QLW wrote:

Doug,
I own a welding shop about 500' off of Galveston Bay in San Leon, TX and I
see a lot of relatively new trailers pass through my shop because the brakes
and springs are rusted out.

Springs, sure. Mine (leaf springs) are getting close to needing replacement, but
they are ten years old. You all must have some serious bad-ass salt in the water
down there. I rinse mine off approx half the time we launch in salt water. We
also use it in fresh water a lot.

As for the brakes, even before I put on the SS parts (which in retrospect is a
waste of money IMHO), I only had to work on the brakes once a year. Planned
maintenance, in other words.


As a case in point, I just walked around our
little waterfront community and, with only one exception, all of the boat
trailers (7 of them) had rusted springs, some dangerously. My galvanized
sailboat trailer was the only one not rusted and that's because I built it
without springs for short hauls and with large 15" tires that I run at the
lowest recommended pressure to get some "spring" out of the sidewalls.

For short hauls, that's not a bad idea, but a ten year life isn't bad IMHO.


It's
interesting to note, however, that I've used this trailer to carry my 2800
lb. sailboat (probably 3300 lbs loaded) from San Leon to the Florida keys,
West Virginia, and just this past summer, to the Erie Canal in New York.
Getting rid of the springs lowers the boat 6" and makes a "float off / float
on" launch easy.

Another plus. Our boat has drop axle, plus it was designed to sit low on the
trailer from the start. Few boats are optimized (or even given any consideration
in the design phase).


I am going to add springs and brakes as we are going to be
pulling the trailer behind our motor home for months at a time now. But if
I were just driving a few miles to launch, I wouldn't bother.
BTW, I don't usually recommend spring-less trailers to customers because it
does take more care and common sense when driving on rough roads and common
sense is not always common... and I don't want an irate customer yelling at
me because he stupidly beat the hell out of his boat on rough roads.

LOL

Our trailer frame & fenders are galvanized, so rust isn't a problem there. I've
heard of people having problems with their trailer brakes, but most of their
stories seemed to me to indicate an unwillingness to dig with some basic
preventative maintenance. Maybe we've been lucky, but we've gone a long way
(covered most of the East Coast and inland lakes in most states east of the
Mississippi) on not really that much work & parts.

Another issue I've seen firsthand is trying to tow a too-heavy boat on an
undersized trailer that is not in good shape to begn with. But the answer to
most trailer problems is 'do your work on it *before* smoke testing, not after.'

Regards
Doug King