I'm planning on purchasing a new trailer for a 20ft bayliner trophy W/A. The boat is approximately 3000lbs dry. Unless somebody convinces me other wise i'm planning on purchasing a tandem axle trailer. Now i'm down to the decisions on bunk or roller and aluminum or galvanized. Does anybody have a preference regarding the 2 styles and some pros and cons of each?
if you live by mountains and plan on towing in them often I would think about getting a electric over hydraulic brake system so you don't burn the brakes out all the time with the typical surge brake controler. Deff get the tandem trailer and for a bayliner I would guess the rollers would be the most effective we had them on our 23 ft i/O and never had any problems.
I dont like rollers as they put stress on hull over a smaller area than bunks. Also if you ever break your straps...boat is gone. Also the bushings on the rollers is just another maintenance item. I have no experience in salt water though.
From what I hear Roller bunks will leave dimples in your hull over time. I seen a guy with roller bunks drop his boat right in the middle of the ramp once.
Thanks for all the input. From your comments and some other research I've came up with the following just need a sanity check from folks with more experience than myself.
Boat dry weight 3000lbs plus 80 gallons of gas comes to roughly 3600lbs add in coolers and other gear and i'm approaching close to 4000lbs.
So I should get a bunk trailer with tandem axles with aluminum frame if i'm worried about aesthetics with a load capacity of 4000lbs or more and brakes. does that sound correct?
Sean, Depending on where you live a bayliner Trophy may see some time in the saltwater- If so, you better go Galvanized. In the Northwest, you can't find a boat like that without a galvanized trailer.
I don't know if other companies do this, but Extreme Trailers galvanizes and then paints over it and you can't even tell it's been galvanized. I'm sure it will cost you, but it seems like the ultimate solution.