Boat Trailer: Lesson Learned

October 2021. The trailer purchase and overhaul costs below belong to this story.

So I've had my plate-alloy 21-foot side-console boat for 33 years.

In that time it's had five outboards and three paint jobs. It's up in the Hunter having its fourth paint job now.

I bought the boat from Sydney Aquariums in Darling Harbour and it came with a heavy galvanised twin-axle trailer. With heavy usage, including four trips towing the boat to Cooktown and back, something was eventually going to break.

And it did, at Banana, south of Rockhampton, during a Whitsundays trip. I had to get it transported back to Sydney. As parts wore out and things fell off, I just kept replacing them.

It looked good on day one

But about three years before this 2021 overhaul, I could no longer avoid an upgrade. I asked on the Facebook page for advice. I get a lot of good recommendations there, but this wasn't one of those times.

One recommendation was an aluminium trailer from a company I won't name. It was part of a franchise and I'd heard good things about the other outlets. More to the point, I don't want anyone to think what happened wasn't my fault.

The trailer looked good to my untrained eye on day one.

But when I drove it up to Shannon, from Shannon Outboards at Hornsby, he was horrified. He started pointing out all the things wrong with it, and that was quite a list.

Perhaps the most annoying aspect was that I had bought an aluminium trailer. It was definitely an aluminium frame! But a lot of the parts were steel, painted to look like aluminium.

The boat was very sticky on the trailer. I often had to back the Chev down the ramp until the water was just touching the car tyres. Otherwise it wouldn't come off without some assisted pushing at the bow. Driving the boat on, not so bad. That awkward launch was one of the problems I needed fixed.

A front-to-rear overhaul

With big plans for fishing up and down the coast during summer 2021/22, I knew I had to get the trailer sorted. There was one bloke I trusted a lot: Darren Frazer from Singleton Trailers in the Hunter Valley.

He had previously dropped everything to sort out a broken mudguard on the little boat's trailer during a trip to chase bass at Lake St Clair.

Because of the 2021 lockdown restrictions, I couldn't deliver the trailer. Darren drove down to the border of Greater Sydney and picked it up.

I decided to get a Boat Latch bow-release system, since I was fishing solo so much during lockdowns.

Darren tossed the old twin rollers and fitted quad rollers.

He fitted new hubs and brakes and did a great job.

But the 2021 overhaul cost as much as the trailer had cost brand new: $7,000.

I have no regrets, because the problem was caused by my original bad choice of trailer. And I couldn't cut corners, because otherwise I could end up back in the Banana situation, with the boat on a broken trailer over a thousand kilometres from home.

Before you hand over a deposit

The frame is only part of what you're buying. In my April 2019 trailer review, the trouble spots included the jockey wheel, wheel nuts, roller washers and the mounting screws for the lights. I'd bought aluminium thinking “no more rust”, then found myself dealing with corrosion in the smaller components.

Had I known, I would have been happy to pay a few hundred dollars more for better components. Those are the details to discuss before the deposit, while you can still agree on what will be fitted.

Get someone who knows trailers to look over the whole setup. In February 2019, the lads at Shannon Outboards spotted badly worn wheel bearings while the boat was in for a service. A new-looking frame hadn't told me what was happening at the wheels.

Ask how your particular hull will be supported, how the rollers will be aligned and how it will launch. My change from twin to quad rollers was part of a complete overhaul; simply adding more rollers isn't the whole setup job.

If you're considering the bow latch shown here, use the current Boat Latch fitting guidance and installation sequence. The winch post, bow roller, latch support and alignment need to suit the boat and trailer together.

Finally, check the fully loaded combination against the vehicle, towbar, coupling and trailer ratings. Have the tyres, bearings, suspension, brakes, lights and safety chains checked as well. The NSW towing guide sets out the current requirements.

I wanted to tell this little story to our readers because I should have done a lot more research and asked more experienced owners what they thought before buying. I'm guessing most of our readers are way more switched on than I am. But maybe my experience is a good reminder to be careful when you're shelling out hard-earned dollars.

Thanks for reading, Andrew Hestelow

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