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Big Trip, misc questions


RLPBL

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I know this has been covered many times, but had a few questions about a big trip coming up.

Towing up to my second home for the rest of the season at end of next week, about a 20hr trip, about 1150 Miles. Probably make a stop 3/4 of the way up for the night.

From experience towing so far with factory cover, If I cannot get an evo cover before that time (which is unlikely I imagine), I will be towing uncovered. Debating if I should bother folding the tower down or not. The boat was towed this exact distance to me when I got it 2 months ago and the delivery person had no problems whatsoever, with tower up.

Tires,

Debating on replacing these before the trip, as the trailer and boat is 2008, and despite the tires looking in good condition, I understand time plays a roll in tire durability. I am hesitant though, since the boat just made this exact trip with no issues a short time ago. I think the tires have been riding low psi since I got it, and likely for that whole initial delivery trip to me.

Anyone bring their trailer in for new rubber with the boat on it before?? I may not have a chance to get it in the water before I go.

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As for the cover I am unsure but I bet someone can give you some input, I tow mine without a cover, but cover it if I stop somewhere for the night.

Tires: I would change them if they have been under inflated the whole time, it would just be cheap insurance instead if being stranded on the road side at odd hours of the night or changing a tire on the side of a road with no shoulder in the hot sun. I just had mine replaced while the boat was still on the trailer with no problems. They just used a floor jack and lifted one side at a time and swapped them out. At bare minimum I would have a couple good (new) spares on hand if you have a tandem axle trailer and would not even think about it if you have a single axle trailer.

Have a good trip/vacation!

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100000% do not tow with the factory cover. dedicate an hour on the far end to clean up the boat. I'd tow with the tower up. Yep you'll get lots of bugs and grime, clean it up on the far end. cover will scratch bigtime and a folded tower is begging for rubs somewhere inside. hard to replicate the factory ship folded tower method perfectly.

I'd give it a shot with these tires. Get a LARGE can of Fix-a Flat. Do you have a spare? Check the PSI after you tow for 5-10 mins, after they get up to operating temps. traditionally, if you have them at max PSI cold, after some towing they will increase 2-3 PSI form the increased temps. No issues. I'd have them at max PSI and put the miles on these if you are going to replace soon.

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Was thinking same with the cover. Been wanting a new cover anyways, but doubt I could get an evo in a week. Was looking at the bakes custom covers as I imagine I could get one shipped pretty fast.

Trailer is an extreme custom tandem axle. Towed it a couple hours this past weekend to and from a friend's house, no issues to speak of. No spare though, so I truly don't want to be stranded somewhere.

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On the tires...it depends on your tolerance for risk. Seems like a terrible idea to do it without a spare.

But I think it depends on where you are at. I just drove across central Nevada (without the boat, mind you), and that is some serious desolate country out there. No tire store for a couple hundred miles. No cell phone service in many locations. I would never want to lose a tire out there. It might be an hour before I even see another car. On the other hand, if the road is pretty heavily populated, not having a spare might not even be a big deal. Were these tires stored inside? That would make me trust them a little more.

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I am curious as to how many people tow their boats with the factory cover on it? Better question, how many tow with the cover on that have the pop-up cleat pieces installed on the cover? I pull my boat both ways and have no scratches/haze marks/etc. from the cover. If the cover is on, the pop-up cleats are through that piece on my cover. Chances are the OP does not have the pieces I am referring to installed on his cover and in that case, I would pull without the cover. Thoughts?

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I don't have a tower, but there was a thread on the Tige forum not too long ago about this. It seemed that a lot of folks over there wrap their tower in plastic wrap on long road trips. Keeps all the bugs and elements off the tower, and with two people I wouldn't imagine it would take all that long.

As far as a cover I've never towed with one, but my boat is probably worth as much as your trailer.

Tires, there is a date stamp on the inside wall of the tires, if they are over 6 years old, chances of a blow out is greater. If the tire pressure has been low all winter look for signs of cracking.

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I have Bakes custom cover. Love it. Get it. I trailer with it on and have no problems.

As for the trailer.... I was leaving Bakes on my last trip and joked about needing to get a trailer jack but didnt buy one. The bearings ended up going out in one of the tires. It destroyed the entire hub and the tire was being held on by the caliber. For that long of a trip I would have someone check the conditions of the bearings in your wheels before you go. Get bearing buddies installed if you dont have them so you can grease up as you go.

Bring with you:

Length of chain to tie up the axle

Trailer jack

grease gun

Lug wrench that fits your tires (my car lug wrench does not)

If something happens you can always tie up the axle, rock 3 wheels for a ways until you can get to the next city and get it fixed.

My trailer was for my 2007 and only had about 1800 miles on it when everything happened to me.

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I tow with the Australian Malibu cover on my VLX all the time, I have towed about 4000 miles last summmer and have no scratches or haze.

I do however make sure both the boat and the cover are clean.

Cheers

Stewart

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Ps if you have new tires put on your trailer make sure they only do one side at a time. Hubbie replaced all 4 last week and the tire shop decided to jack up both sides at once..... Yep the jack fell/ broke and dropped the trailer and boat. The trailer hit on the rotors and the Bu has two big chips... Gotta Love fri the 13 th l

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I tow with the Australian Malibu cover on my VLX all the time, I have towed about 4000 miles last summmer and have no scratches or haze.

I do however make sure both the boat and the cover are clean.

Cheers

Stewart

Agreed.

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srarn wrap the tower, cans etc. wish I had done that last week, 200 miles, 200K dead bugs...

any decent tire shop will have a jack more than large enough to do tires with the boat on the trailer. Mine actually used a floor jack, but I have seen them use a post lift with the arms before and after the fenders on each side.

I would wax the hull pretty good too.

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Get new tires. It is a miserable feeling being stuck on the side of the road with a

blown out tire, rim shot, and no tire dealer open/no cell service. Both tires went out on me 100 miles apart on a trip. Got really lucky finding what seemed like the last tire shop open. Pay the money now.

Edited by DAC
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I towed with the factory cover last summer, 1,100 miles each way. On the way there I used Saran type wrap I got from U-hual. No issues at all. I wrapped around the boat twice just above the rub rail on the trip there. I didn't use the wrap on the trip home and had some fine scratches just above the rub rail that I had to wax out. I also use two Velcro straps that I secure to the straps where they go into the ratchet on the back. I also drills an extra hole in the cover support poles that I use when towing. I drilled them about halfway from the bottom of the pole to where the existing holes are at. The Velcro goes around the grab bar on the transom and the straps and keeps the strap from moving up on long trips. This makes it much easier to keep the strap tight around the boat. Here is a picture.

997b3413.jpg

I also wrap the tower in Saran wrap to keep the bugs off.

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I tow with the Australian Malibu cover on my VLX all the time, I have towed about 4000 miles last summmer and have no scratches or haze.

I do however make sure both the boat and the cover are clean.

Cheers

Stewart

I think you will find the covers that come with our Aussie bu's aren't technically a Malibu 'factory' Cover.

The dealers in each state have the covers made to suit....... My Victorian delivered 'bu has a cover made by Covercraft boat covers in Melbourne....... I was after a lost strap for the cover ... I could not obtain said strap from the NSW dealer as they use a different cover maker up in Sydney .......

I do know that my cover from Melbourne tows beautifully with no marks on the hull ....... I would never even consider towing without a cover in Australia .... your boat would be full of stone chips, rocks and dirt!!!!

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Thanks for all the replies, I actually took the boat and trailer down to a trusted tire shop and had a family friend look it over. Despite the fact that the tires are 04', he was super impressed that there was no wear or evidence of sidewall damage or rot. Either the trailer must have been stored indoors, or these tires are new to the trailer and were in a tire shop before hand. He said he doesn't recommend I replace them as they look brand new. He is gonna set me up with a new spare etc though for the trip.

As for tower/boat, I was planning on wrapping it and the cans in seran wrap, boat above rub rail a couple times and then play the cover by ear.

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Be careful with older trailer tires. Looks can be deceiving. Also as others have said, when one goes the others are soon to follow. Learned that the hard way. Towing a 12 ft box trailer to the beach a few years ago and had a blowout about a hundred miles into the trip that ripped the fender off. No big deal had a spare and picked up the mangled fender off the interstate (always fun). 150 miles later, Boom the other tire blew ripping the other fender off. Big problem now because I'm out of spares and sitting on the shoulder with a trailer full of luggage for our youth group on a Sunday evening. My tires passed "inspection" before we left as well. Moral is trailer tires have a certain life span, so be careful. I now have 2 spares for my trailers. If nothing else,spring for an extra spare.

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I'm still so torn on this, as it seems so wasteful to replace tires that are in great shape. It's not really about the money, but more about the principle. Maybe i'll have him replace the 4 tires, then use the best 2 and make me up some spares.... Just tough cause the trailer was just towed 1200 miles to my place 2 months ago with no issues, and I towed it about 100 miles this past weekend with under 40psi (oops) with also no issues other than poor mileage

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to give you guys an update, the boat and trailer made the trip Just fine. Just under 1200 miles going along at about 65mph the whole way. Stopped for the night after about 15 hours and continued the next day.

Trailer tires held up fine, I ended up not replacing them and just getting two spares to take with me.

As for the cover, I towed the entire way with the factory cover with absolutely zero problems whatsoever and no scratches. I should note that I made a few slight mods to the cover though. I took off the plastic clips that connect the two halves on each side and replaced them with metal carribeaners so I could ratchet the cover tighter (just put sponges around the carribeaner as to not scratch boat.

I also used a ratchet strap on each side around the strap to hold it down towards the trailer. and shrink wrapped around the rub rail of the boat and the tower.

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I keep the poles in but drilled holes halfway from the bottom of the pole to the first of the three holes that were already there. I have had it in the rain and didn't get any pooling of water with this setup. With the factor holes it just seemed too high to me but was probably fine. I have nearly 5,000 miles with this setup and no issues. Adding the strap to the back made the biggest difference in really keeping the cover secure on long trips. I tow on average between 60-65 mph. I also wrap the rub rail with a Saran type wrap but have done a couple hundred miles at a time without it and not had any issues. I do make sure the cover and hull are clean before putting it on.

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