I've towed a boat from East Texas to the Florida Keys and San Diego. The worst disaster was losing two wheels and ending up on the spindles, which happened right after having the trailer serviced. Insurance company totaled the trailer. Luckily this happened about 40 minutes from the house. Most of my long trips have been without incident. If you are planning a long tow, do all you can to make sure your trailer is in the best shape possible, but even then, be ready for problems.

What everyone else said. I’ll add don’t tow with your cover on for really long trips. “I know some guys claim their cover is the best” but if your towing 8+ hours for multiple days at 70 mph could be bad on your gel coat. The vibration could cause a rash.

I'm convinced that boat shops dont know anything about hubs, I had a similar incident about 10 years ago after letting a boat place replace hub. It didnt make it 100 miles. Trailer shops know about hubs. I recently had a boat manufacturer tell me to ignore the instructions from the hub manufacturer that they provided with boat. I have since replaced an 11 month old hub......

My favorite was the one guy telling you that you had no clue how to load your boat....

Some guys run a few wraps of clear plastic wrap around their boat before they put cover on for long trips.

I live in Montgomery, Texas, my son attended SFA and fished three national championships, trailering to South Carolina, Georgia and Minnesota and all the qualifiers, etc., in between. He has an '06 Pantera and I have an '18 Puma. We've made 3 trips to Sturgeon and most recently went to Beaver Lake for the Bass Cat Owner's Tournament. Only problem he has had is losing a wheel and hub headed to Lake Hamilton for a FLW College Qualifier. Always check tires before long trips, replace anything questionable, during trips at every gas/food/bathroom break check connections to truck, all tie downs/straps, visually inspect tires and place palm of hand on each wheel - not tire, checking for heat, check transom saver and straps on poles - make sure power is off to poles. Going down the road, I check review mirrors for any bulges in side walls or unusual trailer movement. So far, knock on wood, this has seemed to keep us out of trouble.

I’ve seen that as well. I’d do that 👍🏼

Not gonna argue with WAWI on this one. Every trailer is kinda junk. And every trailer WILL break. Fact. I’m not gonna haul a workshop with me everywhere I go. Just like my truck. It WILL break someday. I have a spare tire. My wife’s Lexus WILL break someday. She doesn’t have a spare tire. It has a little pump and some fix a flat. Everything WILL break. Nothing lasts forever. We all die.

Just go fishing. Take care of the stuff and make sure it’s mechanically sound before ya go. If/when it breaks, go from there. You don’t have to plan to fail, figure it out as ya go. That’s what I’m saying.

I you think you will make it….you might! If you think you won’t make it, you won’t!!

That was a funny one.

WAWI knows what's up. Boat trailer are absolute pieces of chit. Just check your hubs and bring a spare tire. Not much else you can do.

A buddy of mine left for Lake Havasu 2 days ago dragging his new Phoenix. If you're about to head West you may want to think about this.....



No joke

That’s painful to see.

Made that same trip in August 2020; Argyle to Atlanta and back. All good in that 800 mile trip and the 10k miles I’ve put on it since. Except for the deep pothole on 380 that cost me a tire.

I dont go real far but used to routinely have my bearing repacked at trailer shop yearly just to be safe. Had a tire go rolling past me years ago coming back from an all night saltwater trip, it went on a flatbed wrecker and i put new axle on it same day I was so pissed.

I've had the trailer tire pass me on the road. When I saltwater fished I had constant issues with my shop built trailer. Saltwater is heck on equipment.