[Rhodes22-list] Slim's Trailer

[Steve Alm]

Hi Julie,

Good to hear from you--how are the ribs?  Thanks so much for offering to let
us use your trailer.  We're not planning another trip right now but you
never know.  

We loved Leech Lake.  We put in at Stoney Point campground.  I actually had
to use a chart and compass.  We had nice weather and gentle winds.  Once we
went ten miles on one tack.  I trimmed the sails, locked down the tiller and
I could steer the boat just by shifting my weight.  The boat behaved just
great.  

We set up the big boom tent at night instead of just the pop top encl.  We
discovered that we could sail downwind on just the genny with the boom room
roof hanging from the boom--like a giant bimini.  Very deluxe on a hot day.

Wow, 300 lbs of cooking gear?  Mary Ann's got to see that.  We have a
charcoal grill on the stern, and had some excellent meals, but also one
major mishap when we lost the BBQ lamb and the veggies overboard.  That's
right--the lamb.  Tell Dan I'm a convert, largely to his credit.

Lets try to get together one of these days.

Slim

On 8/11/03 9:21 PM, "Julie Thorndycraft" <julie at circle7.net> wrote:

> Slim,
> Long time, no chat - we have to get together and swap stories, I'm sure
> yours are better.
> As for your trailer, I have a solution for you - just borrow our trailer
> when you want to go on a trip. Since your boat is only 20 minutes from our
> trailer - shouldn't be much of a problem. We would be more than happy to let
> you use it. Just have to make sure we both don't need it on the same
> weekend! Next trip for us is Lake Gogebic in the U.P. over Labor Day
> weekend.
> 
> Otherwise, if you want to do some comparisons you're welcome to stop over
> and inspect the trailer - it's in the backlot at SYC.
> 
> We also hauled the boat up to Leech Lake for a three day weekend in mid-July
> and found that anytime we went over fifty we experienced serious sway
> problems. I recalled some of the earlier conversations about weight
> distribution and at one of our stops we moved the gas tank all the way
> forward in the cockpit and took some of the weight out of the lazarette and
> put it in the truck - it did help. Keep in mind that we have the monster
> motor on the backend with the motor hookup and we definitely did not want to
> disconnect that setup.
> 
> On the return we positioned the boat further forward (where the rear axle
> was lined up with the aft side of the last side window) - made a huge
> difference. We could hit 60-65mph with no issues. This is what we
> experienced coming back from Edenton. Of course, the boat now has 300lbs of
> cooking paraphernalia and other 'necessities'.
> 
> As for Leech Lake, we are going back again next year and hope to spend more
> time exploring.
> 
> Julie (and Dan)
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Alm" <salm at mn.rr.com>
> To: "Rhodes" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2003 2:58 AM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] I Hate My Trailer
> 
> 
>> Hi.  Mary Ann and I just got back from a four day trip with Fandango.  We
>> went up north to Leech Lake in north central MN.  The sailing and living
>> aboard were great (I'd love to tell you more about it sometime) but after
>> putting the boat in and out several times in several locations with
> varying
>> degrees of steepness at the ramps, I've concluded that something is
>> definitely wrong here.
>> 
>> No matter what, I just can't get the boat far enough forward on the
> trailer.
>> The result is not enough tongue weight.  I had to take the motor off and
>> lash it on the trailer tongue, put the rudder up in the V berth, along
> with
>> anything else that has any weight to it.  I used my bathroom scale to try
> to
>> find out how heavy the tongue really is:  the scale only goes up to 300
> lbs.
>> and I pegged the thing before the tongue even budged off the hitch--so
> I'll
>> bet I have at least 400 lbs, maybe more.  Still, the trailer fishtailed at
>> anything over 55 mph and also lurched and tugged most of the way.  I use a
>> 3/4 ton full-size cargo van with a V-8--more than enough.
>> 
>> At one of the ramps that had a very gradual slope, I backed in so far that
>> my tailpipe was almost under.  Using the tongue extension, the forward
> ends
>> of the bunks were just at water level and I drove the boat hard at the
>> trailer, trying to get up on the damn things, but still no luck.
>> 
>> And at the steep ramps it's even worse.  As we've discussed before, you
> pull
>> the boat all the way up to the bow stop, but when you pull the trailer out
>> of the water, the bow rocks back away from the bow stop, and leaves the
> boat
>> too far back--actually NEGATIVE TONGUE WEIGHT!
>> 
>> I really don't want to move the motor, rudder, etc. not to mention all the
>> landing gymnastics every time I trailer.  Is it just me or is it a design
>> flaw.  The trailer axle should be about 6-8 inches back or something.  Can
>> anyone offer some insight, please?  Pretty please?
>> 
>> Slim
>> 
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> 
>