190 FSH Trailer needed

[highanddryinco]

I'll start another thread here in a day or two with more details and photos when I get a little more time but for right now, suffice it to say that "Mayhem" struck earlier this month and I need to replace my trailer.
But before I go too far down the replacement/upgrade research mode I'll ask the simple question here in the group, "Anyone have their original FSH trailer that they wish to sell?"

 

[Tonkatoy]

Sorry to hear.
Are you looking for painted or aluminum/galvanized?
Good luck on your quest.

 

[highanddryinco]

Thanks.
I may be withdrawing my request and going with a brand new upgraded galvanized tandem. Gonna cost me a few extra bones more than I want to spend, but I trailer a lot! Sitting right at 10,000 miles on my current trailer.

Funny side note -- I think you bought the boat that I almost bought. Back in 2016 out here in the west, there was one FSH in Arizona and one FSH in Oklahoma. Colorado was not going to be getting one at all. The dealers were literally 30 miles driving distance difference from my house. Coin flip took me to Oklahoma.

 

[Tonkatoy]

Good thing you didn't buy mine. Lol

I had some overspray issues, etc. I think you saw that here... but it's all fixed now and in better than new condition. Local Dealer was top notch.

I'm from Boston, Ma originally. Now I'm in Arizona far away from my ocean fishing days.
Blue fin tuna, stripers, cod, bluefish, lobsters, etc.
Good to see you trailer your boat the distance. Been dying to take this boat to the ocean where I know how to fish. This little pleasure boat gives me my fix for now... I miss my 19' Grady and the other boats I used to fish off of.

Keep us posted as I would like to eventually upgrade the trailer myself down the road.
Want to be able to trailer to Mexico, but will have to launch in some primitive ramps while fighting some extreme tides in Sea of Cortez.

 

[jetfisher]

IF you trailer alot, have you thought about jumping to a tandem axle trailer? Just a thought i've had.

 

[highanddryinco]

Yes I do trailer a lot and I have looked into a tandem setup. (10,000 miles on this Shorelandr' trailer and well over that on my old Mako Rolco trailer)
We've got a very experienced and knowledgeable Shorelandr' rep here in town who has been helping me out. The problem that seems to be popping up is anytime we start to configure something for the FSH on a tandem setup, it messes with the overall length and thus, the "garageability" factor.

Anyone here ever check their actual weight of the FSH boat and trailer?
All I truly know is my tongue weight is right at 400#. I've never ran the boat/trailer to the scales but I bet it's coming closer to the trailer rating than I would like.

 

[Tonkatoy]

Yes I do trailer a lot and I have looked into a tandem setup. (10,000 miles on this Shorelandr' trailer and well over that on my old Mako Rolco trailer)
We've got a very experienced and knowledgeable Shorelandr' rep here in town who has been helping me out. The problem that seems to be popping up is anytime we start to configure something for the FSH on a tandem setup, it messes with the overall length and thus, the "garageability" factor.

Anyone here ever check their actual weight of the FSH boat and trailer?
All I truly know is my tongue weight is right at 400#. I've never ran the boat/trailer to the scales but I bet it's coming closer to the trailer rating than I would like.

I was always curious what the tongue weight was...
400lbs for sure?

 

[highanddryinco]

All I've got at home is the digital bathroom scale. Several attempts had it between 395 and 400. I'm thinking it's reasonably accurate.
Trolling motor on bow, two batteries in the changing area, over half a tank of fuel left, fishing and boating stuff in the hatches and console...

 

[Tonkatoy]

Thank you for the info.
Those batteries would add to the tongue for sure. But that gives me a good idea...

 

[highanddryinco]

OK, rather than start a new thread as originally planned, I'll just let this one continue to run its course. Now back to the beginning on 9/5/17 when MAYHEM struck...

1. Preface with, I'm an anal retentive pre-trip and during-trip checker. (Bolts, tires, temperatures, air pressures, straps, etc.) This trip was no exception. All was good to go.
   
2. My FSH trailer setup is right at 10,000 miles. The spare tire carrier has been on it for about 7000 miles. The first 3,000 miles the tire rode in the back of the truck. (You may already see where I'm going with this)
3. At roughly 3,000 miles, I installed a nice, very stout, relatively pricey, made in USA, spare tire carrier.
4. Over the course of 10,000 miles, a person is going to hit their fair share of rough roads, potholes, expansion joints, etc.
5. All roads in CO and around Denver generally suck!

About three minutes before mayhem, cruising at 65 mph along I-70 westbound through the mountains, I ran over a rough patch of lane damage. Nothing unusual, just a series of rough patched over potholes...it's still there today.

Without any warning, BOOM, the right side of the trailer launched into the air, came back down, did one quick swerve and then straighten right up.
I pulled over to the shoulder, caught my breath, and went out for a look.
The fender is peeled back and hanging by one bolt. The front fender bracket is peeled back and up and slightly torn away from the frame rail. The taillight (still flashing) is ripped off and hanging from 2' of wire. The transom strap is ripped in two.

I'm looking at this, still a bit shocked and wondering what the heck just happened. What did I hit?
Within about three minutes, a guy pulls up in a little Toyota Corolla, gets out and says that he's got my spare tire and bracket in the back seat. I about crap my pants but he says he saw the whole thing and after the initial carnage the thing went right to the shoulder and slid to stop. No bouncing in the lane, no vehicles had to swerve, and best of all no one got hit. "Thank you dear Lord Jesus!"

Also, not one mark on the hull. Things could have been much worse.

I gathered up the pieces, gave everything else a good looking over, hammered the light bracket back into place, duct taped the light back on, and finished our vacation as planned. YIKES!

 

[highanddryinco]

The cause:
My high quality made in USA tire carrier obviously came with some less than high quality fasteners. The two top bolts appear to have simply fractured and allowed the clamp style bracket to open up and basically fall to the ground. The frame shows no marks or scratches from it being loose and wiggling before failure. The bolt shear faces are clean with no rust.

So if any of you have this particular carrier bracket that have no-name bolts threaded all the way to the head so that they provide maximum versatility among different trailer styles...GET RID OF THEM RIGHT NOW! Go get yourself some quality bolts and nuts before this happens to you.

Some will ask about the black stuff. I originally put a little protective wrap on the threads as to not scratch my powder coating on the frame rail.

 

[highanddryinco]

Why a new trailer?
Though this trailer does tow just fine, I have never really liked the load configuration. Particularly, the long distance from the axle to the rear crossmember.
I've been watching this trailer over the miles develop an ever increasing "rainbow" from front to rear on the side frame rails. If you just tow "in-town" you may not even have it and may not care all that much. You might want to give yours a look. Everywhere I go is a long tow. The joys of living in a semi-arid climate. (aka Freakin' Desert)
Recently, the gentle rainbow has been turning into more of a hump right at the rear spring hanger bracket on both rails. After this little flying through the air with the greatest of ease incident, the "hump" is quite pronounced on the RH rail and the tail takes a definite downward skew. You can see it in the photo on the earlier post. Bottom line, the frame is bent and the trailer is totaled.

I have to add that I see this as no fault of the trailer manufacturer. I'm sure it was Yamaha's attempt to put the absolute minimum trailer under this boat to keep it at the price point they're at while maintaining some sense of quality.

 

[highanddryinco]

Which new trailer should I get?
I immediately went down the tandem is the only way to go road but am finding that is not necessarily the case. Can you do it, sure. But our boat/hull shape is probably going to leave you with a bunch of bunk hanging off the rear and/or possibly a long tongue out the front. It seems as though it will affect the OAL in the garage which for me is a concern. I hate to give Yamaha any credit but they probably went down the "what's going to fit best in the average garage" route as well.

Working with our Shorelandr' guy here in town, (very nice and helpful I might add) I think I've settled on their B30 model in galvanized. Base spec PDF attached.
What I like about this trailer is the rear crossmember is more forward, roughly 18" from our current trailer. But on top of that crossmember, they use an equalizing load bar that the bunk attaches to. That bar extends roughly 18" fore and aft under the board. I am thinking this will help save that frame rail from a lot of stress.

If you look at the attached photo, you'll see the green tape marks showing where the current crossmember is about 25" further back than where the engine centerline is. Having the crossmember 18" forward should be just about ideal. Also, the B models have adjustable axles should I need to tweak the final tongue weight.
The one draw back I see is that drawbar up front is going to make things about 12" longer overall. I can live with that but have asked about getting it shorter. The initial response is that they can't do that. I need to dig into that a little deeper.

 

[Corey]

The cause:
My high quality made in USA tire carrier obviously came with some less than high quality fasteners. The two top bolts appear to have simply fractured and allowed the clamp style bracket to open up and basically fall to the ground. The frame shows no marks are scratched from it being loose and wiggling before failure. The bolt shear faces are clean with no rust.

So if any of you have this particular carrier bracket that have no-name bolts threaded all the way to the head so that they provide maximum versatility among different trailer styles...GET RID OF THEM RIGHT NOW! Go get yourself some quality bolts and nuts before this happens to you.

Some will ask about the black stuff. I originally put a little protective wrap on the threads as to not scratch my powder coating on the frame rail.

Uggghh! I have the same tire carrier... Sorry you had to be the guinea pig...Am on way to Fastenal to get some heavy duties!

 

[puzle]

YIKES!

Yikes is right. scary to think how many other spare tires are hanging around on the hwy....

 

[highanddryinco]

Happy to report that the new trailer finished up at the factory last week. We drove out to Iowa to pick it up, got back home Friday night, adjusted bunks and axle up on Saturday, and on Sunday headed off to the lake to do the last launch off the old trailer and the first load on to the new one. Everything went well including backing it into the garage with the same 1.5" clearance with the windshield on. Yay!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the new trailer has the rear cross-member moved forward about 18" from the OEM trailer and then utilizes a spreader bar to help distribute the weight fore and aft from there. As I had hoped, it seems to work out well and takes a great deal of strain off of the rear of the frame rails because it's so much closer to the axle now. I still want to do an actual total weight and tongue weight and then move the axle as needed to get the tongue weight dialed in if need be. Right now I've got the axle set up the same as the OEM and it seems to feel very similar behind the truck. It may not need much adjusting.

Also added on the new trailer was the actual Shoreland'r spare tire carrier so that it also carries the five year warranty should anything go wrong. I had them throw on a set of ratchet straps as well and I'm loving those.

I had written a nice letter to the folks at Dutton-Lainson explaining to them what had happened. They wrote me back within a day and said they'd like to talk to me further about the carrier failure. I had a great phone conversation with them and they asked if I would consider sending them the broken bolts so they could do some research. I said I'd do them one better and I hand delivered them to the Nebraska factory on our way to Iowa. The head of engineering gave my wife and I a very nice hour or so tour of the factory. An impressive part of Americana to say the least. History dating back to the 1880's and with everyone there extremely proud of the products they were producing. America is still great there...much of the country could use them as a blueprint to be great again. Okay, getting off my soapbox now...

...but I will say that everyone I dealt with from the insurance company, the local trailer dealer, the regional rep, and the folks at the factory on delivery were all good people. Not one cross word or argument throughout this entire process. Refreshing.

Happy to be putting this little adventure behind me.

 

[Tonkatoy]

Thanks for the report and congrads on your upgraded trailer!
Was this a custom configuration?
What would I expect to pay if I wanted to upgrade and go this route?
Sadly, I have a painted trailer that I am afraid to launch into salt water.

 

[highanddryinco]

No, nothing really custom about it other than I had the galvanized option and had them add the ratchet straps and the spare tire carrier.
If you look at the SLB30 spec sheet that I attached in one of the earlier posts - that's exactly what you get. The only departure from that drawing is to ask for the "short" tongue and you'll get basically the exact length setup that you have now. And unlike our trailers, this one comes with all LED lighting standard. If you go to the Shoreland'r website and work your way to the parts section, you can see exploded diagrams of every aspect of the trailer. It's really a pretty good site compared to some others.
I was in the $3,700 out the door neighborhood with me going to the factory and picking it up. Where I live, the boating season is now basically closed and the dealer wouldn't have been bringing in a trailer order until early spring. As it was, it took only about three weeks from order to completion. I was pretty happy about that.

 

[puzle]

everyone there extremely proud of the products

Thanks for adding this stuff. Great to hear that they want to find out and I would assume fix the problem. Nice to see a company with pride. So much of the world these days is cheaper, faster and zero pride in the products...

 

[jetfisher]

Nice write up about your adventure. That new trailer sure looks good. i am looking at ratchet tie downs as i noticed both of my strap location on the trailer are bending backward. Im going to look at my trailer and see if has any tweak at the rear like you saw. Enjoy that new trailer.