We had a new trailer made for our 2003 26M, the old steel trailer had lots of deep rust where the axle u-bolts attached to the frame, the rear of the trailer was showing lots of rust, the tires scrubbed the boat on the sides whenever you hit the smallest of bumps, the rotors were pitting very bad from years of rust. We tried to find someone to turn the rotors but that was a lost cause. When towing the boat you couldn't get above 55mph without the boat swinging the SUV side to side. We had a issue when coming home from a day sailing when 5 of the 6 lugs hit the end of their life and broke off, leaving us with one lug holding a wheel on to get home. Fortunately we were only 5 miles from home when the 5th broke off. After all these issues, we had very little confidence in the trailer holding up under normal towing conditions much-less hauling the boat any distance beyond 50 or 60 miles. There is a post on this site that vkmaynard wrote about his new 26X trailer. We reached out to Vik and Mike Orr from Triad Trailers here in Raleigh, NC about making a 2003 26M trailer. We all met at a local boat ramp in Raleigh, Vik pulled his trailer with NO boat, my wife and I pulled our boat and trailer to the ramp and Mike Orr from Triad Trailers met us there for the fitting and measuring. We put our boat 2003 26M on Vik's 26X trailer, there were some small but important changes and differences that needed to be made.
Since Mike and Vik had already done this once, we just followed their lead during the measuring process. If you check Mike Orr's web site triadtrailers.com you should feel as I did "this aint his first time at the rodeo". The measuring process took about 2.5 hours (Thanks Vik for letting us use your trailer as a template so to speak) most of the hard work was already done .
The overall trailer is as long as the boat not 3 foot shorter than the boat like the original steel trailer.
This is a link to the shared album on google https://photos.app.goo.gl/cKBCyjEL9P1EGATS6 hopefully it will work.
I'll post some individual links here:
Different details of the trailer without the boat:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZunndcjGBNCbLaK77
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ou4Wd9vuC4Eys7ue7
These next few pics are of the trailer with the boat so you can see how it sits on the trailer and the adjustments that are possible.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/eKavvjfsWJoH5Ehw6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xxAbarp2vzpTfn5M9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/S8xdB1h6XJ2xWCBW9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/riKWpsRhvwktNJfZA
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CrSAUyDvzSCWpV3p8
Hopefully all the links work well, these are all together on a google share. Yes, I'm aware there is a rudder missing on the back. We had a little automobile accident backing into the driveway and hit the mailbox. I prayed while walking to the back that the mailbox would be laying on the ground, but no such luck, it ripped the rudder slam off the boat didn't hurt the mailbox a bit.
New 2003 26M Trailer (repaired link)
- 1st Sail
- Captain
- Posts: 676
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:58 am
- Sailboat: MacGregor 26M
- Location: Moline, IL '06M 50hp Etec
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Re: New 2003 26M Trailer (repaired link)
I'm still looking to up grade my oem. Since we fresh water sail and warehouse store it is in excellent condition. However, we plan to travel extensively with our 26M next year and would prefer two axles.
What is your overall length hitch to rudder/motor/further aft point
Have you had any clearance issues with the rear cross bar to road height at intersections or ramps?
What is your overall length hitch to rudder/motor/further aft point
Have you had any clearance issues with the rear cross bar to road height at intersections or ramps?