Salt Water Pontoon Trailers
If you're going to salt water, you need more than just a galvanized frame. You
need a good trailer with a strong reinforced frame, with superior tires that
will run 8 hours, from Valdosta to Ft Myers or Miami in 90 degree heat. You’ll
want brakes to bring you out of the mountains near Knoxville safely and disc
brakes are best for salt water, you can rinse the salt out of them easily. The
bigger the boat and engine, the more important a quality trailer is.
Extra bracing front and back and five or six cross-members keep the
trailer from flexing.
Pontoon boat trailers, unlike ordinary boat trailers, carry the weight on 77” centers, if not
properly reinforced, the frame can actually twist itself apart on long hauls.
Click Here to learn more about pontoon trailer construction
Pontoon boat trailers, unlike ordinary boat trailers, carry the weight on 77” centers, if not
properly reinforced, the frame can actually twist itself apart on long hauls.
Click Here to learn more about pontoon trailer construction
Modern styling “concealed” brake coupler combined
with modern disc brakes for trouble free operation in salt water.
Most fresh water boaters never consider that drum brakes with springs and moving parts will last about a month in salt water. You can buy aftermarket “rinse out” kits for drum brakes but most people never do. When you bring your pontoon trailer back north after use in salt water, your drum brakes will be “gone”. To rinse salt water out of disc brakes, just spray the brakes with a hose. If you're going to salt water you need disc brakes. Coming out of the mountains, you’ll be glad to have disc brakes. |
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You'll want the very best possible tires | |||
We recommend D range (more
rubber than C’s) or radial tires are even better. You’ll see the people who have a trailer with cheap tires, on the side of the road about half way between Valdosta and Ft Myers (or Miami). Cheap tires won’t run 70 MPH. |
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Click Here to learn more about pontoon trailer tires | |||
We have taken pontoon trailers
to salt water in Florida on four different occasions. On an early
trip friends told us we didn’t want brakes in salt water so we took
a 24’ pontoon with a 85 HP on a bunk trailer. We came over Jellico
Mountain (on Hwy 75), out of the mountains, down to Knoxville in a
heavy rain without brakes. We were scared to death in a full sized
Suburban, it was dangerous and we never made the trip again without
brakes again. Our recommendations on this page are from real life
experience. There is quite a bit that can go wrong on a 1200 mile
pontoon boat towing adventure. (2400 round trip) Most northern
boaters will never tow a pontoon boat more than an hour or two in
hot weather, but from Valdosta south, its 80+ degrees. Cheap tires won’t run 70 MPH in ninety degree weather for six or eight hours and it's eight hours from Valdosta to Ft Myers or Miami. |
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