JoLin
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2007
- Messages
- 5,146
It started in September, when after 20 years of every-few-years discussions about buying a boat, the wife and I decided to go ahead and do it. Though my dad had one when I was a kid I'd never owned one myself, so first order of business was to choose a type. It had to be small enough to learn on, big enough to take some rough weather (Great South Bay), and it needed to have a cabin of some type for planned overnighters at Fire Island. After struggling to climb through the forward hatch of several conventional cuddies (only means of reaching the bow), we decided a walk-around was the way to go. My 54-year-old frame just isn't as limber as it once was!
A few weeks of looking turned up a 21-foot Pro-Line. It's a little bigger than I wanted from a learning perspective, but it has a nice deep-V hull and a good reputation. It's 20 years old and in decent shape. Came equipped with a '97 Johnson 175 with 2-year-old powerhead rebuild. Started and ran well, so I pulled the trigger and had it towed to my house and set on blocks in the driveway.
Next step- a trailer. Though I'm going to dock the boat next season and have procured a place for it, I didn't want to rely on towing services when it needed to go in and come out of the water. I also think that in time I'll want to expand my boating horizons, so a trailer of my own seemed like a good idea. I kept an eye on Craigslist and spotted a 2004 Shoreland'r aluminum tandem roller trailer for a grand less than a new one. Checked it out and it was really clean and in good shape. I put a deposit on it, and when I came home and checked the Shoreland'r web site, I found out that it's the exact model that they recommend for my boat! I had the marina that was selling it, transport my boat to their place and fit the trailer to it. My neighbor hauled it home for me and said it towed beautifully.
Two pieces of the puzzle in place, one more to go! No point in having a boat and trailer unless you can pull 'em, right?
In late November I started looking around again. After posting a couple of questions here in iboats and getting some great advice, I decided that a long-wheelbase, V-8 powered something-or-other was the way to go and started my search. After checking out several trucks and SUV's, I stumbled on one that I'd gone to look at just for the heck of it, as it was a little older and cheaper than I wanted. I bought a '96 Chevy K-1500 (4x4) pickup with a 305 c.i. Vortek V-8 and push-button 4wd. Equipped with the factory tow package. Though it has 135K miles on it, it's in really nice shape. In the words of my mechanic when he went over it- "wow. somebody took care of this thing."
I took the whole shebang out for a test tow a few days ago. All in all, pretty good! The motor is torquey and handles the weight okay. Might not be the greatest combo if I lived in the mountains, but it accelerated the boat and trailer pretty briskly to highway speed. The whole rig tracked and braked beautifully, and I never got the impression that I was being "pushed around."
The only negative was a stretch of highway where the expansion strips in the road are very noticeable. The truck started to porpoise a little- not enough to make me feel nervous at all, but annoying. I didn't like the feeling of being unbalanced. Yesterday, I installed a light duty (1000 lb capacity) helper spring set in back and a new set of Monroe Sensa-Track shocks all around. I haven't re-hitched the boat yet (bad weather), but I did take the truck back out on that same stretch of highway. It doesn't ride any harder than it did before, and the previous "harshness" when I hit those bumps, is gone. The new shocks really snub it down great. By Jove, I think I've got it!
So, where's Spring already ?!?
A few weeks of looking turned up a 21-foot Pro-Line. It's a little bigger than I wanted from a learning perspective, but it has a nice deep-V hull and a good reputation. It's 20 years old and in decent shape. Came equipped with a '97 Johnson 175 with 2-year-old powerhead rebuild. Started and ran well, so I pulled the trigger and had it towed to my house and set on blocks in the driveway.
Next step- a trailer. Though I'm going to dock the boat next season and have procured a place for it, I didn't want to rely on towing services when it needed to go in and come out of the water. I also think that in time I'll want to expand my boating horizons, so a trailer of my own seemed like a good idea. I kept an eye on Craigslist and spotted a 2004 Shoreland'r aluminum tandem roller trailer for a grand less than a new one. Checked it out and it was really clean and in good shape. I put a deposit on it, and when I came home and checked the Shoreland'r web site, I found out that it's the exact model that they recommend for my boat! I had the marina that was selling it, transport my boat to their place and fit the trailer to it. My neighbor hauled it home for me and said it towed beautifully.
Two pieces of the puzzle in place, one more to go! No point in having a boat and trailer unless you can pull 'em, right?
In late November I started looking around again. After posting a couple of questions here in iboats and getting some great advice, I decided that a long-wheelbase, V-8 powered something-or-other was the way to go and started my search. After checking out several trucks and SUV's, I stumbled on one that I'd gone to look at just for the heck of it, as it was a little older and cheaper than I wanted. I bought a '96 Chevy K-1500 (4x4) pickup with a 305 c.i. Vortek V-8 and push-button 4wd. Equipped with the factory tow package. Though it has 135K miles on it, it's in really nice shape. In the words of my mechanic when he went over it- "wow. somebody took care of this thing."
I took the whole shebang out for a test tow a few days ago. All in all, pretty good! The motor is torquey and handles the weight okay. Might not be the greatest combo if I lived in the mountains, but it accelerated the boat and trailer pretty briskly to highway speed. The whole rig tracked and braked beautifully, and I never got the impression that I was being "pushed around."
The only negative was a stretch of highway where the expansion strips in the road are very noticeable. The truck started to porpoise a little- not enough to make me feel nervous at all, but annoying. I didn't like the feeling of being unbalanced. Yesterday, I installed a light duty (1000 lb capacity) helper spring set in back and a new set of Monroe Sensa-Track shocks all around. I haven't re-hitched the boat yet (bad weather), but I did take the truck back out on that same stretch of highway. It doesn't ride any harder than it did before, and the previous "harshness" when I hit those bumps, is gone. The new shocks really snub it down great. By Jove, I think I've got it!
So, where's Spring already ?!?
