Alumacraft trailer thoughts.

[BroadwayBill]

I was at the dock the other day and a guy was complaining about the trailer under his Alumacraft. He said he was having a tough time unloading at many of the lakes in our area. He had a bunk trailer and after looking at it it sits waaaaaaay high off the water. I noticed one on a small lake with out a dock that you need to load off the road earlier this spring and thought that the trailer looked really odd. When I was at Cabelas the other day I took note of the trailer that was under that boat and was scratching my head as to the design. I can load and unload my 620 in a lot less water than you could out of this set up.

Seems like this needs to be addressed by somebody. Alumacraft makes good boats and guys are going to buy the boat and not take notice of the problem with loading and unloading until it is to late.

Sorry if this is a repeat post but my search didn't yield any results on it and it obviously needs to be addressed. I don't own one and maybe I shouldn't care but I wouldn't want that problem.

Bill

[Jimmy Jig]

He should have bought a roller trailer in the first place!

[BroadwayBill]

Add one more to Jimmy's post.

Bill

[XtreemLee]

I specified a roller trailer with my new ultracraft

[hommer23]

I have a Navigator 165 and it loads and unloads very easy in shallow water. It has a shorelander bunk trailer. If you search past posts you will see that some other brand boat owners are complaining about not them not fitting in the garage with how high they set on the trailer.

[Nimstug]

My Alumacraft sits on Trailmaster bunk trailer. I do a fair amount of fishing solo and have no problems launching or loading by myself, assuming I'm close enough to the dock to hop out. No problems in Canada where the 'ramp' is just a gravel slope down to the water.

Can't speak directly to an 'Alumacraft' branded trailer. A search of the Alumacraft site for trailers comes up empty. Perhaps it's a dealer issue. Maybe if T-Mac reads this, he'll chime in.

Nimstug

Bunk vs Roller = Chevy vs Ford.

[walleyedmike]

There are a few different trailers, depending on where the Alumacraft dealer is located, that can be ordered with an Alumacraft boat. The Eagle and Phoenix trailers generally have taller, welded on bunk supports than some other trailers, like Shoreland'r. Our store is 15 minutes from Lake Michigan so a lot of people prefer the Eagle trailers because they seem to be built a little better (welded bunk supports, thicker gauge beams in the trailer frame, metal fenders with diamond plate steps as opposed to plastic fenders). We have no issue ordering Alumacrafts with either trailer.

[jmill77]

I purchased a used Alumacraft trophy 185 last week on a shoelandr roller trailer. I have had it out twice at two different lakes so far. I back the trailer up till the water is just below the tops of the fenders. I measured the fender just now and it is 2ft. 3in tall. At this depth the boat rolls very easily off the trailer into the water. When I am loading the boat, i do the same thing, and drive the boat 4/5th the way on the trailer and winch it the rest of the way...also very easy.

Also so far...love the boat.

[bassin08]

I was going to buy my Alumacraft from Cabela's, but they offered the Eagle trailer. to me it was way over built for a Classic 165 @ only 800# and it did make the boat sit very high. I wound up buying it from a dealer who also sold Heritage trailers and they are really nice. No problem launching at all.

[Phil T]

Were the trailer wheels wider than the boat, or only nearly the same width? I've noticed boats on narrow trailers (cheaper that way) that had the bunks set high so the boat hull would clear. I converted a roller trailer to bunks years ago. However, my trailer wheels set well outboard of the boat's hull. My boat actually sets much lower than it did on rollers.