Biting the Bullet, Which Trailer is Best for 2015 TI?

Well, I've had my 2015 TI for about a week and a half. I've launched it twice and had two great shakedowns - and nearly killed myself dragging it on the hobie dolly the 7/10 of a mile to the nearest launch.

I initially had the beach wheels which I was told would be OK for the road - they were OK I was not. I then switched over to the tuff tires and an additional small kart strapped to the stern so I wasn't dragging it. That was a little better, but not great.

So, I'm giving up and want to get a trailer....but which one?

From reading the forums, there looks to be disagreement between using the Hobie Single Tandem Island trailer:
http://www.austinkayak.com/products/128 ... sland.html

or the Trailex 350-S? https://www.austinkayak.com/products/85 ... 350-S.html

I have a set of the cradles already, so it looks like if I went with the Hobie one, all i'd need to do would be mount the cradles. For the 350-S, it looks like I would need to also order some crossbars and possibly another set of cradles to do 3 cradles? It looks like the images from this thread are all not working now:

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=35469

I do plan to store the boat on the trailer, and the Hobie rep mentioned something about bow support if I planned on doing that. Can this be done with the Hobie trailer?

I don't plan on launching directly from the trailer, rather, unloading to the dolly and rolling down a short beach / water access.

So, easily getting on / off the trailer to the dolly would be ideal - i did see this cool custom trailer that actually lets you load the boat with the dolly - but I'm guessing you can't do that with either of these trailers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1xuRFzLeik

I'm totally new to trailers, so I don't know what is possible in terms of rollers, winches, etc to make loading / unloading easier.

I'm sure others with more tandem experience will chime in. I built a Trailex double Hobie AI trailer. That is described here http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=7276&start=435 I think it is an excellent trailer. It is all aluminum (think non-rusting) except for the axel, springs, and wheel rims which are steel (think rust if immersed in saltwater.) I use mine to haul 1-2 AIs about 700-1000 mi/yr over highways at 60-70 mph.

I've recently added a winch to mine (you have to buy both a winch plus the bracket for mounting the winch), because it is a load get a boat up on the trailer for a older person like myself. When I had only AIs, I loaded them w/o a winch, but now I have the AI 2 which comes in at about 180#, so I went to a winch.

Yes, I agree with the Hobie rep that if you are storing your TI on the trailer, you need some extra support in the bow and stern.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

I checked out the Trailex, but I was more impressed with the Continental aluminum trailer made in Florida and used by several Hobie dealers in the area. The Trailex has an advantage for Hobie in that it comes in pieces and can be shipped anywhere; however, trailers like the Continental are more robust. I think a lot depends on where you are located and where you will be using it. Few areas have the wide variety of trailer manufacturers that Florida has, and, if you are not located in such an area, the Trailex is not a bad choice.

scrboating--I'm sure the Continental aluminum trailers are much more robust--I've had one for a power boat. At the same time, I think the Trailex are quite sufficient, many have been sold. The thing I like about my Trailex is that it is light enough at 220# to move it around the yard by hand. When I back it up with my 4-Runner to load an AI, if it is not lined up just right, I can get out and, by hand, slide it over to align better. Easy. I like that.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

We have the Single Tandem Island Trailer (Trailex SUT-350-AIT) trailer with two cradles and a bow stop/support, which performs just fine - we just returned from 3,400 mile round trip towing it from Texas to the Florida Keys:



I like that the trailer is light enough to maneuver by hand, which can make life easier. We have launched mostly from boat ramps, but have used the dolly going from the trailer to beach launches several times, which was easy enough- We did find it easier to leave the trailer hitched to the car when loading onto the dolly - to stop it moving around.

My dealer (Austin Kayak in San Antonio) assembled the trailer, and did a great job.

I asked Hobie if it was OK to store the TI in my garage on the trailer without a stern support, and they (I think it was Jacques Bernier) said it would be just fine.

_________________
2012 Hobie Kona
2014 Hobie Tandem Island

Keith, I think you're correct in stating that the Trailex is quite sufficient. I had the opportunity to purchase what I perceived to be a better product at a somewhat lower cost. Weight was a major issue for me as well, and I can easily lift the entire rear of the Continental to correct a poor parking job on my part as well as move the trailer around by hand. Hobie has to ensure a given standard of quality and availability worldwide, and the disassembled ability of the Trailex enables them to do that. I only wanted to point out that due to local differences, other desirable options might be available. For example, if I'd had the opportunity, I would likely have opted for an aluminum version of the trailer developed in NSW and referenced elsewhere on this site or an aluminum version of the one with an integral beach cart developed by a dealer in San Diego.

You should look into the Malone Microsport trailer (they have an option w/ and w/o retracting tongue). 12" wheels make this highway/long travel worthy. And it's submersible!!!

The only problem is they don't have a wide enough span to properly mount the cradles; but I talked to a rep last week and they have a kit/option coming very soon to fix this (I heard they were doing a photoshoot for the new kit this week, so I am guessing it's not too far off).

My brother has this trailer, and it's awesome. If you do some searching online you can find it for under 1k delivered (unassembled).

I know I'm going to be lambasted for this, but I feel any of the aluminum trailers out there are way too expensive. My opinion is I have a TI, I only want to get it to and from the water from my house (a 15 minute drive thru town every weekend), I don't need a trailer that will last me 20 years. I have no intention of ever dunking my trailer into the water (why would anyone ever do that with a 200 lb boat). THe trailer comes with all the paperwork necessary to title and license the trailer (no inspections neccessary, I'm pretty sure home built trailers have to pass an inspection, and certification before they can be titled).

I ended up buying a Harbor Freight 4 x 4 utility trailer for $140 bucks, and made some minor modifications to make it work with the TI (basically extending the tongue). In retrospect I should have probably bought the boat trailer version which is a little more expensive ( http://www.harborfreight.com/600-lb-cap ... -5002.html ), This would have saved me a few hrs of labor and another $100 bucks worth of extra aluminum. I have seen a lot of TI trailers around here (there are tons of TI's in this area and they all seem to have the Trailex trailers with the Hobie cradles).
After looking at the Hobie cradles closely, I thought about it, and I don't think I have ever seen another boat trailer with the cradles mounted crossways, almost all boat trailers I have seen have carpeted rails mounted in the same direction you pull the boat onto. Instead of spending a great deal of money on the custom Hobie cradles I elected to use about $10 dollars worth of PVC tubing mounted on 11 inch centers. The PVC bunks I believe support the hull much more evenly (IMO).
Here is a pic of my $140 dollar Harbor freight trailer with a couple minor mods.


Here is a pic of the trailer itself (note: I have since put on longer PVC bunks (around ten ft long), and a little larger diameter PVC


Every couple months we go down to our other place in Key West for a week or so (when we can). It's 350 miles each way. I went to Walmart and bought 2 american made Carlisle 12 inch tires with rims (they were about $50 bucks ea) that I bolt on when we go on long trips (I don't trust the Chinese 8 inch tires on the highway). I usually pack the bearings when I do the change, just to make sure. I prefer the 8 inch tires in town locally because the trailer is much lower (just handier for me).
Even if I completely replace the bearings every year, I'm still money ahead (bearings are cheap).
I always back the trailer down to the water, then pull the boat off, when I return I pull the trailer to the waters edge and either pull the boat back on the trailer or if I'm exhausted I use my $25 dollar Harbor freight winch to haul the boat onto the trailer.
Think about it, as soon as you get home you have to hose everything off with fresh water anyway, the trailer then goes into the garage with the boat on it (takes all of five minutes). I believe the trailer weighs around 140 lbs
Everything I did mod wise to the trailer was done over one weekend with a hack saw and cordless drill, that's it, nothing fancy. The orange straps I think were $12 bucks at Home Depot (for a 4 pack of straps).
I've had the trailer now for at least a couple years, and am out in salt water every weekend, The trailer is still going strong with no issues, of course there is a little surface rust in a few areas, but one thing I have found out, is if you do nothing about the rust (just rinse it off with fresh water and let it dry) Once a layer of rust forms on the surface it protects the metal underneath (basically doesn't get any worse for a long long time). Only when you try to repair the rust, and cover it with paint, does it rust away to nothing in a short period of time (because the paint traps the salty dampness). After a couple years the only rust is mainly concentrated on the 3 cross bars, the main frame side rails are much thicker metal, and look to be holding up with no issues, I have already replaced the rear most cross bar with 2" angle aluminum, basically cut to length with a hack saw, and two bolt holes drilled in, just unbolted the rusty piece and bolted in the aluminum (about $10 bucks worth of aluminum and fifteen minutes work). The other two cross bars are still going strong, I will replace them only when needed (I'm guessing in a year or two).
Who cares about the axle and springs, they will outlast the rest of the trailer, and are easily replaced anyway (I'm sure everybody uses all the same axles, springs, and bearings anyway (all pretty much off the shelf commodity items), and not very expensive.
An aluminum trailer with all the trimmings and Hobie cradles I believe is around $1500 bucks, If I buy a new $140 dollar Harbor freight trailer every five years, That's fifty years of trailers for the same amount of money as one aluminum trailer (though I doubt the boat itself will last more than five or ten years), and I won't be around in 5.
Obviously if you have a sailing club image to keep up (captains hat, white shirt, shorts, and shoes), personally I don't care about images, I'm just practical and want to get my boat to the water and back easily every weekend. Of course if you have an endless supply of money ( I don't), just get the Aluminum trailer. However If I had the money (I don't) I would buy the Trailex, they look really well made, but I would replace the 8 inch tires with 12 inch american made Carlisle's. ( We are long time campers with way over 200k miles traveling with trailers in tow in the last few yrs,
good quality brand american made (properly rated) tires are very important to us).
Obviously all just my opinions
FE
PS: The only downside to owning this trailer is every weekend I park my car in the lot with the trailer hooked onto the car and go out sailing, and every weekend some guy puts his business card on my windshield ('trailers are us' or something like that, I have I swear 30-40 of his business cards now), which I think is hysterical, he has more money invested in coming out and putting his cards on my car every weekend than I have in the whole trailer ( LOL), true story.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions (on the forum and off).

I went ahead and bought the hobie / trailex trailer off ACK and with any luck it will be here tomorrow.

fusioneng I love the diy approach - i probably could have done the same thing. I probably also could have gotten away with having my wife drive slowly down the street while I held the bow handle out the back of her SUV if I still lived in VA and not NJ

Oh well, guess now I can go to a bunch of different launches!

I think you will be happy with the Hobie trailer. I have had mine for a few months and it works fine. I am on vacation in North Carolina this week and hauled my Ti down from Virginia without any issues. About 250 + miles at 65/70 mph. The trailer is light enough to move around by hand. I just bought a Sky Winch to get it on the trailer. Boy is that a back saver and I would highly recommend it. Still trying to get my procedure down for unloading and loading. I would also recommend the beach cart with the large tube wheels. Great for beach launch sites.

_________________
2015 Hobie Tandem Island

Bob (fusioneng), try to understand that many of us do not want to fool around custom building a trailer like yours. Nor, rebuild one every 5 yrs. The last 2 Hobie TI sailors I went out with don't even use a trailer--they load it on top of their pickups. I'm strongly against that but have not convinced them (well, maybe one, we will see next Fall.) I belong to no clubs, and I'm not keeping up with anyone. I used my powerboat galvanized trailer, remodeled into a kayak trailer, and which I then used for years to haul my AIs. Sometimes I hauled a friend's AI (3 total), but it was a lot of work. I got 20 yrs use out of that galvanized trailer (powerboat, kayaks, Hobie Islands.) Yes, I wanted a little luxury. I bought a Trailex AI double with cradles and am happy with it. I'm down to 1 AI 2, but may buy a tandem (yes, you heard that right). I will haul both of them on that AI double. We're each, thankfully, different.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

FE was kind enough to give me a ride on his boat a week or so ago (thanks Bob - I had a blast!) - I had just picked mine up and it was a great intro to the boat and the loading/unloading process. It was also a window into the potential of the TI as I gazed at his boat and trailer. True ingenuity at work there.

Being a tinkerer at heart, I would aspire to make a trailer similar to FE's had my boat not come with the trailer. Being lower to the ground seems to make it a much easier load/unload. A fellow TI owner pulled up next to us to put in while FE answered my (many) questions. This second owner had a very similar rig to mine (with a Trailex trailer) and pointedly mentioned that he had lowered his trailer 3-4" by flipping the axle to the top of the springs. It made it much easier for him to load/unload. He also pointed out that he had a winch (a real plus) and suggested that he'd mount a remote electric winch to help with solo loading if he were to do it again.

I'm in the process of checking out Harbor Freight's remote winches as I write this.

BTW, FE, I'm hoping that you meant to say that you won't be around in 50 years, not 5 years..

BobAgain:
When I got home I measured exactly how much fuel we used for the day (I always do). In total we used 1/4 tank from each engine, each tank is 1 quart so in total for the day we used $.34 cents worth of gas ( I think I paid around $2.70/gallon), I think I can afford that ( lol)). Most of that fuel was probably used when we had to increase the throttle to race to shore to get out of that storm. The winds were extremely light most of the day (under 5mph) but we averaged 6mph speed for the day (according to my GPS). On Saturdays I'm usually alone and normally average around 8 mph for the day with peak speeds usually 10-12 mph at times, obviously having two people on board has a big speed penalty in low winds. Everything is highly dependent on the natural wind, with no natural wind at all, or really really light wind (under 4 mph) the wing can only generate so much lift so fuel economy goes down slightly. Believe it or not the actual wind direction is not very important since the wing creates it's own apparent wind, this is why we didn't slow down when we were heading almost dead straight into the wind. In any wind over 7 mph my fuel economy goes way up. Usually in winds over 12 mph I tend to want to hot dog so the fuel economy usually goes out the window ( a really bad habit). In winds over 15 mph I tend to put the mainsail away (completely furled) and only use the wing (it's more powerful than the main in those winds anyway, and way safer (no risk of capsize), the wing is pretty good up to 30 mph winds, above that I furl it and take it down because I don't want to damage it, plus I have no desire to be out in those conditions anyway (we get intense 4-5 ft washing machine chop when it's that windy in both Tampa and Sarasota bays), I think small craft advisories go out at around 20 mph wind, and all of us get off the water (unless were watertribers ( lol)). I have a pretty bad back so I tend to only go out when the water is flat and the winds are under 7 mph (the less wind the better in my circumstances, don't need no stinkin wind (lol)).
All in all I didn't get my 15 miles in last weekend so today I have to do 20 miles, I'll probably go offshore and video the super boats, that are here for the week.

All in all I had a blast, hope you did too.
FE

For mt 2015 AI I got a Magenta trailer. It came on a palate and I assembled it. Sturdy and well built. I got the 14" wheels because they cause the bearings to spin less. I also carry a sea kayak and could carry several more. Worked flawlessly on a trip from our home in Tennessee to the WaterTribe Okumefest race in Maryland and to the camp where I teach in the NC mountains. A quality product.

I have to chime in with my 2 cents. This is my setup. A 2006 Continental trailer (900 lbs. load limit) that came with my 2 Adventure kayaks I bought about 3 years ago (package deal). Originally it was setup to carry 2 kayaks only. Then back in January I decided to have a 4 place rack made so can carry more kayaks, SUP's or even bicycles on top. At the time I had no intensions of buying a TI, I already have an AI and my wife would ride on the tramps. She got tired of getting wet all the time, hopping back and forth from tramp-to-tramp. So back in June we bought a 2015 TI. Now how am I going to haul this huge monster! I wanted a new longer Continental trailer but for monetary reasons, we decided to make due with what we have. ( I just blew my load on a new TI!)
As you can see, I have a center supports for the second tier but I have 67" between braces, close enough for the span between the cradles. I was concerned with lifting the heavy TI on top but it's really not as bad as I thought. I do have to watch the stern closely so it doesn't scrape the ground but with the cart and big wheels I haven't had an issue so far, but I also have the help of another person. Being up high makes it very easy for inspecting and cleaning the bottom too.
I have 8" tires on the trailer (never had an issue) and considered changing them out with 12" but I didn't feel it was cost effective. I've done a lot of research and the 8" tires work well on the highway if you maintain the bearings, plus the trailer has never been backed into the water, at least by me. I have since added a bow support because I noticed too much bounce while driving and still kept the handy front case for most of the gear.
Eventually I will replace my trailer so I can have the TI (heavier load) on the bottom and a second tier for more kayaks, SUP's and a removable bike rack on top. But for now, this works for me, then again, I'm only 43 and can handle the lifting of such a heavy boat.

Hope this helps,
John

_________________
2015-Tandem Island