We bought a catamaran because we wanted something cheap, simple, and light. We also wanted something we could tow with our Ford Escorts.

A sail tube and a Tuff Box were a great addition, and have made it practical to sit in the Escort while we are towing our cheap and light boat. But yes, some people bought a catamaran because it is a simple boat that doesn't require a van or an expensive cat box.

I may be cheap and lazy, but our cars are paid off, and we don't need another one.

Jonathan

Last October we broke our mast after cartwheeling our Tornado under spinnaker in shallow water..... bows came up with mud on the tips. Gee it went over quick.

I gave the mast to a mate who did an excellent job sleeving it back together for next to nothing. I picked up the mast from him and drove home. At about 1.00 in the morning and half asleep I missed a turn and decided to make a U turn in the city. Dark, poor lighting and half asleep, I did not se that telegragh pole.......... Hello Marstrom, I would like to order a new must......ouch.

When I told my mate and my crew the next day they did not find my story very funny.

After a 5 week wait for a new mast, we fitted up the new stick and the next day began our drive down from Sydney to Melboure for the Sail Melboure Event, the first of the Australian Olympic selection regattas.

Just as we were exiting Sydney we sheered 3 of 4 studs on the left hand side of the trailer (The side with the lowest hull) The trailer got the death wobles and we imediatly pulled over. Would hate to of think what would happen if we lost that wheel.

Anyway we got it fixed and made the regatta. Down there Bundock and Forbes plus the Greek team noticed that we had removed our tramp. They advised us that this is not necessary unless it blows 40 knots on the trip.

For the trip home we left the tramp on and you guessed it, it blew 40 plus knots. Westerlies fueled by the Canberra Bush fires followed by a Southerly front that hit when we came into Sydney. Trailer was all over the place. Just put that foot down and bring the apparent wind around further. Quiet a scary trip.

For your bearings, try bearing buddies or their commercial equivilent.

I discovered this, fortunately, while launching at the beach. The U-bolt that secures the springs to the axle had come loose and the port side of the axle slid a couple of inches aft of the starboard side. A few minutes of moving the axle back to position and tightening the nuts on the U-bolt fixed the problem. The tire on that side was worn a bit due to crabbing down the road but real disaster was avoided on only the third outing of my new boat and trailer.

One disadvantage of trailering among so many high boxes on wheels (i.e.: "SUV's") is that the tippy box driver sits too high to easily notice the low brake lights on the trailer ahead of him/her. Raising the brake lights to the height of the big box's windshield is not necessarily the remedy because too many drivers are also convinced they can drive while constantly yapping about nothing on the phone (noticeable by their meandering path down the road).

My first and only accident was at the start of my second outing with the new boat. The girl behind me drove her Camry right into the stern. The cop couldn't believe she couldn't see a big yeller boat with two big brake lights sitting in a turn lane at a red light. Her insurance paid for a new rudder but that, and a few scratches, was all my boat suffered. The trailer wasn't hurt but the impact did quite a bit of damage to her Camry and had to be towed. She had been on the phone to tell her boss that she would be late for work when she drove into the boat. I wish I had a jamming device that would affect mobile phones once they were within a few car lengths of my boat and trailer.

Pulling a trailer requires more of the boater these days because so many other drivers are distracted in their mobile dens of entertainment.

Traveling back from a Points Regatta in MI years ago a piece of firewood was laying in the middle of the Hiway. My wife centered the car over it. The front of the car missed it but the back of the car was lower. The car lifted the firewood enough to "center punch" the trailer axle. Instant toe in to the extreme. Wore the tires bald getting it to my Uncles place. I went back for it two days later with a come along and pulled the axle straight enough for the hour drive home. Had to replace the axle and two tires.

Do a walk about, look over and under the trailer. Don't be in a hurry. Check the trailer often, especially after about 10 - 25 miles into the trip. Don't back the trailer into the water, use beach wheels and get buddy bearings. Always carry a spare tire.

some of us can't afford the price gouging of the beachwheel industry

Every try to build your own using similar components? It's expensive - I tried to put a kit together from scratch. Not to mention that you can count on those things lasting for a LONG time.

All these near misses and crunch stories reminds me of a few other cautions I'd like to bring up from my own experience.

Note to self: Not all boat trailers will pass through the bank teller window. Fortunately my boat was at the beach and not on the trailer. But, it was about 2 inches too wide to fit through the two pipe bollards protecting the bank. It did go through, just not in tact. It only took a guy at the auto frame alignment shop an hour or two, and $183 to straighten it out though. Watch those drive-throughs!

One other incident that I witnessed, but was not part of -- was an 18 sq meter (11 foot beam) carried on it's trailer at an angle. Apparently they needed gas and decided to fill up at a covered gas station there in Gulf Breeze. Well, there it sat wedge under the canopy. I think they had to let the air out of the tires and back it out. Not pretty.

Hope this makes you think, and helps you learn from my mistakes.

Don
ARC22 #2226

Maugan, what are you replying to? This is about trailers, not beach wheels. And I'm not sure what you mean about the gouging. The reason beach wheels for catamarans are so expensive is because the market is very, very small. The only way beach-wheel makers survive is by making dollies for jet skis.

I borrowed a friend's trailerable mono to use as a comfy Race Comittee boat one time. While trailering it back to his house, it suddenly got wobbly. I pulled over quickly, and went back to the trailer. The bearings had siezed up, shattered, and the wheel was barely on the axle. Only reason it didn't come completely off is because it was on the right side, and I pulled off to the right.
I removed the wheel, gathered the bits & pieces of the bearing, and went to the nearest boat store, with a sad look on my face. They parts guy saw me coming with the greasy bits in my hand, and started laughing. Said he got at least one person a month come in for bearings, usually took them 3 trips to get the right size. As I described the trailer (what diameter is the axle, which bearing - inner race or outer race - huh?) he started looking at the bits & pieces I had brought in. Turns out one of them was big enough to actually contain a legible part number, which he cross-referenced, and found out a replacement. I went back out to the trailer, installed it successfully.
Now if I have to borrow a trailer I'm unfamiliar with, I usually offer to check the bearings as compensation for borrowing it. I figure it's a cheap price to pay compared to a breakdown with a full load on a highway.

Ok, I'll own up to some stupidity:

One of the first few times we took out my TheMightyHobie18, we had a nice outing. When we brought the boat out of the water onto the trailer, we had to move it away from the launch area because others were waiting. We neglected to see the over head power lines The mast hit the wires and the boat fell off the trailer. About eight guys in the nearby park came by and carried the boat carefully away from the wires back onto the trailer. Even though we were rookies, we should have known better.

David Ho
TheMightyHobie18 1067

Mary: someone mentioned using beachwheels to put your boat in the water and not your trailer.

And I'm sorry to say, but those beach wheels are price gouging. I priced out the components to build one myself at the local agri-supply, and it came out to under $75. The only disadvantage being that mine was heavier because I could not find plastic hubs.

"Make sure that you tie your mast down, and do it well."

Here's one......pulling into our local sailing shop to let the guru look at something, it's a sharp turn into the parking lot from the street if you don't go in the back entrance. Going very slow I pulled into the lot making a sharp right....going real slow because there is a substantial curb/gutter at the driveway/street connection....felt like I was pulling real hard to get the trailer through that gutter then WHAM!!!! down comes the mast off the front support.....that's when I realized I wasn't stuck in the gutter, the mast base was against the building! Bent the tar out of the mast support, broke the "U" thing that sits at the top of the support. Incredibly, no damage to the mast (Thanks Supercat>>>>maybe the guy who broke the Marstrom mast should get one....if he wants a mast that outweighs his boat!) or to the building OR to my Jeep (soft top).

Next.....getting ready to go to Tradewinds last winter, I made sure to get a spare tire/wheel cause mine were a little dry rotted. I pulled the wheels and checked the bearings (used my garage tools to remove the lugs) drove on down to Key Largo. Got up Sat. morning psyched to race, walked out and found one of the tires on the trailer flat....no problem says I, I got me a spare....got out the tire bar from the Jeep....uh-oh....doesn't fit @#$@!*!!! Now I'm scrambling....ever try to find auto parts in the keys before 8:30....nothing moves down there before then (thanks to Mary for letting me use some of their tools!!!!) Finally got the wheel changed and even had time for a bite before heading out. Fortunately a guy across the street from Rick & Mary's (someone's trailer shop) sold me a new tire and mounted it on my rim Sat. afternoon so I would have a spare for the ride home Sunday!!!!!

Thats a great price for those components. I wasn't aware that agri-supply houses carried delrin bearings. I have a set of Cat-Trax I purchased for about $300. Best 300 I've spent. I have also researched building my own but any components to build it cheaper were not the same. I would think that for $75 you could put something together but it would not be the SAME materials as the marketed wheels. But as I am the eternal optimist I guess it is possible. We'll be looking for your wheels to be available soon on the Catsailor.com website for sale at $150 or so.

Good luck,
Clayton

I could do it.

I don't think I have the capital investments to buy parts en masse however.

They aren't delrin bearings, they are self-contained steel ones... I know I know what you're gonna say... "WHAT ABOUT THE SAND!?!?"

These bearings run about $10 a set and are sealed much in the way that rollerblade bearings are. They last a long time and aren't all that difficult to clean

of course, I could make delrin bearings for them, at work, we have barrels upon barrels of delrin "beads", fabbing a hub, runners and the bearings themselves however would be a chore, and costly.

The humiliation of having to pull a jet-ski trailer for a friend! OW that hurt!

There are several reasons boat trailers have so many wheel bearing problems:

One, they tend to just sit for long periods. Don't underestimate this one folks. Bearings are ment to spin. Just sitting in one place with weight on will cause flat spots to develope. Jack up your trailer and set it on blocks for the winter. Or better yet, take it out to the beach and go sailing once in a while .

Two, trailer manufacturer's use the smallest, cheapest bearings they can get away with. The industry is price driven, everybody shops prices and buys the cheapest.

Three, high wheel RPM. Get the largest diameter wheels and
tires that will fit under the fender if you tow long distances. Circumference is Pi x Radius squared. Do the math and find out how much harder your trailer bearings are working compared to your car wheel bearings. Again, your trailer probably came equipped with the smallest, cheapest ones the dealer could find.

Four: water getting into the bearings. Usually this happens
when you submerge the hubs for boat launching. Initially this doesn't cause much harm. But when the bearing heats up
on the road this moisture can be converted to steam, effectively "steam cleaning" the grease off of the hottest part of the bearing. Bearing Buddys help this problem. But
be carefull when packing the hubs with a pneumatic grease gun. I have seen quite a few inner grease seals blown off by overzealous grease pumping, making it easier for water to get in.

As Forest Gump says: "That's all I have to say about that"

Good luck
The Grease Monkey

I just bought a used Prindle and of course the trailer needed just about everything. Once I got the new lights on and new mast cradle and this and that, I went to tackle the wheels. Once i got the hubs off and took the bearings out it looked like the sahara desert inside the hub. Not really sure how it made the 30 min trip to my house. Point being that never trust the wheels to be OK. Always check them and rebuild if needed. After doing all the other work I almost decided to let the wheels go. I would not have made it 30 min down the road before disaster would have taken over. Its not a hard job if you have the right tools. You just have to be careful to put everything back together correctly. If not, grease will escape very quickly and you will burn out the wheel. I have seen burnt out trailer wheels where the heat melted the axle and the whole chabang went rolling off ahead of the car, Hub and all. As has been said already, bearing buddys are the best way to keep the grease in the hub as well as being able to tell if it needs more by the looking at the buddy itself.
Good Luck trailering.,.,.,.,}=)))*>

you guys have me all nervous now. Tomorrow I'm towing my cat like 300 miles :P

I replaced the bearings a little over a year ago though, so they should be fine. Going to replace them again in a week, or at least repack them.

Unless rusty water runs out when you remove the cap, repacking will be all you need.
Jack