B25 Trailer Load capacity and width?

[Ttownthomas]

I'm buying a B25 and it looks as though the trailer will not be road worthy enough to haul the boat from OH to NC. I'm thinking about taking the $2000 or so dollars it would cost to wrap and haul the boat and buy a brand new trailer.

What kind of width trailer do I need and how much load capacity is sufficient?

Old sales literature says the sterndrive boat is about 4,450 pounds. Add in 80 gallons of fuel and 40 gallons of water and were up to say 5,300 pounds. This boat has a galley and a dinette so I'd call that another 500 pounds? So now we're up to 5,800 pounds. Round up to 6,000 pounds. It looks like double axle trailers top out around 8,000 or so pounds. Should I go that high?

Secondly the beam is 9'11", 1 whole inch under the NC daylight trailer limit but I don't know how wide the trailer should be? I would want it to be about as wide as the bottom part of the hull (measured at the transition from the bottom to the sides of the hull) but since the boat is up north and I'm down south so I can't take measurements myself. Im feeling a little blind here.

I can have it pulled to the trailer dealer so they can size it up but I have a hard time just taking their advice blindly. Any input here?

[CamB25]

Send me your e-mail and I'll forward all my dimensional measurements that you will need to build or buy a trailer. I went nuts with the tape measure.

As a point of reference, I have mine set up for approximately 10,000 lbs. Sort of by accident...it came with the boat. It's an old Calkins brand- all steel beast and weighs 2000 lbs (measured on racing car scales). Don't forget to add the trailer weight when thinking about a truck. I would not tow with any truck rated less than 10k.

Dual axles
leaf spring suspension
Full roller - boat is supported along the keel with rollers. Adjustable wobble rollers keep it secure
2 5/16 ball
12000 lb surge brake
Kodiak disks on lead axle

I've hauled this thing from Wash DC to Wilmington, NC round trip at least 4 or 5 times. Over the big Bay bridge to the eastern shore 3 or 4 times. Up and down 95 a bunch. It seems to work! I have yet to get it wet. Years a go I had a wide load permit for it, but for the last 8 years I just pull it. Nobody looks twice. Toll booths and construction zones are high pucker areas with that wide beam.

Cam

[ktm_2000]

My boat is fairly light @5500# with full load of fuel...

I have a venture dual axle 7500# capacity aluminum frame bunk trailer, I have kodiak 12" disk brakes on the front axle and surge coupler. I'm guessing my max load when fishing is @6500# so I'm 1000# over, also I went with the larger axles, they are rated at 7500 each, tires should be rated at 7500 an axle, the weak point on the trailer is the leaf springs even those are 6000# an axle so the trailer should be rated much higher than the official rating.

Issues I've had with it over time, note I use almost exclusively in salt water, if you are going to use in fresh water, I'd guess you'd get much longer times out of these "wear items"
1. I broke a leaf spring at year 6 or coming out of the driveway for 1st trip of season, thank god it gave out going over the curb at my house. I replaced all springs at that time. All the leaf springs were heavily rusted. My new process is to now spray down leaf springs with fresh water then some WD-40 after they dry.
2. Surge drums froze pads to drums over a winter - after about 8 years of use in salt water - flushing brakes every trip.

I'm now over 10 years on the tires, I probably should replace them soon.

I love the bunk trailer with a deep-v, really easy to deal with launching and retrieving once you figure out how much trailer bunk need to be in the water.

My process on launching is
1. remove rear straps, make sure plug is in
2. Make sure dock lines are setup on side of dock I am going in, hand off to 2nd person.
3. back down to the trailer tongue is a couple feet from water, un-hook saftey chain and winch strap.
4. get back in truck, back down till boat floats and hit brakes hard to slide the boat off, go off and park truck/trailer.

Process on retrieving
1. back trailer down to waters edge, leave a little under 3 feet of the front of bunks exposed above water line. Second person makes sure antennas and fishing rods are lowered for trailering.
2. set parking brake, get out and unwind @10' of winch strap
3. use docking lines to move bow between bunks and pull up by hand as much as possible
4. walk in water to attach winch strap to bow eye
5. crank up winch and attach saftey chain.
6. Drive out of the water, take out drain, attach rear straps.

Neither of these processes takes much more than 5 min, The boat self-centers between bunks based upon leaving enough bunk exposed and manually cranking the boat up between, the v of the hull as it lifts corrects itself. Everyone who I see having a tough time at a ramp puts their trailer too far in the water when retrieving.

[ktm_2000]

The other thing, the b25 is about 8' wide at the transom, most cops don't give you a second look when they are behind you.

on the flip side at the helm it is near 10' and you can put a pretty good scare into a toll booth attendant if they stick their head out of the booth.

[Ttownthomas]

Thanks for all this info. My truck is rated to tow 12,200lbs.