A25 trailer manufacturer in NE?

[FrankD]

Currently looking at a few A25’s
One has no trailer and the others trailer is not what I would want to take the distances I hope to travel.
The earlier displacement hull I am looking for is not a typical straight bunk trailer design.
As I would be showing up with the trailer to load said boat and bring home.....a trailer that fits would be kinda nice.
Anyone know of a trailer builder in the E to NE that is both familiar with the A25 displacement hull and not too crazy $$ wise?
Thanks

[kerrye]

Owens and Sons (Slide On Aluminum Trailers--St Petersberg FL) built the trailer under my boat about 10 years ago. Cost was about $4500 back then. Very nice trailer. They probably still have the specs on the build although the owner of our Albin 25 at the time who had bought the boat without a trailer lowered the bunks at the time he had the Albin craned on to the trailer. I would not have lowered it as much as he did but it's very easy to launch and recover. I believe he had the trailer shipped from FL to ME where the boat was.

[kerrye]

Here's a picture of the trailer after the PO towed it from ME to TX It has marine electric brakes. One thing I really like about their trailers is that they are bolted together with stainless fasteners and not welded so there are no welds to fail.

Tom side view a25.jpg

[tego]

Loadmaster in Port Clinton OH has the specs for the 27FC and has built several. They build to very good specs in steel. Their trailer for the 27 allows for travel lift straps.. It's a great road rig and supports the boat well. They probably have the 25 specs also. You can see the trailer for the 27 on their website. Give Megan a call @ (800) 258-6115. Ben

[Beta Don]

If you're looking to use your A25 as a trailer boat, taking it long distances and bringing it back home, I agree that a 15 or 20 year old trailer isn't going to be what you want - There is nothing more demoralizing that sitting beside the road with a very heavy boat sitting on an old broken down trailer. Life doesn't get much worse than that!

For regular use, a newer aluminum trailer with stainless disc brakes is what you want, but a new one will probably run you from $5K to $6.5K - If you've ever been beside the road broken down you would probably agree it's worth every penny

On the other hand, if you're just looking at buying an A25 far from home and only need to get it there one time, hiring a boat mover to get it home would be the most cost efficient method. But if you want to travel a good bit after that . . . .

Whoever builds your trailer should be able to get it fairly close to fitting correctly, but the first time you mate the boat to the trailer should be at a marina with a Travel Lift, so final adjustments to make the trailer fit the boat can be made by raising and lowering the boat to the trailer several times while adjusting the bunks

I prefer trailers with 16 inch wheels and Load Range E rated (10 ply) tires, rather than the little 15" special trailer tires which are Load Range C. A dual axle trailer with 'real' tires is much preferable to a triple axle trailer with lesser tires, IMO. When you blow a tire on a triple, the other two aren't far behind

Whatever you get, new trailer tires every 5 years are pretty much a must if you want to go long distances without breakdowns

Don

[FrankD]

Thanks Ben and Kerrye for the manufacturer info. Appreciate it!
Don, I’ve trailered boats from home in Ontario Canada to Florida and back multiple times. Have trailered my motorsailor right across the country through the USA up into BC. I agree a good trailer is essential.... which is why my question was about locating manufacturers familiar with A25’s on the east coast.

[markdbecker]

Ticaboo's Trailer.JPG

Here is my trailer for Ticaboo my 1970 Albin 25 #575. Easy on easy off have towed her all over the US.

[FrankD]

Thanks
Good looking trailer.
Michigan is hotting distance for me
Do you have the builders contact?

[hetek]

My A25 just sits on an aluminum tandem axle trailer with straight bunks. Not very supportive to the curved hull so I plan to scribe the bunks to the curve.

Speaking of trailering an Albin 25... Where's DesertAlbin? He's a world traveler over the road with his!

[markdbecker]

Thanks
Good looking trailer.
Michigan is hotting distance for me
Do you have the builders contact?

The 2nd owner Jim Merrill out of Page Arizona took a shore lander trailer and did a custom build on it himself for Ticaboo. He then pulled her out to Page Arizona from Petoskey Michigan on it. He did a awesome job on it and it pulls like a dream. Jim passed in 2012. The ladder upfront makes it easy to get on and off the boat when its on the trailer....

[DesertAlbin736]

Speaking of trailering an Albin 25... Where's DesertAlbin? He's a world traveler over the road with his!

I'm here! We didn't do a whole lot of trailering with the boat this year, only one round trip from Phoenix to Huntington Beach (Los Angeles) in mid July for a week long cruise out to Catalina Island. This summer was the year for RV traveling. We arrived back home 11 days ago after 54 days on the road, 28 states, 2 Canadian provinces & 9,800 road miles, including from as far West as Arizona, Utah & Idaho, as far north as Quebec to as far east as Bar Harbor, Maine to as far south as Fort Pierce, Florida.

I can't say much about fitting a new trailer to an Albin 25, since what we have we inherited from former owners. Several choices to make, steel or aluminum, painted or galvanized, tandem or triple, leaf springs or torsion bar axles, disk brakes or drum, bunks or rollers, surge, pure electric, or electric over hydraulic brake actuators.

What we have is aluminum, tandem axle, 15 inch load range E tires, torsion bar suspension, disk surge brakes on both axles. We have had issues with cracked cross member welds, so the idea of a trailer bolted together instead of welded makes sense. We have bunks that run from the back of the boat to about a foot and a half aft of the front end of the main cabin trunk. But they are supported at each cross member by adjustable 1" galvanized steel box channel struts that can force the bunks to follow the curve of the hull. the keel is supported by center rollers at each of six cross members. With the Albin 25 you have the issue of the keel which curves downward at the prop & rudder. You want a trailer with the frame as low to the ground as practicable, since unlike boats with outdrives, you can't tilt the prop up, and your waterline will likely be at least three to four feet above ground level, hence the need to back pretty far in to float off.

We had rollers on the trailer for our previous sailboat, and I'd say either type would be satisfactory, as long as the trailer, wheels, and tires are rated to support the weight of boat + trailer, which is our case is a couple hundred pounds short of 7,000 pounds in all up weight in the case of the Albin, and 8,300 pounds (as measured on a truck scale, the main reason for having a 3/4 ton diesel truck, which is somewhat overkill for what we have now) for our previous Catalina 25 sailboat. With the roller trailer we would only release the bow winch when the boat was backed far enough in to float off and not roll off the trailer prematurely.

This was our home on wheels for 8 weeks this summer.

20170829_092738.jpg

Our boat has been sitting high & dry since July, but we're going to get out on our local lake next weekend, as the weather is finally starting to cool off a bit, as in mid to upper 80s & low 90s.

DSCN3631.JPG

[WillieC]

"hence the need to back pretty far in to float off."

Pull the boat clear of the trailer before driving away with the truck. Ah, life lessons...

While you're at it, unhook the safety chain when you are ready to bump the boat off the bunks. Ah, more life lessons...

If practice makes perfect...hmmm, I still have a ways to go.

I am looking for Hood Canal property with a deep water dock. This trailering s..t leaves a bit to be desired.

[NickScheuer]

The trailer under our Deluxe A-25 is a lot like Desert Albin's, however, I'm considering changing it to feature rollers. I believe I'd need professional help from a trailer shop for that. download/file.php?mode=view&id=14775

[dkirsop]

Nick, your trailer would be an easy conversion to rollers. On another thread I posted pictures of my trailer which is very similar to yours, you can see them here viewtopic.php?f=28&t=10526 Set up would be easier with a hoist but this is not necessary. A hoist was unavailable to me but I configured the setup using blocks and props with the trailer as the lift.

Willie C - patience grasshopper! It takes practice but I can now launch and retrieve without drama! People now turn around and walk away disappointed when I launch and retrieve my boat! My launch has no deck alongside and the hardest skill to learn was how to aim the boat and "ease" it in to stay centred on the trailer. And I do have to "bump" it off when launching. Again, it is not so much a bump as a nudge. This is due to the limitations of my ramp and not the boat and trailer.

[WillieC]

Yeah, grasshopper! I should turn the whole affair over to the Starfleet Commander. She is much more methodical than I. On our home ramp, which is high tide accessible only, 11' plus, we often get challenging crosswinds. I have sunk an anchor close in that I often attach a stern line to once the boat passes when we want to bring the boat out of the water. This helps amazingly with aligning the boat with the trailer. But try to explain the operation to the SC??? "Just let out a little as I crank the hook." "Why are you yelling at me!"