Just towed home another boat

[2manyboats]

Hi All, Just purchased an Albin 25 in Port Isabel, Tx and and towed it to Lakeland, Fl. Smooth trip except for one tire and one broken axle. My wife and I plan to use it winters in Fl and summers in Maine. We hope to make some of the Albin rendezvous in our travels.

Thank you to the group that make this site possible.

Wayne and Judy Clark

[catalina_mike]

Congrats let the work begin!

[2manyboats]

Thanks for the welcome. The boat is in really good condition but we want to make it ours and you know that means money and work until we get it right

[DesertAlbin736]

Welcome aboard 2manyboats! Albin 25 is a great choice for what you have in mind. We brought ours home to the Pheonix area from where we bought it in Idaho in March of 2014 and since then have trailered it close 9,000 road miles all over the country and roughly 750 miles on the water for cruises including Erie Canal, Block Island Sound, Thames and Pawcatuck Rivers in RI & CT, Chesapeake Bay, in the East and San Juan and Gulf Islands in Washington State and British Columbia in the Pacific NW.

There's so much you can do on the East Coast between Florida and Maine with an Albin 25, including the ICW, North Carolina, the Chesapeake, New England, and on and on. Having a big boat is nice, but with a 25 footer you can go anywhere and everywhere, not being limited to any one geographic area,be it coastal or inland lakes. And fuel costs won't break the bank.

So again, congrats and welcome the gang! You just got yourself perhaps the most fuel efficient trailerable pocket trawler/cabin cruiser of all time.

[kerrye]

Broken axle on the trailer? I considered that boat if it's the one I'm thinking of. Doubt there was more than one for sale in Port Isabel. Owner wasn't forthcoming about its history to me.

[whwells]

Welcome & Congra's on the new boat. Towed another boat home? Sounds like the words that are always getting me in trouble. Enjoy the good times.
whwells "Howard"

[2manyboats]

kerrye, I'm pretty sure it's the same boat. The owner had only put a couple of hours on the boat so he probably wasn't overly intimate with the workings of the boat. The boat had been restored about three years prior. It was done pretty well. Almost every thing I would have done given the time and money. The only thing I'm planning to change is; add my 10" plotter, Radar and hopefully an autopilot.

DesertAlbin; Thanks for the welcome. My wife and I have spent many weekends crusing the coast of Maine, particulary Penobscot Bay. Now that we are retired we hope to tow the boat to different locals. perhaps our paths will cross and we can talk boats over a frosty.

Wayne

[kerrye]

I'm curious about the trailer axle problem (if it was the trailer). I've ever had a trailer axle problem so I'd like to know what and how it happened if possible and any advice you might have on how to avoid axle breakage.

[2manyboats]

Kerrye sorry for the delay, i had laptop problems this week. The trailer axle broke at the mid point. It's a continential trailer, Aluminum except for the axles which are galvanized , the axles have a dropped center which allowed the water to pool and rot the tubes. When I stopped for fuel, I had to cramp the car and trailer into a 90 degree angle which caused the axle to break. I was able to tow the trailer about 5 miles, slowly, to a shop where we welded on braces which allowed me to complete the 250 miles to home.

Both axles will get changed; new brakes; ready to travel to new cruise destinations

Wayne

[2manyboats]

Kerrye;

As a side note, The axles do not have a lot of stress in the middle, all the stress and load bearing is at the frame rails. If I had a strong stick and a couple of ratchet straps I probably could have driven on smooth roads at 60 miles per hour. Also the axles looked really good, but under the galvanizing they were swiss cheese. Next time I move a boat 1400 miles I'll check stuff a little closer.

Wayne

[Jeremyvmd]

I had the same thing happen on a jetski trailer I got used. Snapped right in the middle but I was able to lash a stick to the axle to make it the 10miles home...

[kerrye]

Thanks. Good info there. It had never occurred to me that axle built like that would rot in the middle. I have a similar thing happen to a part of my F-24 trailer which also allowed water in with no drain. If a person has a trailer with axles like that it might be wise to drill a drain hole at the low point.

[Jeremyvmd]

I'll go ahead and ask the question...with a name like 2manyboats, what else u got? Lol

[DesertAlbin736]

Just curious about that broken trailer axle, is that with conventional leaf springs or torsion bar suspension? Like yours, our trailer is also aluminum, but has torsion bar suspension axles with Kodiak disk brakes, in this case a 1999 model year by Performance Trailers, a Florida company which has since gone out of business. When we first got our boat we had some issues with cracked welds on the forward-most cross member, which we had repaired & reinforced at a local weld shop, cost $760.

This summer we had issues with sticking disk brake calipers, which chewed up a set of pads and trashed two of the four rotors beyond the point where they could be salvaged by having them turned. That item racked up $670 in parts and labor, some of which I was able to save on by installing the parts myself. Add to that $540 for a set of new tires last year, since the previous owner lied when he said the tires on the trailer were "new" but were actually 10 years old and barely got us home from picking the boat up in Idaho.

[kerrye]

Is aluminum welding that much more expensive than steel welding. I had that kind of work done on my galvanized F-24 trailer for less than $200.