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Stuck in Redding


Mark Johnson

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Greetings all, I’m looking for any suggestions. We just spent a fantastic week on Lake Shasta with our 2007 Response LXI. We live on Kitsap Lake in Bremerton, WA, and have owned the boat and trailer since new. The trailer is a Boatmate single axle that sees little use except annual or biannual Shasta trips; otherwise it sits in a garage while the boat is on a lift.

At the completion of our vacation, we loaded for the trip home but only made it a mile or so from Jones Valley resort when the left rear tire started smoking and we pulled over. The torsion bar on the left side failed and the fender is resting in the tire. We had the boat/trailer moved by flatbed to a shop in Redding (a Midas; only because we have connections with the owner). 

We sent our kids home with friends from our same area and my wife and I are staying in Redding tonight; maybe longer. Research on this this site and others indicates this may be a common failure on our trailer, and it may require a new axle that needs to be painted and then shipped from TN. That may take a week or two and we both have work responsibilities. 

Does anyone have any suggestions as far as a trailer rental in the interim, although I have no idea how I could the transfer the boat. I’m considering an upgrade to a tandem axle trailer too (yeah I know, duh), but again am struggling with what is available here and how long to acquire. 

My tow rig is a Suburban that I don’t need at home so I could store here and travel home some other way; or else drive it home and come back over a (painfully long) weekend. 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!

mj

 

 

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Hopefully you didn't leave the boat & trailer at the side of the road. I would call the local marinas and storage facilities (even storage like Public Storage) to see if there is a space to store your boat & trailer where it is secure for a while, then once the boat and trailer are secure (or you have plans to secure them) start working on the best plan of action for the trailer. Personally, I wouldn't trust a trailer shop (there are quite a few in Redding) to store the boat and trailer. You don't want your boat left outside where overall security could be an issue if it's in a parking lot at a trailer shop.

The next step is to figure out if something like uship.com or a local repair shop is your best bet. If you're going to use a local storage facility, then work with them since you *might* have someone come from either a local trailer shop or from uship.com to move the boat and trailer for you. A quick google search turns up: http://reddingboatandrvstorage.com/  I don't know anything about them, and I've never done business with them, but if I were in your situation I would call them.

If you could rent for a short term, you could leave the boat in Redding, put a combo lock of some type on the locker, and be able to give a shop access remotely. Get the axle you need from Boatmate (or another source) and have it installed correctly in Redding, then drive down and pick up the boat once the work is done. Depending on what you arrange with a repair shop, they could even put the boat back in the storage locker for you.

Even if you find an axle in Sacramento or Reno it's still going to take at least a day or two for it to get it to Redding and then another day to install it. Since most shops are closed on Sunday, if you order on Monday it might ship same day, but more likely on Tuesday for a Wednesday arrival and a Thursday install to be ready to roll on Friday. In a world where we're used to Amazon Prime stuff showing up next day or 2 day, getting bigger parts like a trailer axle still takes more time.

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52 minutes ago, wakesonthesnake said:

https://www.pacifictrailers.com/pages/contact-us

I would give these guys a call, they have been helpful over the phone when I ordered parts and they are located in Cali.

In this unfortunate situation Chino is ironically as far from Redding as Bremerton is. If the shop was in Chico instead of Chino it would be close enough to go pick up parts. Hopefully there is a trailer shop closer to (or in) Redding that @Mark Johnson is able to use.

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Thanks Mikeo. No I did not leave boat/trailer on the side of the road and yes I am also concerned about security so it is currently locked inside under surveillance, but at a shop that may not be able to help.

You make a great point that it will take a while to get my trailer fixed so I may need more permanent storage, or another way to get my boat home. 

I’m hoping for (maybe unrealistically) some option where I can rent (or even buy) a trailer to take my boat home,, put it on the lift, and then travel back sometime later when repair is complete.

Thanks again, Mark

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27 minutes ago, mikeo said:

In this unfortunate situation Chino is ironically as far from Redding as Bremerton is. If the shop was in Chico instead of Chino it would be close enough to go pick up parts. Hopefully there is a trailer shop closer to (or in) Redding that @Mark Johnson is able to use.

True, but shops that deal specifically in marine trailers are not on every corner and shipping up from Chino would be a day or two max.  Hopefully the parts are closer.  

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6 hours ago, Mark Johnson said:

Greetings all, I’m looking for any suggestions. We just spent a fantastic week on Lake Shasta with our 2007 Response LXI. We live on Kitsap Lake in Bremerton, WA, and have owned the boat and trailer since new. The trailer is a Boatmate single axle that sees little use except annual or biannual Shasta trips; otherwise it sits in a garage while the boat is on a lift.

At the completion of our vacation, we loaded for the trip home but only made it a mile or so from Jones Valley resort when the left rear tire started smoking and we pulled over. The torsion bar on the left side failed and the fender is resting in the tire. We had the boat/trailer moved by flatbed to a shop in Redding (a Midas; only because we have connections with the owner). 

We sent our kids home with friends from our same area and my wife and I are staying in Redding tonight; maybe longer. Research on this this site and others indicates this may be a common failure on our trailer, and it may require a new axle that needs to be painted and then shipped from TN. That may take a week or two and we both have work responsibilities. 

Does anyone have any suggestions as far as a trailer rental in the interim, although I have no idea how I could the transfer the boat. I’m considering an upgrade to a tandem axle trailer too (yeah I know, duh), but again am struggling with what is available here and how long to acquire. 

My tow rig is a Suburban that I don’t need at home so I could store here and travel home some other way; or else drive it home and come back over a (painfully long) weekend. 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!

mj

 

 

There are many post on here about how people have gotten home. In your situation I think I would jack it up and we’d if solid. Then take it easy got the trip home.  Once home that would give you ample time to get it repaired. 

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6 hours ago, Mark Johnson said:

Greetings all, I’m looking for any suggestions. We just spent a fantastic week on Lake Shasta with our 2007 Response LXI. We live on Kitsap Lake in Bremerton, WA, and have owned the boat and trailer since new. The trailer is a Boatmate single axle that sees little use except annual or biannual Shasta trips; otherwise it sits in a garage while the boat is on a lift.

At the completion of our vacation, we loaded for the trip home but only made it a mile or so from Jones Valley resort when the left rear tire started smoking and we pulled over. The torsion bar on the left side failed and the fender is resting in the tire. We had the boat/trailer moved by flatbed to a shop in Redding (a Midas; only because we have connections with the owner). 

We sent our kids home with friends from our same area and my wife and I are staying in Redding tonight; maybe longer. Research on this this site and others indicates this may be a common failure on our trailer, and it may require a new axle that needs to be painted and then shipped from TN. That may take a week or two and we both have work responsibilities. 

Does anyone have any suggestions as far as a trailer rental in the interim, although I have no idea how I could the transfer the boat. I’m considering an upgrade to a tandem axle trailer too (yeah I know, duh), but again am struggling with what is available here and how long to acquire. 

My tow rig is a Suburban that I don’t need at home so I could store here and travel home some other way; or else drive it home and come back over a (painfully long) weekend. 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!

mj

 

 

 

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I’m pretty sure it is the spindle that failed. Thanks for the suggestion to weld it solid. Just need to find someone to do it on a Sunday...

 

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Have you checked with the 24 hour 7 day a week truck and trailer repair guys. I would wager they could fix a boat trailer. There are couple in Redding and Cottonwood that have mobile welding services?

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Dfowkes- I have left messages for those guys but no call backs yet. I did find a mobile welder available at noon so hopefully that will work out. 

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Extreme Boat trailers in Rialto calif might have a tandem axle trailer. The offset for new axle, install and or shipping might be an excuse to get a new trailer. Also Sport Boat Trailer is in California. Either might have tandem trailer or demo. 

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Tough luck. We blew a tire on the trailer just outside of Redding a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately just swapped on the spare and went right to Les Schwab to replace the spare, which was needed when we blew another tire on the way home.  I’m glad we had a tandem trailer and didn’t have the major issues that you are dealing with.  Hope it works out.

Hope you had a great time on the lake.

How often should the trailer be checked out, and by whom?

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I have pulled with both single and dual axial trailers. When you have a bad failure like this even the dual axial would require work to limp home. So I don't know I would get another trailer if what you have works. I have had more downtime on dual and triple axial trailers then my singles. Now the multi axial  trailers pull much larger loads but also have more opportunity for problems. Just saying  Tandem Axle if you don't need or want may not be A fix.

 

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