Trailering long distance

[Psnell246]

I need some advice / reassurance from some veteran trailer pullers. 

I recently bought a Picnic Cat located in Atlanta and will soon be towing it back home near Chicago.  I plan to have the bearings serviced and will make sure the tire pressure is up to max capacity.  The trailer tires are only  8 x 5.70.  I'd like to take the interstates and am wondering how fast I can drive with those little tires. 

Anyone have experience towing your PC for long distances at interstate highway speeds? 

Thanks
Paul

[Potcake boy]

You can travel highway speeds no problem, the small tires will handle it. Having the bearings serviced (by a reputable trailer service center) is a very good idea. Just make sure the tires are good - wear and age, and properly inflated. The biggest danger to tires is underinflation, as they will overheat and self-destruct.
Congrats on the new acquisition, the Picnic cat is a fun little boat to sail, and a great family sailor.

[Psnell246]

Thanks for your response.  By "highway speeds" do you mean 70 mph? 

[Floridagent]

I bought a Sunday Cat from a dealer north of Atlanta and towed it down to central Florida.  The trailer had the smaller tires, too.   I bought a spare at WM before I left Atlanta. I had the dealer service the hubs and check all trailer electricals and rigging.  I had no problems running at 70 mph the whole way on a hot May weekend.  I checked the heat of the hubs and the tires every hour to two by feeling them.  All was well!  Good luck with your Compac.

[Ken J]

Most trailer tires are rated at 65 mph

[Jon898]

Towed my PC at highway speeds from Indiana (Indianapolis area) to North Carolina (Chapel Hill area) in 2011 with no trailer issues.  Checked the hubs for temperature (hand-warm) after the first few miles and at each fuel stop.  The tires, which were new for the trip, are lightly loaded and stayed cool. The only victim of the experience was the 10-year old sail cover...in retrospect I should have removed the sail and cover for that long a trip at those speeds.  You'll probably experience a bit of bouncing as the PC is so light, so make sure it's well strapped down and the outboard is not mounted on the bracket (or left in the boat).  Tow vehicle could make a difference to the comfort of the experience; mine was/is a 2007 Highlander Hybrid and I hardly knew the rig was there.

Enjoy your PC, they're great!

Jon

[kickingbug1]

    not trailering advice, but just an invite to the Carlyle lake rendezvous last week of june in southern illinois.

[bruce]

Jon makes a great point, any loose sail or cover can flog itself to death. My boat was delivered fully rigged, but the sail, boom, and mast bundle was wrapped with stretch wrap. The boat was shown at the 2011 Catboat Association annual meeting in Mystic, CT, and rewrapped for the final couple of hours to my place in RI. No chafing.

[Salty19]

    not trailering advice, but just an invite to the Carlyle lake rendezvous last week of june in southern illinois.

I'll second this...this well attended and very fun event is only a few hours south of you.  Check it out in the Com-pac events section of the forum. 

[Psnell246]

Thanks ALL  for sharing your experiences.  I feel much more confident now as a result. 

[bruce]

Another tip I learned from a former PC sailor who loved to fish remote high country lakes in Colorado. He put the miles on, going through tires every 18 months!

Any place metal rubs against metal with fabric in between can wear a hole. His solution was to slip seat cushions between the gaff and boom at both ends to keep them separated. I do slip a beer coozy over the end of the gaff before I put the sail cover on. A tight stretch wrap would minimize rubbing, but it wouldn't hurt to slip something in at pressure points. I also pad the top of the boom gallows to protect the bright work.

Of course, most sailboats are transported with the sails off and don't face this problem. I know of one new PC owner that took the advise of an uncle and removed her sails. Someone, it never was clear who, decided to take a crow bar to the sail track in the mast stub and spread themselves a mast gate to ease the procedure. Problem was, now the sail slugs would fall out of the track every time the sail was dropped or raised. Fortunately, we were able to bend the track back into shape.

[NateD]

I've never owned a Picnic Cat, but I'm always buying old boats sitting on old trailers, typically with old tires. If I'm going to tow it home any distance, I usually show up with new tires mounted on wheels, along with a jack and electric impact wrench, and almost always swap out the current tires/wheels for the new ones. Fairly cheap insurance. If you show up and the tires are nearly new and in great shape, then you can always return the new trailer tire/wheels, or keep 1 for a spare if the rig doesn't have one. Point is, unless the buyer says they are new tires, they are probably 5+ years old and due for replacement in the next couple of years anyway, why not do it before you start the long tow and be done with it?

When I bought a ComPac 23 (in South Carolina, towing back to MN) the owner actually agreed to bring the trailer over to a tire shop and get new tires put on before I showed up (I paid the shop by CC). That worked well too, I didn't want to bring 4 tires half way across the country.

[Jon898]

And don't be tempted to go by the tread condition.  When I replaced the tires on my trailer for the 2011 trip they were 10 years old and the treads were essentially as-new, but the tires themselves were definitely not.  Good advice from NateD.

Jon

[Citroen/Dave]

Buy the best quality tires you can find; not those made-in-China crap ones.  My local trailer shop had 9 out of 12 failures before they stopped selling a Chinese brand tire.  They dumped their stock.   

Automotive tires are now designed to begin failing at 6 years. Don't buy a 60,000 mile automotive tire if you will only drive 40,000 miles in 6 years . . . 

I don't know what the life span of a new trailer tire is, but 6 years is the limit on how long I will keep my trailer tires, regardless of tread depth. Watch the side walls for cracks and cracks in between the treads at each break on a long trip along with the usual check for hub and tire temperature.

[Jay]

I just towed a PC from Virginia Beach to Long Island after purchasing the boat.  There was 4.8x8" tires on it.  The tires seemed ok, the bearings are the important thing.  Grease the bearings, maybe even put Bearing Buddys on the trailer.  I kept the speed to 55-60.  I've since put 12" tires on the trailer and it tows much better.

Good Luck

Jay