Long distance travel

jenkins

New Member
I would like to bring my laser with me from NY to NC -- a long trip, and mostly interstates. I have been reading all the posts I can find about trailers and transport and did find some good information about roll-on trailers using a dolly, but am still wondering what is the safest way to trailer (not enclosed) a laser for this distance.

I gather that deck-down is fairly stable and decreases the worry over supporting the relatively fragile hull. I'm hoping for a plan that doesn't require too many modifications to a standard boat trailer (this one was previously used to transport a Hampton One Design sailboat, deck-up) with adjustable support rails. I do have a Seitech dolly, but seems that this would be best secured upside down over the hull (?). Already made note of the leaf spring 'restacking' in the roll-on setups -- assuming this also applies for deck-down, same process of switching the middle leaf to the bottom?

All suggestions, diagrams, and photos of successful methods welcome.

Thank you.
 
We use a double stack road trailer with launching trolley's that slot into the frame. Works perfectly on all distances - our longest trip so far is Portsmouth (UK) to Porto (POR) using the portsmouth bilbao ferry. We had 3 boats, one on the roof (boat upside down) and two on the trailer and all made the trip there and back with no problems.

Most weekends the boats are towed somewhere and we've never had a problem with this style trailer.
 

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I rebuilt an older small boat trailer to work either way - on seitech or on boat deck. Long two X fours support the deck and provide space underneath for the spars in bag. The 2X4 also have notchs about an inch deep to hold the seitech axle in place if I want to load that way. I took off all the rollers and replaced the middle one with a board with an notch to hold the seitech longitudinal. Notchs prevent fore and aft and side to side slippage. When on the dolly and on the trailer, its is a tall rig - high ctr of gravity, which is fine for local, but long distance (> 100 m) I like to flip it.

I also had the trailer springs cut down at local shop. Two guys bouncing on the trailer barely got compression. After the cut-down one person stepping onto trailer gets spring action. And I weigh more than my boat. :eek: I also keep the tires on the soft side (well below the max printed on the tire) , since they act as the primary shock absorber.

Also consider your own visibility of the trailer. Behind a mini van, with boat deck down, the whole thing is invisible to the driver 90% of the time. Not good. Try to place something at least on the driver side so you can monitor trailer location in the mirror. And don't ignore the bearings! I think I have seen more boating accidents on the freeway than on the water.
 

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