Aluminum Trailers

Anyone have their inboard sitting on an aluminum trailer similar to this? I'm considering buying one, but would like to know if it works.

That looks like a galvanized trailer. If it is a galvanized trailer it will last longer than a painted trailer because it wont rust.
Most people only buy a galvinized trailer if they are going to use their boat in salt water.
So yes they work great but dont look as nice.

i saw that one on ebay. it looks good. the main
i-beams look like aluminum, but the rest looks galvanized.

I guess I should have been more specific when I asked about how it worked. I wondering if someone bought one and had trouble with the boat fitting properly. Even though the company claims they will make it "inboard compatible" at no extra charge, I'm wondering just how compatible it is. For example, my boat has tracking fins. Are they going to clear okay?

I've called several manufactors of aluminum trailers, and asked these same questions. Of course they tell me there's no problem. I just want to make sure. I know some companys will tell you anything to make a sell.

you can pull the specs off their home page.

I have done the exact same thing you are wanting to do. Just a couple of recommendations: 1: Aluminum floats well,this may cause problems when you load up. 2: The bunks on my trailer bacame very slippery and thus, even strapped,let my boat slide around. Manufactures usually get around the fin and prop clearance problem by making the bunks taller,this is not nescessarill the safest practice. What ever you do, get any claims in writing.

Mike,

One thing I noticed on that trailer is the two middle bunks are real close together. You may need to consider when loading your boat that you do not catch a tracking fin on there. That small gap leaves no room for error. I don't know about you but some days I don't always get the boat straight on when loading.

Can you paint aluminum/ galvanized trailers? I hae a Pacific trailer and the thing looks horrible.

Looks like you'd have to do some mods to get clearance for the prop.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm just going to have to cough up the extra money for a trailer from the dealer. At least that way I know the trailer will be designed for the boat. The aluminum trailer was a good idea, but it doesn't sound like I'd ever be happy with it.

What the trailer is made of is somewhat irrelevant to the "will it work" discussion.

Whatever the trailer is made of, it needs to be designed for the type of boat that it will carry. The picture that you provided is NOT a suitable design for an inboard. As a minimum, you need to have the clearance for the prop.


Be advised that an aluminum trailer won't be ALL aluminum! Aluminum makes really lousey springs, is way too soft for brake drums, and is really tough to get the rigidity needed for the axel. These parts will always be steel. I suspect that the coupler (hitch) will also be steel.

Aluminum trailers will work for an inboard. The only modification I did was flip the bunks over. They were beveled for a deep V boat so I flipped them over to the flat edge to better fit my flat bottom boat. Loading is a bit trickier especially if you have any current but it's not to bad. The bad news is brakes - it does not have any. The good news is brake maintenance - there is none! I pulled my painted steel trailer around for a year with no brakes (the brake lines rusted out). I put into salt water frequently and watched my trailer quickly disintegrate in about three years (I also had it stored near a salt water lagoon for about 1.5yrs - not good!) Anyway, my Z71 with it's four-wheel disk brakes does a pretty good job stopping even with out trailer brakes so I decided to go with a Fastload aluminum trailer and leave my rusting trailer problems behind. I think you can get them with brakes if that's a issue.