Long Haul Logistics

With a little forethought in the preparation stages, you can avoid foreseeable problems on your next long trailering trip. Rick Huckstepp offers some sound advice.
Around this time of year, some serious boaties are already planning for trailerboat holidays during the coming Christmas break. For others though, thoughts on how to set up the boat and trailer for a long journey are left until the last minute.
In some cases preparations for a trip may simply involve throwing all the gear in the boat and making tracks ASAP. While the spontaneous urge to hit the water is understandable, without adequate preparation you may end up having to leave the trailer on the side of road at the mercy of Ali Barber’s 40,000 thieves — while you drive around in a panicked state looking for help to fix some part which has unceremoniously broken.

I have just returned from Whyalla on South Australia’s Spencer Gulf, after a round trip from Brisbane of 4600km that entailed two big days each way. The trip went off without a hitch — but then I was towing a new Belco trailer, so its youth and build quality were on my side.

Even though the entire rig was only months old, I carried out the same checks that I would have made on an aging trailer as a matter of routine because the consequences of breaking down in a remote area are unpleasant even to contemplate.
This journey entailed stretches of up to 180km between towns: places like Cobar and Nyngan, towns that might have just one diesel outlet which, on Easter Monday, might well be closed.

Take Wilcannia for instance. I rolled through town with the fuel gauge looking very low and the dreaded ‘give me a drink quick’ light flashing next to it. It was 7am. The servo in the main street had no diesel pump, so upon quizzing a council employee on the bin round I was directed to a bulk fuel outlet out the back of town. The owner worked solo. He was also on 24 hour call and had just returned from his other job as a road service and tow truck operator. Apparently a drunk driver rolled a car. Then, the ambulance heading to the scene collided with a wild pig that took out the ambulance’s front end and wrote the vehicle off.

You get the feeling that such a bizarre scenario is not considered usual out this way. One morning, on the road at 5am I was down to 30kmh pushing roos out of the way with the bull bar. Come first light they were replaced by herds of wild goats and big wedge-tailed eagles sitting on the thousands of carcasses strewn over the many hundreds of kilometres. My next trip down that track will see me with quite a few spare litres of diesel in the back just in case Wilcannia’s only road service operator hits a pig himself when I am coming through town.

You can just imagine the near impossibility of trying to get spare parts or trailer bearings in a place like this. I checked mine prior to leaving and everything was in order, with the grease the right colour and consistency. I replaced the bearing caps with bearing buddies so that a top-up of grease would push any saltwater out before the return leg after dunking the trailer in the Gulf.

I also put a spare set of wheel bearings in the kit along with grease and tools. I made sure the car wheel brace fitted the wheel nuts on the new trailer, and threw in some chain and D shackles which are handy for temporarily tying up a spring-to-axle assembly should a shackle break.

I put a lot of preparation into tying the boat to the trailer, using heavy chain to prevent the boat from moving forward or backwards during any sudden impact. I have heavy-duty braided rope which is 5000lb breaking strain as a rear tie down to cleats on the transom but I added a heavy-duty nylon ratchet strap to stop the boat rocking on the trailer rollers. This was appropriately padded with carpet to stop paint wear and fraying of the strap.The most important precaution, though, is one that I have been using for 20 years since my chartering days when I was trailering 500km per day and often seven days per week for months. To support the engine, a heavy lug is welded to the transom with a removable strut that holds up the engine leg. I had it installed when the boat was built but it could be done by anyone proficient with a MIG welder. It alleviates the necessity to have the engine ride on the hydraulic RAMs, which in turn prevents RAM failure and stops a ground-off engine leg from dragging on the bitumen. This is the best set-up I have seen — in contrast, the standard tab-type struts are not designed for heavy use so will bend allowing the engine to jump off; a wooden chock between the transom mount and the swivel hub plate puts strain on the tilt axle assembly; and a strut between the engine and the trailer forces the two units to move separately working against each other. With my system the boat and motor rock as one, wear to the bushes in the swivel hub is greatly reduced and the strain on the transom minimised.

By Rick Huckstepp, as featured in Trailerboat issue 192.