Nice inflatable boat trailer

[ssobol]

Is your trailer fully adjustable? Does it fully support the transom and floorboards? Is it aluminum?

Yes, yes, yes, and no.

 

[alanfox55]

Yes, yes, yes, and no.

Got a pic?

 

[ssobol]

Sorry no pictures. I sold that boat and got a bigger one. However, the trailer I had was recommended by the dealer who sold me the inflatable.

 

[redneck joe]

sorry just have to post; every time I see this thread I just imagine in my head an inflatable trailer for a boat not a trailer for an inflatable boat....

 

[lemondrop9344]

After seeing this trailer on this forum I found one priced at $1460.00 delivered to the door (model SUT 450I). Yes, it's like a big aluminum erector set, but it, goes together fairly quickly. We have been down on the NC coast fishing the backwaters and just off the beach for three weeks. Launching facilities are not available at the campground so we had to load everything in the back of the pickup and setup and tear down each time we go out.

Wife told me she did not want to go fishing anymore if:

1. We could not get the inflatable to the launch site with the Beachmaster wheels, or,
2. If I did not get a trailer to transport it when at camp grounds without launching facilities

When the the wife is not happy..... no one is happy. Trailer was ordered on Monday and arrived on Thursday. Only complaint is the lack of a hard copy assembly manual, but, the assembly instructions are on line and they provide a CD with all the other documentation. In use Saturday.

Initially I did not order the winch..... bad decision. Launching is easy, just push the inflatable off into the water. Recovery is difficult as the boat sets up so high on the trailer.

While I would agree the price is a little high, in this case I think you get what you pay for. Trailex out of Canfield, Ohio is the manufacturer of the trailer.

 

[alanfox55]

Some really good info lemondrop thanks a lot. I'm going to order one today and will keep everyone updated on my experiences with it.

 

[alanfox55]

Received my trailer from FedX,free shipping by the way,and will be putting it together tomorrow. I expect to get the boat and motor on the trailer sometime next week. I'll take pics and post my experience. Looking at the instructions and from the way it is constructed it looks like it will be a fairly simple job...we'll see.

I've also received a few other new items for my boat. I got a Michigan Wheel prop with a 15in pitch from iboats and a Faria tach with hour meter to make sure I have the correct pitch. I also got a Faria head temp gauge and mounted the gauges in mounting cups. Pretty cool looking and can't wait to get them on the boat.

 

[alanfox55]

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This is the steering wheel console I'll be mounting the gauges on.

 

[alanfox55]

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Well I'm not along with my trailer build as I would like. The written instructions were the usual not very good so had to do a couple of re do's. Then while opening a box I found an instruction CD which is much much better and it's been going a lot better. The whole trailer is put together using T bolts that are all the same size so most of the time I'm using only two wrenches. Pretty neat design which has allowed me to put this trailer together by myself including turning it over. I've got to force myself to take more pics because once I start I don't want to stop.

 

[alanfox55]

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I was only able to get the wiring done and flip the trailer over right side up due to rain today. This trailer is so light that I was able to turn it over by myself! Next up is the fenders,bunks,spare tire and wench then I'm done. After that I'll get the boat and motor on the trailer. To do that I'll travel 60 miles on the express way to my friends house so I'll have plenty of miles to see how it pulls empty and with the boat on. Everything on this trailer is fully adjustable including able to slide the axle back or forward. Plus it has a transom support that I really like.

 

[alanfox55]

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[ba_fisher]

On the topic of trailers, has anyone seen this one? It folds to the size of a peanut.

 

[alanfox55]

Looks like a nice trailer that would work good for anyone with limited space. If you've read some of the comments here you will see that there are a few people who take exception to someone thinking that any trailer is worth that kind of money...I'm not one of them.

 

[alanfox55]

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I just finished up putting my new trailex trailer together. Altogether it was a fairly simple build. There were a couple of places that took a little while to figure out but I'm not that good at putting things like this together so if I can figure it out most people should also be able to. One suggestion would be to realize there is a CD that comes with the trailer and to follow it step by step. I could've paid $300 to have it put together but I thought I would save some money while at the same time come to understand the trailer better. I also would know that it was put together correctly including all the nuts and bolts properly torqued. Now time to get my boat and motor on and get everything adjusted to my liking.

 

[ba_fisher]

Alan, I am with you

I am considering the foldable trailer with a twisted reason. My garage is big enough -- 20ft, plus a nook that's another 3 ft deep. I can actually fit a 17-ft fiber glass boat (with a foldable tongue trailer, the motor sticking into the nook).

But, here's an issue. I live in a town home complex, and the rules forbid parking a boat inside the garage. I don't know why. I can store plenty of guns but no boat!

So my plan is to get a small 14ft RIB and put it on the foldable trailer. If the HOA people come I'll tell them it's a big mattress with an engine, not technically a boat.

If this doesn't work, I have to move the RIB to my friend's house, which unfortunately has a small garage. We would place the boat on the floor, and fold the trailer up and stick that under his bed.

My main worry about the foldable trailer is whether it's too fragile ...

Alan, what's the total length of your Trailex with a 14ft boat on it? If it's short enough I may get that instead of the foldable one.

 

[alanfox55]

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My trailer is the smaller 450 with a longer tongue which is 9 ft long so my 14 ft sea eagle will fit on it. the tongue is and extra $100 but with the smaller trailer you get less expensive and free shipping. It will only carry 450lbs which works for my boat and a 30hp motor. The tongue is actually two pieces with the smaller 5ft piece connected to the 5ft trailer and the longer section spliced on to that with three metal pieces. The whole thing is bolted together with T bolts so you could actually loosen six nuts and slide the 9ft section off and be left with a 5ft long trailer. Hope this helps.

 

[alanfox55]

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I got the boat on the trailer but didn't have time to get the motor on. I traveled a total of 120 miles with the trailer,60 empty and 60 with 180lbs of boat. Trailer tracked straight,smooth,no noises,tires didn't heat up excessively nor did the bearings. I thought it might take awhile to get the bunks adjusted but that wasn't the case,it didn't take long at all. I might have a little fine tuning to do but overall I'm very pleased with the trailer.

 

[ba_fisher]

Looks neat!

Did you put the motor on the boat yet? Since the wheels are about right at the mid point of the boat, will the motor put too much weight at the back to tip it over?

 

[alanfox55]

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Yep I got the motor on last night and took a couple of pictures. I wanted to take some today but got busy with other things,hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow. You are correct the axle is to far forward for my boat but the good thing about this trailer is everything is adjustable so I will be moving the axle to the rear soon. Another area of concern I had was the length of the bunks. I just didn't feel like they were long enough to fully support the front of the boat. This boat has an outside inflatable keel so I was able to add a keel support and get it under the front floor boards and that worked out perfectly. I'll post pictures of everything asap.

 

[alanfox55]

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Got the pictures done. # 2 pic is the keel support,purpose to keep any downward force off the front floor boards. There is a front stop you can see in the boat pick I could adjust to be not only a stop but to give some support to the front end also.Third pic shows how much space I have to move the axle rearward to put more weight o the front. You can also see the t-bolts,just loosen and slide to the rear in the channel