trailer for typhoon weekender

ftm2@mac.com · Post by **ftm2@mac.com** » Nov 7th, '05, 22:51

i am contemplating buying a CD Typhoon Weekender, perhaps someone could give me a clue if i will have any luck finding a used trailer for her and what might i expect to pay (boston/new england) thanks, freddy markham

Oswego John · Post by **Oswego John** » Nov 8th, '05, 04:02

Hi Freddy,

There are trailers, and then there are trailers. Unless you are extremely lucky, a good rule is that you will get what you pay for.

On the high end of the trailer spectrum is a Triad, which is well made and of high quality. I have no idea as to the price of the Ty that you are looking at but I will say that the cost of a new Triad might be very close to the cost of the Ty.

Used trailers that are in decent condition seem to be at a premium. They stay with the boat and outboard motor as a package. Maybe you could follow up on some ads for a Ty with a trailer.

If you intend to only use the trailer to transport the boat to the water in the springtime and later to home in the fall, to save $$$, maybe you could follow the ads and buy a used trailer of another make for a fraction of what a Triad would cost.

Adjustable support pads are nice, but for a few trips a year, you could use a trailer with bunks for support. I have seen nice used Brand X trailers that went for anywhere from $600.00 to $1200.00

Good luck,
O J

Appleton68 · Post by **Appleton68** » Nov 8th, '05, 11:16

I live outside Boston and my TY came with a trailer which is good enough to get the boat from yard to water & back. I have kept an eye out for a better second hand trailer with no real success. People on this Board all seem to recommend Triad. You could always use a boat hauling service, but in the long run it might make better economic sense to purchase a trailer. Good luck.

Neil Mietz · Post by **Neil Mietz** » Nov 8th, '05, 17:23

This last summer I purchased a used trailer for my Typhoon for $200 on Staten Island, NY.
It was a little rusty, but no structural damage. Road worthy with working brakes and lights. I had no problems towing it back to New Jersey.
A custom made EZ Loader with 5 support pads.
At haulout this last month, the TY fit on the trailer like a glove.
Look at the free auto magazines at the supermarket, you may also find a trailer who needs a new home.

Neil
________
Buy Silver Surfer
________
Vapor Genie

RIKanaka · Post by **RIKanaka** » Nov 8th, '05, 20:44

Hi Freddy. I recently converted a motorboat trailer to accommodate my Typhoon for its haul-out and transport home. It wasn't too hard to do, but I did ruminate about it for several months before finally making the adaptations. I accumulated and studied just about every image on the internet that I could find that showed Typhoons and other keeled sailboats on their trailers. There seems to be many different ways to approach the customization depending on the type of trailer you eventually buy. In my case I bought a 3rd-hand but virtually brand new (never dropped in the water) aluminum trailer and with some 2" square aluminum tubing, used boat stand screw pads, u-bolts and metal straps was able to put together a pretty solid-feeling setup to transport my Typhoon. I have to fine tune it a little but I think it turned out pretty well, considering that I had to made a lot of the final cuts, adjustments and fastenings on the fly as the boat was being lowered down onto the trailer in slings. I'll post some pictures of the trailer tomorrow as it looks currently if I get a chance. Meanwhile here are some pictures of other trailers and my trailer prior to modification.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pakehaole ... /my_photos

Tim Mertinooke · Post by **Tim Mertinooke** » Nov 10th, '05, 15:45

I purchased my Ty in NJ and had to transport it to Massachusetts (about a 6 hour drive) so I knew I needed something that could make that trip and the yearly trip from the yacht club to home which is 2 hours. The marina that was selling the boat was also a dealer for Load-Rite trailers so I bought one for $2300. He had it fitted to my boat at the yard and they dropped it on with a winch from above. Once on it fit like a glove. The first time I had to put the boat back on the trailer after launching however, I immediately saw some shortcomings. Because the Typhoon has such sheer on the bow, when the boat was pulled onto the trailer, the trailer was at so much of an angle that the chock would go up against the bow of the boat near the top of the sheer. This caused the boat to be too far aft on the trailer once you pulled it up off the ramp. The only way I could get it far enough foreward was to remove the bow chock assembly before haulout and guess as to how far up to pull the boat. Also, there were no guides for the keel, so it sometimes took a few tries to get the keel on the pad the right way (always fun when you barely have enough tide and you know time is not on your side). Also, because the bow cleat is on the deck, you need to get creative with the winch in order to pull the boat forward from a friendly angle. I have since made some modifications like adding guides for the keel, and making the bow chock so that it is easily removed and a PVC pipe clamps to the trailer letting me know how far up to put the boat. This allows me to get the boat far enough forward the first time. I also mounted a bar with a pulley on the top directly above the winch. This allows me to change the direction of force so that I pull the boat forward using the bow cleat at a nice angle. My next adventure is to add a tongue extension so that my brother doesn't remind me that I am putting the back of his pickup truck under salt water everytime I launch the boat. Just be sure whichever trailer you go with at least has the features I mentioned. Hope this helps. Tim

David Hest · Post by **David Hest** » Nov 10th, '05, 19:33

Tim,

I recently loaded my Typhoon daysailer purchased this past spring on her trailer for the first time. Ran into all the challenges you highlighted. Would you mind describing in more detail the keel guides, the bar and pulley system above the winch, etc.? Any other ideas on how to solve these issues would be most welcome.

David

Osprey · Post by **Osprey** » Nov 10th, '05, 21:48

I recently bought a Typhoon that had a neglected Calkins trailer. New lights, tires and a complete brake system - and it came back from Idaho to Minneapolis without a problem. The trailer fits the Ty great - all it needed was a tongue extension (which I made - happy to get a digital picture of the extension if anyone wishes). With the extension in place I was able to load the boat on the trailer myself in less than 5 minutes on the ramp. The Calkins still has parts available thru descendants of the original manufacturer - now known as Carnai trailers in Spokane Wa.

Tim Mertinooke · Post by **Tim Mertinooke** » Nov 10th, '05, 22:48

David,
I am taking my boat home the end of this month and I will be more than happy to take pictures of the trailer and post them at that time. Until then, let me give you a few details. The keel guides were taken from another trailer. They were originally used to keep the other boat aligned straight as it was loaded. I measured the width of my keel and clamped them on one of the crossbars so that the keel would fit like a puzzle piece. That was a simple remedy that has worked great thus far. The bar above the winch is one that I welded on. At the top of the bar I mounted a fixed pully. This pulley doesn't reduce the force, it just changes the direction of force. The pully is at the same height as the deck. This allows me to take the cable from the winch and attach it to the bow cleat. When I crank, the cable is parralel with the ground. Without that bar and pulley the angle of the cable would be impracticle to pull that Ty forward and would pull it down not forward. Again, when I bring the boat home at the end of this month I'll post some pictures. Tim

David Hest · Post by **David Hest** » Nov 11th, '05, 09:40

Pix would be great. I am guessing that shifting the pull angle from the winch makes a huge difference. When I loaded my boat this fall it ended up farther aft on the trailer than I had wanted, though the tongue weight still seemed adequate.

David

RIKanaka · Post by **RIKanaka** » Nov 11th, '05, 16:40

I've added pictures of my own trailer with the Typhoon on it. To view them click on the link in my previous post.

The boat sits a good 2 feet too far forward on the trailer, which was quite apparent during the ride home from the marina, resulting in way too much weight on the hitch and the rear axle of the towing vehicle. Unfortunately the winch stand/bow stop is mounted as far aft as is possible on the trailer tongue so I'll have to devise some other type of bow or keel stop.

I was surprised at how solidly the compression brackets, aka pocket or "hat" brackets (its cross-sectional profile) hold the 2" aluminum square posts for the screw pads against the trailer cross members with u-bolts. The diagonal straps bracing the square posts are probably cosmetic, at best. I'm looking for some other method of bracing the posts but since they function to balance the boat on its keel additional bracing may not be necessary.

The used motorboat trailer, a Loadmaster 1819 rated at 3500# cost me about $1250. Using the existing brackets, u-bolts and some of the existing bunks I was able to keep the cost of additional lumber, hardware, square tubing, and used boat stand screw pads to about $250.

You can spend a lot less than I did. I've seen decent-looking and sounding trailers offered for sale on craigslist.com in the greater Boston area. The mods aren't hard to do. They will vary, of course, depending on your trailer.

The Cape Dory Board