Hello,

I have a few questions regarding the trailering of my H16.

(1) I have one of those custom Hobie covers, is it O.K to trailer the boat with this in place or will the cover flap like crazy and tear up?

(2) I read somewhere that the tramp should be un-laced for highway trailering. This would be a huge inconvenience. Will the boat get airborne if I don`t do this and leave the tramp laced up as is? I will be traveling at speeds of about 75mph/120 kph.

(3) I will be traveling about 5 hours to a vacation spot. Anything else to be considering?


Thanks

Dave

I've never seen anyone remove the tramp from an H16 for trailering.

You're not going to go airborne. Closest I came was about 2 years ago when I was driving with a 45mph crosswind for a few hours and occasionally I'd see the trailer skip sideways a bit behind my truck. That was always followed by my heart skipping a beat.

I don't recommend driving with a 45mph crosswind. lol But under normal circumstances and normal highway speeds (no faster than 85mph) you should be okay.

I don't think I would tow the boat with a cover on it but there is no problem leaving the tramp in place. I have towed mine up to 4 hours at speeds up to 70 mph without even thinking about it.

Check your wheel bearings, grease, and grease seals before going and make sure you have a spare tire, jack, and tools to change a wheel. You should have "bearing buddies" on the hubs to keep water out when launching and the bearings lubricated. I don't know what the laws are there on lights but I would be sure all lights and signals work. Here in NC you don't need trailer lights if your car signals can be seen but I like having them working.

You might want to bring something to clean the hulls. Depending on the oil or tar on the roads, the hulls can get dirty. If you go through a construction area, there may be some tar to contend with.

Howard

Thanks Guys,

Some good info there. I do have bearing buddies and all the usual trailer gear. I am glad to hear I can leave the tramp as-is when traveling without the risk of creating an H16 kite.

Thanks,

Dave

I haul mine back and forth to Florida, 450 miles each way, with the tramp in place. The main thing you want to consider about the tramp is to make sure that the boat is sitting on the trailer in such a way that the bow isn't high, causing the tramp to have a 'positive' angle of attack relative to the oncoming wind. This isn't because the boat would want to lift the trailer into the air, but because it causes a lot of unnecessary drag at highway speeds.

I take three Waves on a trailer, two with tramps tight, the other broken down and under the lowest boat. We go from Key Largo, FL to Put-in-Bay, Ohio (1300 miles) and return each fall. No problems.
Back when I was sailing the Tornado, I hated taking the boat all apart, so had a tilt trailer made. Kept the tramp on and only had one problem.
Rick

Thanks again for the help fellas,

Dave

Related question. I read somewhere that you should replace the rollers, especially up front, with cup type holders that spread the weight out. I bought an 83 that was on a trailor with rollers and am unable to detect any hull damage. Of course I don't know if the boat was always on rollers...Thanks, ralph

I replaced mine just because it seemed to make more sense that way. If I'm up on the trailer stepping the mast then that's a good 300+ pounds spread over *maybe* two square inches of roller? But with my new foam/carpet setup I'll bet there are 20-30 sqin of contact. Seems much better and is only a teeny bit more difficult to deal with.

For the new, high-tech, light weight boats you should not use rollers at all. In that case you need cradles or you will definitely damage the hulls.

I tried something that has worked out really well. I took off all the rollers, etc. and bolted on two 4x8 plywood pieces and made a flat bed out of it. Then I went to the local carpet store and rummaged through the trash can and covered the flat bed with carpet.
It is perfect for the Waves. Neat part is you have the entire area below the boats to store stuff --- just have to tie them down well.
Rick