water, but you pay for that convenience at the fuel pump. Personally I agree though, there comes a time/size when the convenience outweighs the cost.
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We've been looking (still are) and came to the conclusion that dry stack is the way to go. Yes, we'll be paying more for storage than we would if we were trailering, and more for fuel, but honestly, we wouldn't go through that much fuel over the course of a season for it to be a significant amount on the total cost. Depreciation and storage would always be the lion's share. We have nowhere to put the boat at our house, so we'd be paying storage somewhere.
 
FormerHangie said:
We've been looking (still are) and came to the conclusion that dry stack is the way to go. Yes, we'll be paying more for storage than we would if we were trailering, and more for fuel, but honestly, we wouldn't go through that much fuel over the course of a season for it to be a significant amount on the total cost. Depreciation and storage would always be the lion's share. We have nowhere to put the boat at our house, so we'd be paying storage somewhere.
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Dry stacking is what most people with small boats do around here as well.
 
I just got a different boat last week :)
 

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dell30rb said:
I did 2-3000 miles trailering this year with several 6-7hr round trips. Have had one incident where I would have wrecked without good trailer brakes. Boat + trailer are around 7500lbs and the truck is a '94 k2500 with 4.10 gears and hydroboost brakes. New pads and put 3500drw rear wheel cylinders on it.
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Your '94 K2500 and my '97 C2500 probably had the same brakes - they sucked. The hydroboost didn't do much to help the fact that the pads and drums were of insufficient size to actually stop anything of significant weight.

The Avalanche brakes are better than the 3/4-ton brakes of that era, but leave a lot to be desired vs. the '04 Ram I had or my 2000 Excursion.
 
Henning said:
Most places it's now illegal to have a trailer of that weight without brakes.
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Agreed, but there's no one to really enforce it in Oklahoma. Most LEOs wouldn't know anything about identifying trailer brakes and such outside of trailer lights not working.
 
I am wondering why surge brakes aren't more common than they are.
 
weilke said:
I am wondering why surge brakes aren't more common than they are.
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U-Haul uses them. But many don't like them because they heat the trailer brakes on the down hill.
 
I've been watching boat prices on a couple boats on Craig's list, they seem to be coming down faster than a kid on a banister.
 
weilke said:
I am wondering why surge brakes aren't more common than they are.
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My last Baja boat had a steel trailer with twin axles and surge brakes. My current boat has a aluminum Mcclain trailer with triple axles and disc surge brakes. They work good. The boat loaded and trailer weigh close to 9,000 lbs. It stops with my half ton 2003 Suburban. The only thing I did was add airbags to the Suburban.
 
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SoonerAviator said:
Agreed, but there's no one to really enforce it in Oklahoma. Most LEOs wouldn't know anything about identifying trailer brakes and such outside of trailer lights not working.
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Around here they look for both safety chains and a master cylinder on boat trailers.
 
Henning said:
Around here they look for both safety chains and a master cylinder on boat trailers.
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You'd never "see" the master cylinder on my trailer as it's located inside the receiver/slide. Safety chains are an easy spot, and would likely be the only other item checked by a LEO in this region (TX/AR/OK/KS/MO).

I will say that if I had my choice of trailer brakes, it would be electric-over-hydraulic. All of the benefits of low-maintenance hydraulic disc brakes, with the ability to adjust the gain and uphill/downhill like with electric. Pretty pricey though.
 
SoonerAviator said:
You'd never "see" the master cylinder on my trailer as it's located inside the receiver/slide. Safety chains are an easy spot, and would likely be the only other item checked by a LEO in this region (TX/AR/OK/KS/MO).

I will say that if I had my choice of trailer brakes, it would be electric-over-hydraulic. All of the benefits of low-maintenance hydraulic disc brakes, with the ability to adjust the gain and uphill/downhill like with electric. Pretty pricey though.
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It's actually easy to spot as surge brakes have a sliding mechanism in the tongue, and electric brakes use the big plug. They're relatively serious about it around here.

Personally I don't mind straight up electric brakes on a boat trailer, no matter what type you have, the parts seem to rot out at the same speed, and the difference in price to rebuild them is negligible.
 
Henning said:
Personally I don't mind straight up electric brakes on a boat trailer, no matter what type you have, the parts seem to rot out at the same speed, and the difference in price to rebuild them is negligible.
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I was interested in putting electric brakes on my trailer when I replaced everything, but the advice I got was "no way" for salt water. I was tempted to try it though.
 
dell30rb said:
I was interested in putting electric brakes on my trailer when I replaced everything, but the advice I got was "no way" for salt water. I was tempted to try it though.
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So far my buddy has 3 years on his, and I suspect he has another year or two to go from the looks at the time of last spring's bearing servicing. Lots of the parts are powder coated on the assembly he bought and doing pretty well. One nice thing about electric brakes is it makes it simple to drag the brakes for a bit right after recovery to clean and dry everything. Use good high temp grease on the pivot pin and things work pretty good.
 
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Tom-D said:
I've been watching boat prices on a couple boats on Craig's list, they seem to be coming down faster than a kid on a banister.
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A highly predictable seasonal price shift. Part of why we bought our boat this time a year ago.
 
Henning said:
It's actually easy to spot as surge brakes have a sliding mechanism in the tongue, and electric brakes use the big plug. They're relatively serious about it around here.

Personally I don't mind straight up electric brakes on a boat trailer, no matter what type you have, the parts seem to rot out at the same speed, and the difference in price to rebuild them is negligible.
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I'd confuse the hell out of you, since I've got the slider AND the 7-pin plug, lol. The truck already had the 7-pin RV plug connections and the trailer wiring has the 5-wire (std 4+ reverse solenoid) so it was just easier to use the 7-pin plug with 2 terminals unused. I do agree that they are easy to spot if you know what you're looking for, but I really don't think most of the LEOs around here have been trained about it, or it isn't a major focus for them.

Either way, I see a ton of people towing 3K+ lbs trailers here in the middle-US with no brakes, and probably a lot of people with surge/electric brakes that don't work. As I mentioned, it is night/day when trying emergency stops and makes slowing down much easier on the truck. We never had an issue slowing our rig down without trailer brakes before, but we also were towing less than 60 miles, almost exclusively turnpike/highway, and left tons of space behind any car in front for emergency stops. Not everyone tows with that mindset, so trailer brakes become increasingly necessary. I see many people towing at 75-80mph just like they would with no trailer, which I frequently see later on with blown tires on the side of the road 30 minutes later. :lol:
 
I've only got about 150,000 miles of experience towing with mostly 3/4 ton vehicles other than the 10k or so on the Avalanche.

My 04 2500 Cummins RAM was, by far, the best tower. Great brakes, great suspension. Although I normally towed at 70 with it there were times when I did 80+ and never had an issue (that was mostly with an empty trailer, though). This was with a 20' open trailer. When empty you didn't even know the trailer was there. Even towing a 28' enclosed at 75 MPH for 800 miles straight, that thing was rock solid. I wish I'd bought it in 4x4 and I would still own it.

My first tow vehicle and trailer was my 97 C2500 6.5TD with said 20' open trailer. I had that trailer built with brakes on all 4 wheels, which was important driving through mountains given the GM braking division motto: "We never stop." The suspension on that truck did just fine and only gave me issues once for a very heavy load with poor distribution.

Brakes depend on what you're towing, mindset, and where you drive. We're in flatland now. No hills and not going anywhere with hills in the foreseeable future. If we were, I'd make sure trailer brakes were installed and working. Suspension is the real issue I find with the 1/2 tons. They're just too soft to do well with the extra weight back there.
 
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