WHAT WOULD YOU DO ( trailer theft)

[russ81]

After hearing about OUT-STATIONS's" trailer theft I thought I would ask the question "What do you do if you return to find your trailer gone?"
Myself i have no idea apart from calling the police and the insurance company.

What do you do with your boat in the mean time?
I am very interested to find what people who have had this happen have done, also does anyone have a contingency plan if it unfortunately happens to them.

It is very unfortunate that we live in a world where we cant turn our back for one second without having our hard earned possessions stolen.

[tigermullet]

I am hoping that this thread will come up with some solutions. My idea was to race home and borrow a friend's trailer - he had the same size boat- dump his boat on the grass, recover my boat, dump my boat on the lawn, return, put his boat back on his trailer and then sort out the mess.

That idea is now useless as he has gone to a much larger boat and I don't know anyone with an approximate sized boat.

From a story heard ten days ago, another boatie obviously had the same solution in mind. On returning to Jacobs Well and discovering his trailer missing he asked a couple of blokes on the shore to keep an eye on his boat while he went to borrow a trailer.

You guessed it... on arrival back at Jacobs Well with the borrowed trailer his boat was gone too.

I cannot vouch for the veracity of that story but can imagine such a thing happening.

[boombah]

I was faced with the same situation in Sydney 10 years ago. Returned to the ramp at 3 in the morning to find my trailer missing. Luckily, I was driving tailgate trucks at the time so it was easy for me to shoot home and grab the truck and throw the 4m quinnie in the back. When I launched the boat there were some young guys fishing near the ramp and were obviously drunk, and have no doubt these guys were involved and rather than stealing the trailer they would have taken it and dumped it in the water for a laugh. As the water is 15metres deep off the shore with a strong tidal flow I didnt bother trying to salvage it and went out and got a 2nd hand trailer the very next week. In their hurry to get out of there they left 2 rods leaning up against the wall they had been fishing off....if only they weren't mugs and their gear might have been worth keeping....As far as trying to transport a larger unit ...short of hiring some sort of trailer...one of the various specialised transport companies would do it..ie flat top with a Hiab crane......rollers with a tilt tray...there are many ways it could be done..all of them costly and inconvenient especially on weekends....Hope things work out

Boombah

[finga]

If it was a bigger boat I'd go to one of the marinas and get a temporary birth until I sorted the mess out.
If it was a tinny then get a few blokes and lift onto a car trailer or the such or I'd ask VMR/coastguard if I could dump it in their yard for a day or two for a fee.

[Roughasguts]

I put a pad lock in place of the shackle, on my safety chain straight to the tow bar.

Then the square tube that holds the tow ball extension, the pin that holds that in place has a key locked pin. After that I could still put a lock on the trailers lift coupling. So thats at least two or 3 locks to get through.

But if she was gone cause every thing can be flogged.

I would hire a car trailer, closest servo that does hire, get about 4 pine logs as rollers,
Drive the trailer in the drink and winch her on with the logs bearing the weight.

Couple of tyres would be nice as well.
Couple of ropes off the rear tie downs a strap over the normal spot and she should be right to take home.

Than send a trailer back that's gonna rust out unless gal.

[Hamish73]

I'm sure the water police or vmr would let you tie up overnight to their pontoon. Go and buy a trailer the next day. Will all this talk of theft, when we get our next boat I might look at joining MBTBC. I know it doesnt guarentee it not being stolen, but it would sure reduce the risk, not to mention you could keep your boat there until you sorted a solution.

[SunnyCoastMark]

I put a pad lock in place of the shackle, on my safety chain straight to the tow bar.

Then the square tube that holds the tow ball extension, the pin that holds that in place has a key locked pin. After that I could still put a lock on the trailers lift coupling. So thats at least two or 3 locks to get through.

But if she was gone cause every thing can be flogged.

I would hire a car trailer, closest servo that does hire, get about 4 pine logs as rollers,
Drive the trailer in the drink and winch her on with the logs bearing the weight.

Couple of tyres would be nice as well.
Couple of ropes off the rear tie downs a strap over the normal spot and she should be right to take home.

Than send a trailer back that's gonna rust out unless gal.

RoughasGuts,
Your name appears appropriate.
So let me get this straight - after having your trailer stolen - you would then hire someone else's trailer that is not made for saltwater immersion and ruin it by dunking it in the aforementioned saltwater?

The capacity for human beings to extend their misery on to others never ceases to amaze me.

Bad idea roughie.

My suggestion would be to go and knock on a few doors of those lovely canal homes - explain your plight and you are bound to find someone who will let you tie up to their pontoon for a few days until you sorted something out. Who knows - you might even make a friend?

If you are near a coastguard base - they may even let you tie up there for a day or two as well.

Mark

[Roughasguts]

Hi sunny coast Mark, A trailer is a trailer, your boat trailer is not neccesarilly designed to run in salt water either.

Same wheel bearings, same springs still made out of metal.
If it was a gal car trailer then it would be no differant to your boat trailer, most are made from Gal.

Of course you could still wash the trailer off with a gurnie.
And advice the owner and pay for a clean up choice is yours or who evers.

Hardly any boat ramps I use have homes any where near by.
So then what would you do.

SO yes i'm Rough, but my 30K boat will be home nice and safe.

[juju]

First id panic......if it was at nite id sleep in the boat overnite...then in the morning send someone to buy a trailer id guess......might get worse , i always have the trailer padlocked onto the 4x4 soif it was gone....ergh.........not llike the way the old man used to pull the distrubitor cap off the XY falcon....that would stuff em....
Came into redcliff one nite and there was a guy at the ramp sitting in his boat, someone had taken both the tyres off his trailer.....i had a spare , but one wouldnt get him far.......would be a real problem that i hope i never have to face..

[SunnyCoastMark]

Roughas,
Yeah/NO. Of course Boat trailers are designed for Saltwater - that's a no brainer.
I work as a manager for a Trailer company that manufactures/sells/distributes trailers all over Queensland and Nthn. NSW.
We also own a number of Hire Trailer companies and have probably 5,000 trailers Australia Wide.

Let me tell you that Car Carriers are NOT made from Gal as standard. If you advised us what you were doing - You would not be hiring a trailer from us.

If you're boat is worth $30,000 - a car carrier would be a pretty risky way of retreiving it anway.

Better to hire a tilt tray tow truck with some tyres and logs (as you suggested.) The tray doesn't have to go in the water.

Might cost $300 - but your boat will be safe.

Mark

[Roughasguts]

Hi Mark, Yep you may be right.
But if you find your trailer missing at 03:00 AM public holiday then your going to have a problem, getting a tow vehicle and so on.
Wife might need the car in the morning to take the kid to a doctors apointment, so many variables to take in to consideration.

Time, constrain'ts, personal funds, it all adds up to what you have to do.

Think I would have me boat on the trailer and the trailer washed off with in 30 minutes of loading it.

I bet you don't know half the stuff people do with hire trailers, over load, swap wheels, change light fittings, swap bent ramps for straight ones, as a hirer of anything you take these risks.

I bet the guy's that hire a 4WD expect it to go on the beach, and get a few scrapes under neath.

So how are boat trailers designed more for salt water ?
It's obvious i'm a no brainer.
They have keel rollers, wobble rollers, or skids, designed to cradle the boat.
But that's pretty much it, isn't it. (EDIT Oooops and maybe water proof lights).

I have had boat trailers that wern't Gal, standard Holden rims, and bearings.
40 years old and still resonable condition. Well that was 10 years ago the last time I seen it.

My current Mackay trailer will not last as long as that one, but maybe it wasn't designed for salt water.

Cheers.

[bootyinblue]

Suprised no one has said Call your insurance company and flick the problem to them!

Thats what you pay them for, to sort out problems like this. Cause with all these improvised retrieval methods, and during them you, dropped, bent, scraped, crushed, smashed your boat, then the insurance company might run a finer tooth comb through it than they normally do.

Have dealt with a couple of these jobs, and both times the insurance company organised a flat bed with crane and lifted the boat out of the water and dropped it in the yard of the owner for safe keeping till things got sorted through and new trailers were purchased.

[kingcook]

I guess guys, if it were my boat that was left without its trailer id do pretty much all i could do to get her home. I am from South Africa and I tell you, you are much better off here in anyones book, back in SA its unlikely even to tow your boat without a huge padlock on the hitch/coupling, never mind leave the trailer without a lock in the parking lot, if you don't lock the wheels and padlock the hitch you will most probably have your trailer nicked by the time you are off the water especially at night!

cheers

[Roughasguts]

First id panic......if it was at nite id sleep in the boat overnite...then in the morning send someone to buy a trailer id guess......might get worse , i always have the trailer padlocked onto the 4x4 soif it was gone....ergh.........not llike the way the old man used to pull the distrubitor cap off the XY falcon....that would stuff em....
Came into redcliff one nite and there was a guy at the ramp sitting in his boat, someone had taken both the tyres off his trailer.....i had a spare , but one wouldnt get him far.......would be a real problem that i hope i never have to face..

Yeah the old stolen wheels may be more common, every one has a wheel brace in there car and a jack. Not all have tow bars.

Hows about the wire rope or chain to secure the wheel and lock on to the frame of the trailer. Or maybe those mag wheel lock nuts. How about a cheap set of scratched up wheel covers to hide your flash rims.

If you make the trailer a little bit to hard to flog they surely won't bother trying in the first place.

[russ81]

I am currently lookig at investing in one of those wheel boots that coverboth the wheel nuts and prevent the wheels being turned this however is probably going to be an expensive exercise. but as everyone has said if they want it bad enough they r going to get it.
there has been some great ideas bought up and ii has helped open my eyes to what i would do in this situation
so thanks to all who have posted and keep those ideas rolling in
cheers
Russ