Aluminum boat trailer

[Dos Pelones]

Hello,

We are having an aluminum boat trailer built for our 26 foot Blackman Express, Dos Pelones, formerly known as the Seanna and Mac Attack.
I saw in an earlier thread that Secret Spot had a trailer built by Alex at AB Trailers. We are going that route also.

Alex says he doesn't have the template and needs some basic measurements to fit the trailer to the boat even though he has built several trailers for Blackmans. Anyone out there have this experience? I am waiting for his fax request of desired measurements but I feel a bit apprehensive and wonder how easy it is to screw this up?
Thanks in advance!

Jorge

[Time Out]

I had a galvinized trailer built for my 26 billfisher Pacific built the trailer. They needed the boat at the plant so exact measurment could be taken . Pacific loaned me a easy loader trailer they built the new trailer and transfered the boat to new trailer I dont know if you have contacted them they have all the measurments to build with now.

[Secret Spot]

When the trailer was built for the Secret Spot I used an angle finder to find the deadrise degree and measured the lift strake positions from both the sides and vee of the boat. The Secret Spot was on a trailer at the time so I used the existing locations for the bow stop, axel, and transom positioning.

When I picked up the new trailer and brought it home, I re-measured the bunk and bow stop locations. I had to make a few simple adjustment and checked all fastners for tightness. I then took the trailer and the Secret Spot down to the ramp for loading. I brought tools in the event addtional adjustments were needed. Put her on the trailer and saw where I could improve positioning. Put her back in the water and moved the bow stop forward and lowered the bunks. Voila! The best towing trailer I have owned. So far, I am extremely happy.

Larry

[Wizard]

Too bad Aros doesn't build trailers for Blackman's anymore. I'm really glad to have an Aros under my boat. I wonder if Aros has the measurements and would be willing to share them since they don't build (they only repair) trailers anymore? Probably not, I don't know, was just a thought.

[Dos Pelones]

Thanks everyone and especially Larry. That is just the info I needed. I have talked to Alex several times who explained what he needed and with that and Larry explaing where he measured plus the built in leeway for adjustment I feel much better about fitting the boat and trailer without taking the boat there. No way I was towing this boat to Pacoima on its original EZ ON EZ OFF trailer.
Having had Vansons, EZ Loaders, Trailrites,who by the way are now making trailers for Blackman Boats, Pacific (who can ever forget the monospring fiasco) and a few homemade trailers in the past I am done with steel trailers and leaf springs. Semi trailers have been built with aluminum frames and torsion bar suspension for years. Its about time someone started building boat trailers that way too in California.

Baja will be the test as always. I went with the 15,000 lb tri-axle, electric over hydraulic disc brakes on 2 axles. The Express model is the lightest model so even if I lose an axle the trailer still has 12,000 pound capacity and we can limp into el taller.

Now my next question is: How does everyone button there boats and trailers together for Baja trips beyond the Coral? Turnbuckles, cables, straps? I have used all and never had a serious problem but would love to hear other folks's ideas. The goal is to keep the boat on the trailer in a worst case what if that happened scenario.

Anyways, great board loaded with info! Hope my brother and I, dos pelones (2 bald guys) can contribute. We both have a lot of experience on the water, he in California and I in Baja and we now have a boat which works in both places! Our previous boats were really just fancy skiffs and anymore we too old for that.

ps: my brother called me from Cat harbor this afternoon and lots of boats yesterday had caught c-bass. They were going to Clemente tonight and had bait in the tank already and when am I going to finish working on the boat and get it back in the water? LOL!

Jorge

[Wizard]

I towed my boat down to San Quintin a couple of months ago. We won't go into details about how crazy it is launching/recovering a 26' Blackman down there but, as far as how I tied her down, I put cushions on the gunnels and used a monster ratchet strap around the cockpit down to the trailer to make sure she didn't move around. Truth be told, these boats full of fuel are heavy enough to sit on the trailer without much extra need to tie em down. Semi trucks passing me going 65 the other direction didn't even cause me hardly any sway.