An end to those low down aluminum trailer blues...

[DesertAlbin736]

Ever since we bought our boat in 2014 it's been a love hate relationship with the 1999 aluminum trailer it came with. First, right off the bat upon arriving home with the boat after the initial 850 mile trip down to Phoenix from the PO's place in Idaho I noticed cracked welds on the first cross member right under the bow that I hadn't noticed when we picked up the boat. I talked the PO into rebating $500 off the price we paid.

Here were some of the problems then...

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And a crack through the vertical part of the I beam frame near where it angles in toward the tongue

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The problem was the bouncing flex stress at the angle aggravated by the distance between the angle and the trailer hitch. This tended to cause the I beam frame rails to twist outward & break the welds. Definitely a design flaw.

So in 2014 I took the trailer to a weld shop (with the boat off the trailer) & spent $740 on these repairs:

Cracks ground out & re-welded, gussets added

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And outside reinforcing plates added.

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That seemed to do the trick for a while until last year (after 16,000 more total road miles) when those welds cracked again, this time worse than the first time.

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In addition, an end of the galvanized steel angle cross member at the winch tower broke off. All this from the twisting & bouncing forces of a 5,000 lb boat, leaving the frame twisted outward & dangerously weak.

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So my sailing club buddy & boat shop owner who did my paint work suggested a welder he knows who had done work for him, one who turned out to be a real "crackerjack" (meaning expert) welder. So for $1,150 in labor and materials, of which $460 was for materials since the cost of aluminum has gone up, did these repairs, "boxing in" the I beam with 3/8" thick plates (he has access to industrial press brake cutting machine) on the insides & outsides of the I beams from 5 feet in front of the angle to 3 feet behind, added another C channel cross member 16 inches behind the winch tower which is also welded to the front end of the inside boxing plates and fixed the broken part at the winch tower by bolting on 4" wide steel "C" channel & painted with "galvie" paint. The ends of the boxing plates are left open so water can drain. Now instead of a simple I beam it's square box channel with three vertical parts.

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Also added 45* angle box channel braces on that first cross member at the angle

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Moral of the story: Just because aluminum doesn't rust doesn't mean no problems. Our trailer is not solid as a rock. Where else could you get this kind of quality work for under $1,200? This welder is 64 years old, started welding on his daddy's farm when he 8 years old, has worked for Allied Signal and TRW and ran his own business with several employees and three mobile welding rigs until the '08 recession & now works for a structural steel fabrication plant, retained one mobile welding truck & does side jobs like this in his spare time. Who else does this kind of work for $65/hour for the first 3 hours & $55/hour labor thereafter & does it all for 12 hours' total labor?

These last photos were taken before I finished re-installing side marker lights & re-hanging the brake line & trailer light wires.

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[Dieselram94]

Looks awesome, I really hope this fixes your problem. My trailer is brand new and has a lot of flex in the same place. It’s aluminum like yours but I suspect a different brand, I don’t tow anywhere near the miles you do so I hope I never have a issue. I’m definitely going to watch to see if you get anymore cracks, I hope you don’t. I’m wondering now if I should have bought a galvanized trailer instead...

[DesertAlbin736]

I’m definitely going to watch to see if you get anymore cracks, I hope you don’t. I’m wondering now if I should have bought a galvanized trailer instead...

Bear in mind my trailer is now 20 years old. In addition to the road miles we've racked up over the last five years, with previous owners it had been towed from south Florida where the trailer was built & purchased new to Ontario, Canada, and from Ontario to Idaho when the owners previous to us bought it in 2001. The one way distance from Ontario, Canada to American Falls, ID is about 1,900 miles. Those owners made one or more trips from American Falls, Idaho to the San Juans & several to Lake Powell. From American Falls, ID to Anacortes, WA is 780 miles each way.

If this last repair doesn't do the trick nothing will. I have no idea what trailer was used with our boat prior to 1999. But I know from documentation that was passed on to us that during the mid 1980s it was owned by someone in Illinois. Where it was before that I have no idea. So far we know that at one time or another over its lifetime our boat has been in Lake Erie, Lake Powell, Erie Canal, Seneca & Cayuga Lakes in NY, Block Island Sound off Rhode Island, Pawcatuck & Thames Rivers in Connecticut, Nanticoke River in Delaware, Chesapeake Bay, east coast of Florida & out to the Bahamas, the San Juans & Gulf Islands in Washington & B.C., trailered across Vancouver Island to launch from Port Alberni & out to the Broken Group islands off the seaward side of Vancouver Island, up to Desolation Sound, out to Catalina Island from Huntington Beach in California, and of course our current home waters of Lake Pleasant in Arizona. I'd guess Hira Reid's "Shatoosh" is one of the few Albin 25's that has seen more miles of cruising than our boat.

As you can see, the length from the angle to the trailer hitch is quite long where it was unsupported by any additional cross members. Overall the trailer is over 30 feet long with the axles placed close to the back end at about a 70:30 ratio of overall length. When you think of how much of the boat's weight rests between the axles and the bow stop and how rough some interstate highways have become lately that is a lot of cyclical stress. Pros are that it tracks straight as an arrow and is long enough to allow backing in to the water far enough to float the boat off without getting the truck too far into the water, depending on the steepness of the ramp about to where water's edge is just behind the driver's door. The cons are that besides the flexing issues the long wheel base means wide turns around corners are necessary so you really have to watch it in tight turns.

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Yes, knowing what I know now I would opt for a galvanized steel trailer if given the choice.

[Dieselram94]

After seeing your trailer issues, I’m really happy I didn’t choose the size smaller trailer that was next to this one at the trailer dealer. It was something like a grand cheaper, but everything was smaller, especially the ibeams that you are having the issues with. Mine are way bigger than that other trailer, length would have worked but the bigger everything sold me on this one.

[WillieC]

Bigger, stouter, beefier, better equipped is the way to go. We cheaped on our trailer, justifying it by saying we would only use it for the 100' drive from our ramp to the driveway. Works fine for that but requires every bit as much maintenance as DA's trailer does, except for the welding...yet. And we are pretty much limited to the 100 feet. Took it to Blaine last year and tested every ripple on I-5, thinking each one would be the last, ultimately collapsing the trailer into the pavement and launching the boat a bit prematurely into oncoming traffic. (I have been told I catastrophize...)

When we returned last summer from our travels north, we had enough time to boat on home and ended up hauling the trailer empty back to The Canal MUCH more fun.

[DesertAlbin736]

After seeing your trailer issues, I’m really happy I didn’t choose the size smaller trailer that was next to this one at the trailer dealer.

Yes, it wouldn't matter so much if it was primarily a "yard trailer" or for short hauls like WillieC was talking about. According to the BC Albineer A25 history page, the Albin 25 displaces 1.75 "tonnes", by which I presume they mean metric tons. If so, that translates to 3,858 lbs. With gear, fuel & water tankage, ground tackle, etc likely closer to 4,500 lbs, maybe more. Adding the weight of the trailer puts gross vehicle weight close to or over 6,000 lbs. When we first picked up our boat & trailer I stopped at a truck stop on the way home and put it on the scale. Detached from the truck with the tongue jack resting on the scale it weighed 6,050 lbs with a 70 lb dinghy hanging off the back (I now carry our dinghy on the back of the truck). Subtract tongue weight of 500 to 600 lbs and the trailer wheels are supporting around 5,500 lbs give or take. I run 225ST 75R15 load range E tires which are rated at 2,830 lbs capacity at 80 psi inflation each. Somewhat overkill since the two tires on each side of a tandem axle rig would add up to 5660 lbs capacity, almost enough to support the whole trailer. But if you lose one tire to a flat or blowout you've lost half of the load bearing capacity on that side & now you're down to one tire carrying 2,750 lbs (half of the total trailer weight) on that one tire, which is more than the load rating of a D range tire which is rated at 2540 lbs at 65 psi inflation . Add to that as a tire ages I'm sure the load carrying capacity declines some over time. Needless to say, if one tire blew and the other failed because it couldn't handle the weight by itself that would not be fun.