Thank you everyone for the feedback. It does sound like there is quite a bit of support for Manning. I will reach out to Broward, however, as they stated for smaller trailers, they are not as competitive and I'm having a Sea Vee 29 built.
Anyway, the feedback is much appreciated. Thanks again.

LDIII

The first time I read this post I'd had a few adult beverages and thought "Did he really just say that? He really said "a boat this small" when talking about a potential customer's boat?"

About a Cigarette guy no less.... better off saying something about his mom... lol

Anyway....I figured I'd better come back when I wasn't under the influence of performance enhancers and re-read the post.

Did that & I still took it poorly and it's not even my boat.

It's great to be proud of and defend your product but I probably would have been a bit less condescending and said something on the order of "Due to the quality of our workmanship, materials, and the the hi tech nature of our measurement and assembly procedures, our pricing looks better vs our competitors as the trailer gets larger. We generally aren't as competitive - in terms of price - on boats 30' and under".

Why take a shot at the size of his boat?

If you spend much time here it should be at least semi-obvious that OSO isn't inundated with the kindergarten drama so prevalent on other boating forums.

I thought I had a gift of "open mouth, change feet" but damn, man.....makin' friends fast is all I can say.....

If OSO isn't inundated with "kindergarten drama" then why in the world did you just write a paragraph about this?

Apparently I'm not good at subtle.... let me use a little less filter.

Does "isn't inundated" mean "none" ? Not Hardly. (Yeah, the Duke's Jacob McCandles reply to Richard Boone's John Fain is one of my favorite movie quotes as well)

There is "some" drama here because boaters, especially performance boaters, tend to have egos and differing opinions about stuff. We're not as intense as soccer moms, but we can be passionate about whatever hits our hot button on any given day. However, the drama here is predominately good natured, almost never a "callout" or "shot" at another member, and from what I've seen is usually someone commenting in defense of someone else...sort of a "hey man, it's all cool but you might want to stay in your own lane". Wobble coming to your defense - and VoodooRob liking it - is exactly what I'm talking about. That's nowhere near the BS that other forums "enjoy".

Capisce? Or still too subtle ? OK....Here's the deal: VoodooRob lit you up a little bit for hijacking the OP's thread. Don't misunderstand; we all know OSO is a biz and takes $$ to maintain so we can all enjoy it. Nobody would have objected even a little bit your 1st very classy post. You're a commercial member, we all appreciate your money spent in support of the site. Wobble did the "it's all good, he'll figure it out" thing and VoodooRob graciously "liked" his post.

But you didn't quit...And then 28Cig made the comment he was happy with his Manning (it IS a Manning thread, after all) and that in comparison Broward was nearly twice the $$ of Manning when he was in the market & couldn't imagine Broward being twice the trailer.

You then admitted Broward is more competitively priced as the size of the trailer increases, but then threw what I perceived to be a shot at the size of his boat. A 28 Cig isn't exactly a 15' Bayliner. Even if it had been a 15' Bayliner ? If he wants to hang out here, good for him, at least he's boating and he doesn't need the comment about a "boat that small". I'm betting nearly all of us started in small boats. I thought, and still think, that was a ****ty thing to say. And...you're really expecting us to believe Broward has never gotten a quote request for a boat under 30'?

As I said, I read your post last after having a couple beers , reread it today, and thought "man, I'll bet he really didn't mean it to sound quite like that"

I used a smiley face, took a dig at Cig owners, and even mentioned my own propensity to end up with foot in mouth syndrome....all in attempt to convey the fact that my post wasn't meant so much as a shot as it was constructive criticism.

I threw a nice easy lob right over the center of the plate giving you the opportunity to hit it out of the park with a reply along the lines of "my bad, that didn't really come out right, what I meant to say was......."

And you whiffed.

So...my bad, my apologies, sorry I hurt your feelings.

We've got a place in Fl not all that far from you (my wife just sent me a pic of her and a girlfriend drinking my tequila on the beach as I write this...good tequila...and they're making margaritas with it...wtf) if I bump in to you down there I'll buy the first round.

d

So after a lot of discussion i decided to go with Manning for Sea Vee 29 going into the mold in a few weeks. I picked the trailer up last week and I'm very pleased so far. Coming home to Md from Mi, I couldn't even tell there was a trailer behind me.

Congrats LDIII, great looking trailer. Hope to see it around MD this coming season. ...As far as the "J.A." from Broward....you can keep your trailers... All other trailer manufacturers will get my next trailer business before I would spend one nickel with you.

This is the trailer Manning built for me The wiring for the lights is not normally exposed like you see in the picture. This is a steel frame but is sealed and pressurized and this is simply where the wires had to go. After thinking about it for a while I'll probably run some stainless brake line or similar (maybe braided?) and route the wiring inside that. I did steel - at Manning's recommendation - for a couple reasons. It's a pretty good sized boat which occasionally gets run in salt water & we can put a lot of miles on the trailer. My previous - admittedly old - brand name aluminum trailer had developed several cracks; not from a manufacturing issue, but simply due to lots of flex over several years and miles. This trailer shouldn't flex - and crack - like aluminum, even after multiple trips from W. MI to CA. or FL. Pressurizing the frame should keep the water from the inside of the trailer and rusting.
I'll add that Manning was great to work with & after the season was over when we wanted a few things changed Ron and Matt just said "bring it down and show us what you want".
Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic

Oh geez...look at that...another NON "J.A." trailer pulling another small boat....guess they should get into the small boat market, eh? ....no I've not been drinking...because if I had I may call him a "D"head....

Gorgeous trailer and entire set up....CONGRATS !!!!

LOL

Thanks...we like our little boat a lot....

Ummmm.......A little late for me to respond but I asked you about a trailer for my 43 Scarab as seen in the above pic LOL.