Looking for an Aluminum Tandem in Tampa Bay area

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Nice science experiment

Dave, I do hope to make it to CC this November with the gang, but I will also have to have my new trailer by then since the old one is unusable now that all the tires shredded. Actually, I will try to have a new one by mid October just in case I might be able to make that East Coast trip. But its my wife's birthday so that will be a tough one to pull off.

So today I visited the facilities of LoadMaster and Ace trailers. Loadmaster definitely has the best looking facilities and seems to make an excellent trailer. But the cost is quite a bit higher, probably at least 1500 more than an Ace or Continental, so I'll probably rule them out due to the price. One thing that was interesting at loadmaster though is that they build the 8 foot wide trailer similar in width to the stock Mac trailer.

Ace on the other hand has a more outdoors type shop which isn't as fancy but also means lower overhead. Prices seem more reasonable (probably pretty comparable with Continental) and the guy has experience building Mac trailers. He is about the only one who will build a ladder like the stock Mac trailer and include that in the base price too. His trailers are not only 102 inches wide, but he uses 27 foot aluminum I-beams which makes it a couple feet longer than the continental or loadmaster. He believes this supports the boat better, although I already know that the 4-5 foot overhang of the stock trailer has not bent my boat yet

Ace will also build it with the lay flat bunks like the ones on the loadrite trailer pictures, including the center bunks. Interestingly, I have never seen any other tandem trailer than the loadrite which seems to have that double arc fenders as opposed to the continuous rectangular fendor that covers both tires. The Ace uses regular box beam aluminum cross members compared to the loadrite which appears to use galvanized indented members. Anyone here ever buy one of these Ace trailers for a Mac?

I need to go look at a continental closely before making up my mind.

[DaveB]

Dimitri,
I looked up my recipt from Jan.2008 on the trailer because I noticed a sticker on the trailer stated max. load 2000 lbs.
I called West Coast Trailer today and they explained they put that sticker on because I didn't have them install brakes and there for was doing it legal per FL law. I later installed the brakes at front axel . As you know most states require brakes on both axels if over a certain weight.
I have the A2450 Aluminum trailer with boat load up to 5000 lbs. I paid $2480 plus $20 brake flange and $100 front center bunks in 2008, They also bended the I beams further up for the Mac.X. With Tax the bill came to $2782.
I later added stainless steel surge brakes on front axel for $500 (I installed) as West Coast Trailer at the time only installed the steel ones.
They are very friendly and will fit your boat to the trailer for another $100. (I did it myself,was simple).
There is a front roller and keep that low, as I think it's what original Mac.Trailers call the bump but not so with this.
Dave
West Coast Trailers is located in Port Charlotte,FL. , Tel 941-698-9902

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Finally got my new trailer on Friday and its a beauty. Tim Nobles (TNT Trailers) made it and he makes a lot of rebranded trailers so you may not recognize the name but he makes a lot of trailers out in the Brandon area. He had the best price and the best service, even loaned me a tandem trailer to pull my boat out of the water with since my Mac trailer had become unroadworthy. Its got all the goodies, Aluminum, Torsion axles, SS hardware, etc. It is the extra wide 102 inch version so that the boat can sit lower than the I-beams. In fact, its not much higher than my original Mac trailer but with a much longer tongue so I expect it should be pretty easy to launch and retrieve. I think he did a great job on the bunks and basically built them around the boat itself to give some incredible support. There are 4 2X6 bunks that are extremely long and contour around the hull perfectly. I thought that the middle set of centering bunks were only going to be used during retrieval but they hug the middle of the hull even when the boat is all the way to the bow stop.

It is extremely stable on the road. I drove it back from Brandon on Friday and it was a dream how well it drove. I momentarily took it up to about 75mph on I-4 and it felt like I could easily go much faster if I wanted. The Mac trailer used to start to feel kinda unstable at those speeds. For the extra $500, I didn't go with the fully SS disk brakes but this one does have the silver cadmium disc brakes on the front axle and they work very well. There seems to be some controversy on some of the web blogs about whether the SS rotors are worth the extra money since those won't be the parts to fail. Tim gave me some good advice on those too and that is to make sure that the actuator is always retracted before storing the trailer otherwise the calipers will corode faster. The way the coupler works, I don't think I can de-couple the trailer unless the actuator is retracted anyway.



As I mentioned, I got very good service out of Tim and he will still be building me some sort of bow ladder either as an attachment or some ladder legs on the post. He even mentioned that he could come by my house to do it instead of having to pull the boat and trailer back to Brandon again. I also got a spare tire included but he had run out of mounting brackets so that will also be mounted when he comes over to do the ladder. I'm including some pictures here with the boat on. Once I take the boat off, I'll take a few more pics so you can see how long the bunks are. I'm still really impressed by that as I have not seen any other manufacturer build such comprehensive support into a trailer. I think this is where I did better by having a trailer custom built to form fit the boat exactly versus trying to fit some other trailer to the boat. The loaner trailer I used was just your standard power boat trailer with vertical cyprus bunks and the boat was obviously just supported in three small places and felt a bit wobbly and very high up too since it was several inches above the beams.



I'll be all ready for Cayo Costa in two weeks when it will get its first 200+ mile test drive!

[DaveB]

Dimitri,
Good to see you got the trailer of your choice.
You didn't include any photos of the trailer without boat but will see you at Cayo Costa in 2 weeks and talk about it.
Spent this weekend Sailing down to Bonita Springs/thru New Pass, Great sailing.
Dave

Finally got my new trailer on Friday and its a beauty. Tim Nobles (TNT Trailers) made it and he makes a lot of rebranded trailers so you may not recognize the name but he makes a lot of trailers out in the Brandon area. He had the best price and the best service, even loaned me a tandem trailer to pull my boat out of the water with since my Mac trailer had become unroadworthy. Its got all the goodies, Aluminum, Torsion axles, SS hardware, etc. It is the extra wide 102 inch version so that the boat can sit lower than the I-beams. In fact, its not much higher than my original Mac trailer but with a much longer tongue so I expect it should be pretty easy to launch and retrieve. I think he did a great job on the bunks and basically built them around the boat itself to give some incredible support. There are 4 2X6 bunks that are extremely long and contour around the hull perfectly. I thought that the middle set of centering bunks were only going to be used during retrieval but they hug the middle of the hull even when the boat is all the way to the bow stop.

It is extremely stable on the road. I drove it back from Brandon on Friday and it was a dream how well it drove. I momentarily took it up to about 75mph on I-4 and it felt like I could easily go much faster if I wanted. The Mac trailer used to start to feel kinda unstable at those speeds. For the extra $500, I didn't go with the fully SS disk brakes but this one does have the silver cadmium disc brakes on the front axle and they work very well. There seems to be some controversy on some of the web blogs about whether the SS rotors are worth the extra money since those won't be the parts to fail. Tim gave me some good advice on those too and that is to make sure that the actuator is always retracted before storing the trailer otherwise the calipers will corode faster. The way the coupler works, I don't think I can de-couple the trailer unless the actuator is retracted anyway.



As I mentioned, I got very good service out of Tim and he will still be building me some sort of bow ladder either as an attachment or some ladder legs on the post. He even mentioned that he could come by my house to do it instead of having to pull the boat and trailer back to Brandon again. I also got a spare tire included but he had run out of mounting brackets so that will also be mounted when he comes over to do the ladder. I'm including some pictures here with the boat on. Once I take the boat off, I'll take a few more pics so you can see how long the bunks are. I'm still really impressed by that as I have not seen any other manufacturer build such comprehensive support into a trailer. I think this is where I did better by having a trailer custom built to form fit the boat exactly versus trying to fit some other trailer to the boat. The loaner trailer I used was just your standard power boat trailer with vertical cyprus bunks and the boat was obviously just supported in three small places and felt a bit wobbly and very high up too since it was several inches above the beams.



I'll be all ready for Cayo Costa in two weeks when it will get its first 200+ mile test drive!

[mrbillfll]

^very good price!

fwiw, I spent 3k on an all alum, double axle at 'All American' in ft laud... nice trailer, but you got the better deal!

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

I'm still waiting to see if Tim will charge me extra for the ladder or not. He has welded it up but its currently waiting to be hot dipped galvanized later this week. I need to take the trailer back due to a couple minor issues with its first 250 mile trip last week. For example, the brakes were activating when I backed it into my driveway and that is not supposed to happen. But I think he will get all this stuff resolved for me and I may decide to take an even longer trip down to the Keys in a about a month.

Here are some more pictures:



From behind at Eldred's marina parking lot right before loading it after a 3 day trip down to Cayo Costa



From the side, you can see the spare tire which was included.



Closer up from the side, you can see how long those center bunks are!