How far have you towed your boat?

[marty+jojo]

The thread about tyre pressure has got me wondering, have i been doing the wrong thing only running 30PSI in my trailer tyres? I have a 4.2mtr tinnie with full floors, battery, electric motor 40hp outboard, i don't know the weight of the whole rig but the trailer is not braked.
For the last 6 years i have owned this boat i have done a few long trips. Not long after i bought it i did a trip from Brisbane to Cardwell roughly 1750km, i had spare bearings greased up and ready to go in all the tools needed and checked the tyres and spare at each fuel and piss stop.
On the way up we took our time with a bit of sight seeing, on the way back i did not muck around, only stopping for fuel and to have a leak and a quick check of the whole rig, it took 18.75 hours.
I felt relieved to tow my boat that far and home again with no problems. So how far has everyone towed there boats and what problems have you struck?
Marty.

[pop_eye]

I have towed one of my vessels from Brisvagas to Coburg. Pensula and back via the Savana way, new light truck tyres don't fail mate. Run about 30 psi as well depending on road surface. Dirt 28 psi.

[whatscracken]

Towed my 4.2m tinnie from Brisbane to Bowen with no worries. Have a Sealink tralier and 13 inch wheels but put single gal leaf springs on it to handle the extra weight as I loaded it up with a fair bit of stuff. I drove straight through on the way home in the middle of summer and I too had in the back of my mind about the tyres and bearings giving me trouble but it was all good.

[tunaticer]

Hi Marty,
Done several trips as far north as Cairns with my 4.1 tinny and i usually try to keep my tyre pressures to between 25 and 30psi for road trips, for offroad and corrugated roads i drop the pressures to about 20psi to take the shock out of the trailer and to conserve the bearings. Corrugations are also killers for bearing buddies unless they are bolted in place as I have done now.
I have a fairly high profile tyre on my trailer so i can run at slightly reduced pressures to take the jaring out of the system whilst being towed. Nothing worse for your trailer and boat than hard tyres and potholes or rough conditions.

At a rough guesstimate my trailer has done around 50-60 thousand km on long hauls (greater than 100km) with no major faults apart from losing bearing buddies about 6 times and losing one bearing due to a lost buddy on the way to Stanage Bay.

[STUIE63]

I bought my last two boats a 4,5m tiller steer tinny and a 5.5m glass c/c in Brisvegas and towed both home easily . tow the c/c from Lucinda to home every now and then for services and such also
Stuie

[RJ5023]

Towed many long trips - longest from Adelaide to Coburg.

Light truck tyres at about 35psi. Boat is 4.6mtr side console tinny with full floor and 95ltr tank - tow weight loaded is about 850kg.

Never have used the rated tyre pressure (55psi from memory). At that pressure the trailer would be bouncing all over the road and would probably end up with damage to boat hull or rollers. I think lower pressure lets the tyres take more of the shock from bumps, corrugations etc.

Never had a problem due to tyre pressure/heat, but check tyres/hub temp at every stop.

Cheers,

[ozscott]

Towed my 6.4 metre 'glass Seafarer Vagabond from Brisbane to Glenlyon dam and return...thats a pretty fair trip for a boat that size and weight - about 5 hours each way allowing for some short stops for the kids...dual axle 13 inch wheels and light truck tyres at about 60psi.

Cheers

[walruss]

Went from Melbourne to Cairns return with my 650 Patriot loaded to the hilt. (About 10K km;s)

No problems at all short of a few things rattling loose.

Tyres were pretty close to max. Put over the weighbridge at 2.7T.

Russ

[ozscott]

...that is likely to be the record Russ!

[haggis]

not sure if i should reply going by the distance that many of you have travelled ,
the furthest that i have been is lake awoonga from brissy , the first few time the trailer had only ten inch wheels on it then the next rig a few times but had 13 inch car tyres on it then the new set up has been up to awoonga then up to monduran (back home the same day we got there after fishing all day ) on 13 inch light truck tyres all at between 32 & 36 psi with no problems what so ever
cheers haggis .

[Luke G]

Towed a 4.5T Boston Whaler from Newcastle to The top of W.A. 6k km in 4 days - it was a mission.

[russ81]

Hows i going guys ive done two big trips first was about 8000km with my 5.6 trailcraft sportscab and the second was 4500km with my 429 proline angler both trips i ran about 30psi never had any dramas with tyres or bearings once i finished both trips though i replaced the bearings just to be safe the first trip i did in 6 days and he second 55hrs i just kept on eye on the grease through the trip and it was sweet makes you wonder why you see so many trailers on the side of the road.

maybe i was just lucky

Russ

[Bear001]

Same story here - 13inch light truck tyres and running around 20-25psi for out to the local dams and 25-30 long highway trips.

I checked our wheel bearings all the way up to Wello and back last Sept (about 6hrs each way) - no problems. 4m Hornet tot weight about 450kg

[Flex]

Every year I tow a 4.5m boat on a custom offroad(weighs about 1-3/4 tonnes.) trailer from Brisbane to cape york about 4000km's by road and another 800-1000kms of dirt rough 4x4 stuff.
Light truck tyres are the key and check the trailer bolts etc every stop.

Always feel the temp of your bearings at each stop, and give the wheel a wobble by hand, if the bearings are failing the wheel will move and be hot.

I always pack the bearings before each trip. sometimes we go 3-4 years without probs with a good set of bearings, put new ones in last year and they had to be replaced this year, just a bad batch i suppose.

Generally speaking tyres last around 3-4 years before we start to notice our blow out rate increasing. This trip we lost 2 tyres, one coming back on bitumen and the other a tree root passed through it offroad
Previous year had 0 blow outs.

I think if your doing alot of highway travel, you'll want to go a larger tyre diameter. causes alot less drama IMO

[welder]

1600 miles at 50 psi one way
Total weight of rig is right at 6000 pounds

Just got back last week from Florida , left from Texas, 2090 mile round trip and had one tire bubble and a 2nd blow.

New tires [ 5 ] soon.