First Trip of 2016

[C Buchs]

I've seen posts at the end of the season for posting recap pictures from the season, but I don't remember a thread for the first trip of the season. So here’s one for 2016. This is actually our first trip ever! We bought our boat last year and only used it close to home. Our first trip was to Banks Lake near The Grand Coulee Dam. We drove nearly 700 miles and had no trouble. It's a lot longer drive then necessary to go sailing in Washington, but I had to be in Pasco for the Northwest Hydroelectric Association technical seminar on Thursday and I always wanted to see dry falls & the rest of the Grand Coulee area. I highly recommend!


Here we are on the road.


This is the top of Steamboat Rock looking down at our


Sailing!

Jeff

[Dandee]

Congrats, you are instilling confidence in my new (to me) 26x - a single axle trailer and an SUV for 700 miles! There seems to be a lot of concern about single axles being capable and the towing capacities of SUV's in general.

[Bayou]

Awesome! We just completed our first overnight stay on the X. Launched Tue around noon in Lake Verrret Louisiana and fished till 9:00 PM for catfish, were catching doubles in the 2-3 pound range and 1 approx. 40 lbs. Cooked steaks, corn, and new potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil on the Magma grill. Watched a beautiful sunset then had to start up the Thermacell lantern to drive the hoard of mosquitoes away left around 10:00 in the morning and now have a gallon of organic catfish fillets in the freezer.

[C Buchs]

Congrats, you are instilling confidence in my new (to me) 26x - a single axle trailer and an SUV for 700 miles! There seems to be a lot of concern about single axles being capable and the towing capacities of SUV's in general.

I've got the original MacGregor trailer. I put new bearings on the trailer last year and new tires (they were the originals) with 15" wheels (Craigslist) this year. Later this year I’m going to add a place to put a spare. Probably mounted to the forward upright on the guides. We took a spare, but had to store it in the back of the car. Next year I plan to put on disk brakes. My brother and brother-in-law both have full size trucks and think I'm crazy, because of the short wheelbase. My wife was skeptical, but after this trip she's fine with it. We passed semi-trucks at 75 MPH and only felt a little sway that settled out right away. After reading about Mastreb's trips with his G class, I got a 2006 ML500. I wanted the ML320 with a diesel, but didn’t want to spend the extra $8,000. Mercedes has all kinds of sway control electronics that I think really help. Ours has the AMG package with airbag suspension. We usually keep it in comfort mode, but I put it in sport mode for towing. We averaged 13 mpg.

Jeff

[Tomfoolery]

I used two Toyota 4Runners (one at a time ), a Honda Odyssey, a Highlander, and now a Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel. The GC tows the best of all of them, except for the handling with the Odyssey. And I got 18+ mpg towing to Toronto and back, and over 20 on the highway portions, with the diesel (30-32 mpg on the highway without trailer). 7400 lb rated tow capacity vs 5000 lb for the other three. And no white-knuckle sensation, as with the other three.

Honda Odyssey, shortly after I took possession of the boat.



Highlander, just before leaving for the 2013 MMOR.



And on the road, heading for the 2015 MMOR.



The GC is only a little bigger and heavier than the others, even though the current 4Runners look bigger, but towing stability increased with each subsequent SUV I had. None were as stable as the Honda Odyssey, which has a much longer wheelbase and wider track than any of them, but it's not as heavily made and I'm not so sure it would hold up. And it was only rated 3500 lb tow capacity, and that with load equalizing hitch.

A long pickup would be better still, of course, but that's not in the cards. But I'm perfectly happy towing long(ish, so far) distances with the GC.

The PO had the second axle added so they could tow it with their minivan, by the way.

[Russ]

Awesome to see you on the water and in some beautiful places.

--Russ

[March]

Agreed with TomFoolery. I used to trail with a Dodge Caravan. It was stable all right, a pleasure to drive, but on up-hills, the engine would get darn close to the red area on the tempt gauge. We went to Florida (twice) and every time we stopped at the top of some hill to let the engine cool off. Other than that... fine. Then I got an Odyssey, but didn't have the heart to mount a hitch, since the weight limit was 3500 and the boat was certainly heavier than that. Now a Pathfinder. No problem trailering, but it isn't half as stable as a van. I am planning to switch to a two axle trailer which is reputedly much more stable
Anyone tried the stabilizing cross-bar? They seem to go for around 100-150 bucks and people with regular trailer seem to be very pleased with the results.

[Tomfoolery]

Anyone tried the stabilizing cross-bar? They seem to go for around 100-150 bucks and people with regular trailer seem to be very pleased with the results.

I'm not clear on the device to which you're referring, but I have been thinking about sway control and/or load equalizing hitch, but haven't gone any further than thinking about it so far.

[Highlander]

Their is a hitch now avail with load equalizing & sway control for trl,s with surge brakes

J

[extreem]

I used two Toyota 4Runners (one at a time ), a Honda Odyssey, a Highlander, and now a Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel. The GC tows the best of all of them, except for the handling with the Odyssey. And I got 18+ mpg towing to Toronto and back, and over 20 on the highway portions, with the diesel (30-32 mpg on the highway without trailer). 7400 lb rated tow capacity vs 5000 lb for the other three. And no white-knuckle sensation, as with the other three.

Honda Odyssey, shortly after I took possession of the boat.



Highlander, just before leaving for the 2013 MMOR.



And on the road, heading for the 2015 MMOR.



The GC is only a little bigger and heavier than the others, even though the current 4Runners look bigger, but towing stability increased with each subsequent SUV I had. None were as stable as the Honda Odyssey, which has a much longer wheelbase and wider track than any of them, but it's not as heavily made and I'm not so sure it would hold up. And it was only rated 3500 lb tow capacity, and that with load equalizing hitch.

A long pickup would be better still, of course, but that's not in the cards. But I'm perfectly happy towing long(ish, so far) distances with the GC.

The PO had the second axle added so they could tow it with their minivan, by the way.

Maybe it's just me, but the axles appear to be too far forward...I suspect the PO added the second axle forward of the original to reduce the tounge weight. You really need 10 to 15% of your total weight to be carried on the tounge for stability. ex. If your total weight of boat, trailer, motor, and anything else you have loaded on the boat is 4,000 lbs, then the weight carried on the tounge should be around 400 lbs. Using this rule of thumb would help resolve stability issues.

[Tomfoolery]

Maybe it's just me, but the axles appear to be too far forward...

I guess it does look like that, but the forward axle was moved forward, and the centerpoint between them is where the single axle was. I have about 350-400 lb on the ball, depending on how I load it.