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It's time for a new trailer and I'm looking for a continental trailer for my 1988 custom17 as seen in Finnegan's posts. If you're in the Maryland area and know of one that's available please let me know. If anyone wants to bundle a delivery from continental trailer in Fla., I would be interested in that as well.

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If your looking for a new Continental trailer then it seems like a trip to FL is in your future. Most trailers are fairly local and don't have a wide distribution area, probably based on cost to ship. Even with a Continental trailer, you will need to add keel rollers. Depending on where you are in MD, Dave's Trailers, http://www.davesboattrailers.com/ilers.com/ is a good local trailer dealer and I know at least one person who has gotten a trailer from him.

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Looks like Dave carries Karavan, which has been a Whaler trailer as of late.

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Venture trailers are made in Baltimore and have aluminum in sizes for your boat. They look similar to Continental from what is on their website. I have never owned either brand though.

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Venture trailers doesn't sell direct, if I remember correctly, you can get them through Dave's as well.

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Thanks all for your responses. I knew about Dave's boat trailers...didn't know that venture was made in Baltimore. I'm always looking for an excuse to go to Florida, but that's a long trip to get a trailer.

Any advice on Karavan vs. Venture? Model?

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A Venture VB 2000 would be fine. Add a couple keel rollers on the cross members and away you go.

http://www.venturetrailers.com/bunk.html/bunk.html

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That's exactly what I did for the Venture trailer we bought (aluminum I beam) as it came with only bunks. Also added another cross arm and 2 more rollers to further support the keel and also see if I could then launch at a shallower pitch ramp that's more local to me.

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I was looking at that one, but I thought I should look for something that would allow for 4 keel rollers like it is now on my current highlander trailer. I also like the idea of 3 x 12 inch rollers. It doesn't look like I can do that o this one without adding crossmembers.

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If you have to order it, you might also see if you can up-size the tires and wheels.

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Here are a couple considerations and thoughts for going the VB-2300 although it will cost you a bit more money.
1. Tire size, bigger is better and also easier to find when you need to replace.
2. trailer length, if you launch at a lot of different ramps, i find it helpful to keep the truck out of the water especially on unfamiliar ramps.
3. trailer length, or really the distance from the bow stop to the coupler, is there enough room to open hatches or gates on the two vehicle.

If you want additional rollers, then you will need to add cross beams. You will have to do that to most trailers these days as hardly anyone sets up a trailer with keel rollers, except possibly Boston Whaler owners.

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Venture does not sell direct, I went on a Saturday and could only see the trailers through a chain link fence. Riverside marine stocks and sells them also. You may be able to spec your own needs at the factory and take delivery from a dealer near you. Factory is right near Sparrows Point.
I ended up just replacing the corroded parts on my existing trailer since it travels from my driveway to my neighbors ramp.

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The Continental trailer under my Montauk 17 is a 2011 model year tilt-frame Model CV-7, in 2000# capacity. I ordered it with three 12" rollers and one 8" roller. You can upgrade from the standard black rollers to Stoltz rollers from the factory, but I found it less expensive to buy them myself, including the SS roller shafts, at a cost of about $35 for each cross member. The trailer also comes with 2 x 6 x 8' bunks, which I discarded in favor of 2 x 4 x 5' bunks. The smaller size is more than adequate for a Montauk. The trailer cost me $1200., plus the additional for the bunks, spare tire and Stoltz set up. Tongue jack is included.

This trailer fits a Montauk like it was specifically designed for it, and getting the boat on and off the trailer is so easy a child can operate the winch.

One can be ordered from one of several dealers in Jacksonville. To me, it's worth the trip. A trailer can make or break your boating experience and enjoyment. 90% of the Whalers I have seen in my life are on terrible, hard to use and maintain, trailers. Just yesterday I saw an 18 Outrage on an EZ Loader roller cradle trailer. Whoever set up and sold that boat didn't have a clue, and the bottom of the hull was indented.

Another brand worth looking at is Magic Tilt. I think they have a similiar trailer, and are often available closer.

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Larry,
What Conti dealership do you work with down here in S. Florida?

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I have also seen photos of many Outrage 18's in for sale ads and in member's photos here and elsewhere that clearly show sagging sides of hulls from stern to console as a result of not using keel rollers, or by using the bunks to support all the weight of their boat during trailering. It saddens me to see the classic hull Whalers destroyed and then resold to someone unaware of what to look for.

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There is nothing wrong with using a bunk trailer under a whaler, classic or otherwise. Using a bunk trailer will not result in "sagging sides" on a classic whaler. Using roller trailers or roller bunks with no keel rollers will result in denting the skin of the boat.

Whaler supplies Karavan bunk trailer with all new whalers of trailerable size.

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Ok, kamie.

Please explain to us exactly how this sagging side effect on Whalers is produced, if you don't agree. Please reread what I wrote...NO KEEL ROLLERS AND BUNKS SUPPORTING ALL THE WEIGHT OF THE BOAT.

For instance, what do YOU think caused this transom damage and side sag
http://www.whalercentral.com/infusion...r_id=27106

Oh, and check out the bottom picture on this page...
http://www.whalercentral.com/infusion...r_id=12203
Clearest example of "side sagging" I found in the first 15 minutes of hunting...notice that fine trailer?

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For the first one, not sure what happened as I don't have the history of the boat and it's not mine. None of the posts on the thread provided any clue as to the history of the boat and OP has not been back for months. Clearly the boat has cracks at key joints but without a history it's hard to say what happened

On the second one, I assume you are focused on the last photo with wavy sides? If that is the case, the hull comes out of the mold that way. It's a cosmetic issue and not from a trailer.

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"Sagging sides"? WTH is that?

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Well, Tom, it would be the sagging effect on the external sides of the stern to midsection of a classic Whaler that is pounded for 1000's of miles across 100000's of pot holes on bunk trailers with no keel support. I have seen 2 at my fiberglass shop in the last 6 months while visiting my own Outrage 18 during the refit I have it going through currently. One of these was a 20' and the other was a 22' classic hull. I also saw a 27' with a similar sag, although it wasn't as long and had resulted from the boat being kept in a sling.

When I asked my fiberglass guy what had happened to the 2 sagging hulls, he told me that compression forces caused delamination of the outer fiberglass from the inner foam core. This problem is seen frequently in my area on trailerable Whalers, and the shop I use sees quite a few of these "sags" and transom cracks and breaks every year. I know I haven't seen all the cases this year, I just happened to see 3 separate cases of compression related hull delaminations due to abusive trailering and storage practices, in our opinion. I am told by my guy that this is the 2nd most common Whaler hull problem he sees after accidental damage.

In almost all cases of this "side sagging", a person can press on the sagged or bulged area and push the fiberglass shell by hand until it stops against the interior foam. In extreme cases, transom damage will also be present. Cracks and splits are evident. The 3 cases I have mentioned here do not have wet foam in these areas when the fiberglass shell is removed, and the delaminated area does not have any punctures.

I guess y'all don't have this problem in your neck of the woods from the reaction I see from you and others, but I assure you it is very real here. Maybe it's just a local thing? I see at least three cases of delamination discussed on this website, and one of them I see you as a respondent. All of these cases appear to be local to the Texas Gulf Coast. I am sure y'all take MUCH more care in avoiding the crime of Whaler Abuse out west and certainly up north than we do around here. After all, y'all are all a lot smarter than us poorly educated, low class rednecks , right?:)

Oh, kamie, do you reckon that poor sucker that bought that brand new Whaler with the factory defect got a discount? I bet he paid extra fer that, probably bought it from some slick Yankee dealer...sold it to some long-haired hippie over there at UVA McIntyre School of Business originally as the new "Wavy Gravy edition" after it passed quality control at the Boston Whaler factory...I think I understand now. Thanks fer the educatin'.

Oh, and I notice your trailer is a keel roller trailer and you recommend in numerous posts to put them classic whalers like yers on just such a trailer, with them fancy dadgum rollers suportin' all the weight ,...you sly devil you! I get it now, if we can jest git all them other Whalers destroyed by pounding them on bunks instead of keel rollers, the value of the ones on them high-class trailers up north, like the one you actually use there, will have to go up! wink,wink! :) Sorry, gess I jest wasn't thinkin' right. I'm with ya now Hoss :) Show do hope I dint screw up yer plan :(

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Yes, I have a nicely setup trailer with keel rollers.
Yes, I do recommend that folks setup their trailer that way, new or older whalers.
No, it's not because having a whaler on just bunks is bad, although with all your talk of bouncing, I am guessing that no one on the Texas Gulf Coast uses transom straps to keep the hull firmly attached to the trailer. I highly recommend them as well as gunnel straps for long distance trailing.

I really recommend setting up a trailer with keel rollers because it makes launching and loading a trailerable boat so much easier. Without keel rollers, I could never load the 18 Outrage when the water drops in the fall so far that not even the last keel roller is wet. I could never launch and load at the ramps I visit and do it all solo. I know folks that hate launching and loading their newer whaler because it's hard, you bet it's hard hand cranking an 19 Outrage that is a 2200# boat, up onto a bunk float on trailer, when the boat can only float on about half way. That is not a workout for the weak.

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Take it easy Silentpardner, all that blathering makes it difficult to follow what you are saying.

Let me see if I can straighten out some of the misinformation introduced on page 1.

The topic of this thread was: Where to buy a Continental trailer? The answer seems to be: Florida. The discussion then shifted to alternative brands and models.

To clarify: Boston Whaler used to recommend a trailer that supports all the weight of the hull on keel rollers with bunks providing stability, not weight bearing capacity. Note that Whaler NEVER required this type of trailer, it was only a recommendation. Later, they admitted that bunk trailers were OK and even delivered new Whalers to customers on them. Boston Whaler today sells trailers under some models that have no keel support at all.

HOWEVER, this does not mean that the bunks can be anywhere on the hull. Whaler recommends that bunks be as long as possible and conform to the shape of the hull. The key is really to be sure the bunks lie under the area of the hull where the transom motor mounting pad is located. The plywood reinforcement in the that portion of the transom acts as a truss that is rigid. The weight of the motor will be distributed quite well through this plywood reinforcement to the bunks and hence to the trailer without any problem, even without keel rollers.

If the bunks are located outside this area, next to the sponsons or chines, this could lead to excessive stress, which is probably what Silentpardner is trying to describe when he writes:



Look at this image:

http://www.whalercentral.com/images/p...ansom3.jpg

You see the bunk well beyond the reinforced transom area. This is bad but is NOT caused simply by "bunks supporting all the weight of the boat" but rather by a lack of support anywhere under the motor mounting area of the transom. Had the bunks on this trailer been placed closer to the keel under the reinforced are of the transom, no damage would have occurred even if no keel rollers were used.

Silentpardner the also introduced the following image and tried to attribute the hull damage to the trailer support under it.

http://www.whalercentral.com/images/p...number.jpg

Folks, that is the well known and documented hull puckering that affected some hulls, primarily in the early 1980s. The puckering has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with what trailer is used or how a boat is supported during storage. It is caused by the foam shrinking slowly over a number of years after the hull was molded. Though hull puckering can occur on any model, it was most dramatic on the very early Outrage 18s. Whaler replaced many of the worst hulls under warranty. I have seen a replaced hull myself years ago, and it was in very bad shape.

The hulls did NOT come out of the mold this way, the puckering took months or years to fully develop as the foam contracted, pulling the flat portions of the topsides, which are susceptible to "oil canning" because they are not complex shapes, with it.

Again, the hull puckering has nothing to do with trailers. There is much prior discussion of this phenomena available.

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Where, EXACTLY, is this "hull puckering" you speak of discussed? It does not show up in search of this site, and when googled , this is what comes up:

https://www.google.com/#q=hull+puckering+puckering

I am sorry if this is a short post, but I am out of breath from runnin' to my neighbors house. I had to ask him WTH does puckerin' mean. He is from the big city and has a lot of book larnin', and he told me it was like when I used to kiss the purty gals back in my youth. Is that right?

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It took google about .14 second to find this:

http://www.google.com/search?client=s...haler+hull

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Tom, I am going to start a new thread to discuss this further. The poster here wanted to know how to add keel

rollers and set up his existing boat trailer correctly to support his boat. Mr. Finnegan, (or LHG), has fully covered

the answer to his post. I simply agreed with him regarding a comment based on his, (and my), opinion that there

are many trailers that are not set up properly. I believe that both Mr. Finnegan and myself are entitled to these and

OTHER opinions without being called an outright liar by someone who has some kind of personal agenda against

either, or both of us. I directed my comment to him, not to kamie OR you, but it is apparent from both of your

replies that you 2 also disagree with each other, as well as me.

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Relax. Read with greater care. Nobody is calling anyone else a liar. Opinions are always welcome here at Whaler Central, factually incorrect information is not and will be corrected.

Larry, Kamie and I all have trailers that fully support the keels of our Whalers. I recommend such a trailer for any Whaler owner. That does not mean a bunk trailer with no keel support is necessarily bad or incorrect.

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This discussion has been educational. Thanks for all of your input. I will be on the hunt for a continental trailer since there is some consensus on it being the well suited for a 17. I'm contacting a dealership in Jacksonville to see if they will work with and I'll post a thread to see if anyone is interested in the info.

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I for one, would be very interested in your quest for a Continental trailer. I live in Arlington, Va and I have a 1971 16'7 Whaler that needs a much better trailer (a 1983 Highlander) than the one I currently have. Keep us all posted.

Thanks,
Dave

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If you guys can arrange a group purchase, a dealer in Florida may be able to stack the trailers on top of one another so only one car needs to make the trip south. There may be some purchase costs savings too.

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Continental will set up a package of trailers, ready for the highway, directly at the factory. They do a really nice job of "bundling", including 4 x 4 blocking, necessary wrapping and galv u-bolt attachments. All the dealer has to do is order them. The limit is 4, with largest on bottom, smallest on top. I know of three instances where this has been done, including a two trailer package that I trailed from Fl to Chicago when I set up my Outrage 19. It can be a heavy load, and you need to have some way of unstacking them on arrival. A rental engine hoist may work. They probably use a forklift at the factory to set up the load for the highway.

For others in the midwest who may be reading this, Continental DOES have one dealer outside of FL, in Minneapolis, MN who can sell these. He is mainly a boat hauler, and when he moves boats to FL, he brings back 5 or 10 Continetals that he has pre-sold. They can give you his name at the factory. Actually, the CV-7 under my Montauk was purchased this way, and the price was reasonable, very nice people to deal with, saving me a trip to FL. A friend in WI picked it up for me. This dealer will also drop one off anywhere on the way from FL, but requires that you have lift equipment to get it off his carrier.

In case "Yankee" hasn't seen it, here is the Continental trailer under discussion:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lgolt...0097650117

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Well in my case I only have 3 keel rollers on my 13 sport with a pair of bunks just on inside portion of the sponson. So should I add a pair next to the aft and middle keel rollers? I have the parts just need bolts.

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On my prior 1972 Sport 13', I had bunks only. A Float-On Trail Rite trailer.
I owned it for 13 years and sold it to a friend of mine.
He owned it for another 5 or 6 years and never had any problems.

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We just have so rough roads here, and terrible boat launches. I'm replacing the keel rollers with some solid poly ones. I guess was I was wondering would I be doing any harm by adding the extra bunks? Thanks in advance Joe. Sorry to thread jack.

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Slickityd,

All of my trailers have had 4 bunks.
2 long down the sides of the keel and 2 shorter ones further out.
I believe in 4 bunks plus keel rollers if the trailer has enough cross members.

One of the reasons behind 4 bunks besides support, is, you can replace or repair one bunk at a time without bracing or jacking the boat up.

Here is one manufacturer of a common type of trailer used on most Boston Whalers except possibly for the smaller ones.
4 bunks, keel rollers, etc.
http://www.trailrite.com/galv_-2999_s...9_sing.htm

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That helps a lot! Going that route. Thanks Joe!

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I must have one:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lgolt...0097650117

Thanks Finnegan

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The trailer or the caddy to tow it?

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I just bought a Karavan from Dave's, wish I had seen this but too late for me, not too happy with Karavan. The guys at Dave's insisted rollers are not needed but my rig was bouncing around so bad I was nervous going over 45 on the highway and after just 2 trips to the bay I now have issues with my bow eye but that could also be attributed to the excessive force needed because I have no rollers....
The original trailer lasted 24 years in 100% salt water use. After just 2 months I'm already spraying rust spots with galvanized spray.
I just slid the winch post forward a few inches to increase tongue weight and added a roller under the bow and that helped a little. Pretty sure I need 2 more rollers but not sure how to do it as this curved cross bars and high clearance. Not liking the idea of adding more (straight) cross bars.