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I am a relatively new and inexperienced whaler owner. I have a beautiful 17' 1976ish montauk or cohasset. I'm looking to buy a used trailer for it. Does anyone know if trailers are universal? In other words will any trailer fit? Also, if someone could help me out with the weight rating I would really appreciate it.
You don't say where your located so that will have a big effect on the availability of trailers and the condition of used ones. You don't say how handy you are but I realize that a used trailer seems attractive from a price perspective but it will probably cost you more in money and time than if you purchased a new trailer.
For a 17 foot boat, your looking at a weight rating of 2500#. You want the entire boat to sit on the trailer so the overall length is going to be 20 feet give or take depending on if your trying to store inside a garage or not. For a whaler your ideally looking for a trailer with keel rollers and bunks for stability.
Thanks for the reply. I'm in Connecticut. I am pretty handy but was hoping to not have to do a lot of work on the trailer. Are bunks the side rollers? And are they adjustable or do they come in different heights for boats with different hull shapes?
Thanks
Go to my personal website and open the "Montauk 17" sub-album. You can see some photos of the galvanized steel channel frame trailer I bought for mine (in Florida) that fits the boat perfectly, and is extremely easy to launch and retrieve. It is rated for 2000# carrying capacity with 13" wheels, and complete with the Stoltz keel rollers equipped with mandatory SS shafts, cost $1350. The side bunks are 2 x 4 x 5'. Except for the brand new galvanized U-bolts, all other bolts, nuts and washers are SS.
I would stay away from any used painted trailer in coastal areas. You may have a hard time finding a decent used one, but try to find one as close to this configuration as you can. If your boat is really nice, you might just buy a new trailer like I did. This Montauk (purchased two years ago) came with a rusted baby blue painted "Sleazy Loader" that made the whole rig look terrible. I sold it for $350. The $1000 additional cost for new trailer made the entire boat look a like brand new 33 year old boat, with no trailering worries at all!
One thing to keep in mind is the Boston Whaler, at least the older ones like yours or mine, were built with the keel as the strongest part of the boat. If you notice on Finnegan's trailer on his personal website, he has replaced the center keel rollers with the wider polyurethane ones, an upgrade I'm going to make when I get home. The important thing when setting up your trailer is to make sure the keel, resting on the keel rollers, supports the weight of the boat and the bunks are just barely touching the bottom, mostly to supply lateral stability.
If you are having a problem trying to figure out the year of your boat, look at this article in our Article link on the left sidebar and under "Hull Identification Information" http://www.whalercentral.com/articles...icle_id=61
Let us know what year and model you have after viewing the above information.
If you can't find your model, then you most likely have a "Custom" model where someone has removed the original interior.
