Tow, always have, 25 minutes drive to launch living here. Quite honestly , I don't know how a lot of you tow those larger boats , put in , take out and clean, put back up. Biggest I have owned /towed was 28 CIg, and a 28 Wellcraft Coastal. , I do have a 31 CC project that I have not found time to devote so it's tucked away in corner of shop..

I picked up up a 20 ft Cobalt last year that was a really nice deal I could not pass up , super clean turn key .. bur honestly , even the 20 is a job , keep at the shop , un cover, get it out of its spot and requires moving a few cars out the way(Body Shop) tow , top off fuel, ride to launch , ride out to Cypermort Point Yacht Club/ Bayview Marina, have lunch , ride back, put back on trailer , tow back to shop , clean hull/outdrive , cover with light visqueen / Blue tape(shop dust) / and canvas and put back in its covered spot. That's takes about half a day all said and done....

388 on the lift behind our house, the Hydrostream sits on the lift at our Mother-in-laws house, The Skater, Spectre, and Talon are on trailers....

We keep our AT at home in our shop behind the house due to my OCD about keeping everything clean. We live about 45 min from the lake where our toy hauler stays and have a covered slip just for the holiday weekends or if it decides to rain while we are there. As of the past few months it has been at Eddie Youngs shop while he is finishing everything up, so when I go out to the shop it's kinda depressing not seeing it sitting here at home.

Great system !!

We'd have the boat packed and loaded for the day, so no Chinese fire drill crap at the ramp. Dad towed the boat to the ramp, swung it around and backed it to the water. Stepmother got in the driver's seat of the truck as the rest of us got in the boat. My dad unhooked the bow eye on his way past. When everybody was situated in the boat, dad bumped the horn and my stepmother backed the boat in until the transom was wet, dad would bump the horn again and she would stop. Dad fired the engine and we waited until it was idling reliably (those carbureted BBC's and all). When the idle was good, dad would bump the horn again and my stepmother would back in until dad backed the boat off the trailer and he'd bump the horn one last time, signaling to pull the truck away. It was usually a very short ordeal; rarely more than a couple minutes. My stepmother would park the truck and we'd pick her up at the transfer dock. At the end of the day, my stepmother would retrieve the truck and trailer, wait our turn and pull the boat out. Up top, everybody had a job or three to do, including wiping the boat down, unloading the boat of coolers, towels, snack bag, trash, etc...

Helmwurst,

We think so. It's only sixty years in the making.

Thanks. Brad.
(937)545-8991

We have ours in a slip since we went to a cruiser but I actually liked the freedom of towing wherever we wanted to go
and being able to clean my go-fasts when we had them out of the water and protected from the elements. Although our slip is covered between the spiders and dust and everything else I find myself cleaning the cruiser more than I ever did my other boats. I was fortunate to have our Hustler and Cig in my in-laws garage so it was easy to go stay the night there and work on it or whatever we needed to do.

Wet Slip from May-Sept. Rock bottom fresh water lake. I'll pull it to trailer to another lake occasionally. Hull stays pretty clean in the mountain water. Gotta have a functioning Mercathode and Magnesium anodes for drive/tab protection.

Another aspect of trailering that is often overlooked is simply things can and DO go wrong whilst towing...everything from issues with the trailer (tires, bearings, bunks, etc) to damage from accidents, weather, and idiots. For many years I kept my boats at my house and trailered to local lakes, where it was always kind of hit-or-miss on launch ramp availability and dealing with inconsiderate or ignorant people. But there was, as noted above, also a certain freedom with that lifestyle and you got to go wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted...see new lakes, etc.

I've had my boats at Table Rock lake since '99 now, and stay at a resort during the season with a private ramp and covered slips and docks. Storage unit is less than 3 minutes from the lake...so that is kind of the best of both worlds. For those who live on the water permanently or seasonally at vacation homes, I can definitely see the appeal of 'just push the lift button and go'.

As said before...pros and cons to both.

Yup, agree Bajaman, I always had an extra "extra" spare, hub, bearings, heavy duty straps, drove my wife nuts but it's not if but "when"... And we all know it never happens when shops are open, it's always on a Sunday or in the middle of the night like clockwork.

Friends with slips always called me trailer trash. lol Camp is two miles from the waters edge so no problems. Need a system to return the trailer back to camp after launch to keep it safe from the non drivers. lol