Transporting, Trailering and Tires
 

Hi - im going to need to move 2 boats from MN to FL. I've got a 32' AT on a tri-axel and a 20' monza on a single axel. Its been a while but i had in the past used uship to have the small boat shipped to me from MD. I'm wondering what my options are to move these 2 boats, in total a bit over 1700 miles.


i'm also going to need to replace about 10 starting to dry rot tires in preparation for this trip. Any tire and or dealer recommendations? What PITA this feels like its going to be, I thought retiring was supposed to be easy :-). LOL


Alternatively, can you put a boat on a trailer in a shipping container or other sort of transporter?. or maybe even ship the boat without trailer?....I never use the trailers for anything besides storage and i no longer own a tow vehicle.


Thanks!

I just replaced my 15 year old Goodyear marathon tires with Maxxis tires, night and day difference with the Maxxis much better.

If you are using ST tires then go at least 12 ply. On my MYCO they use LT truck tires and alot of people like the LT tires better than ST trailer tires. If you do some research there are some shippers who have trailer set up for hauling boats that have no trailer. Also, another option is to load the boat and trailer on a flatbed trailer and haul it that way. Just curious what year is the AT?

i figured there were shipping options like this, i just didn't/don't know where to look for them.....i mean, you can find anything on the internet, but it doesnt mean its worth a hill of beans :-)

What is the total length of each boat and trailer. I mean from the ball hitch to the end of the drives.

What tire sizes on the trailers? That will allow us to give better recommendations.

You can probably sell your trailers simply in Florida. There is always a market for used trailers in Florida, especially if they are aluminum.

What are your projected dates? Thanks

Could you flatbed them together? Load them with the tongues of the trailers overlapping, it would likely fit on a 53 ft trailer, boats nose to nose (overlapping). Pay one trucker to take both and no issues with roadworthy trailers.

I just put Maxxis 8008 on and I am happy with them. Earlier in the year I was looking to ship a boat (29') that had no trailer from FL. I eventually gave up on the idea.

What I found was they were all super busy and the first question they usually had was where to and the second was is the trailer in good condition with good tires when I said I had no trailer of the 5 I contacted 4 said no can do. One had a commercial boat trailer that was configurable but he was not going to deadhead, if he could schedule on his time and when he had some type of load going back he wanted about $2/mile. If I wanted it within the next week our two and it was a one way, price went up to about $3/mile.

So back to more calling no one had a cradle that the boat could be lifted on and strapped down, if I had a trailer a couple of them worked with crane companies if the marina didn't have a rolling strap lift and that's another $1500 to crane it on a flatbed. Everyone was slammed due to the high boat sales hopefully it has calmed down and the hauling companies are a little more hungry. Specialized Conolift trailers that can load the boat are really pricey also. I found one an they were also not keen on a deadhead load.

Bottom line the least expensive way and they way that will have the most options is if you can get your trailers in good condition and use a Uship company or I think there are a couple members here that you would want to check with that haul boats.

Best of luck