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Folding Trailers


cvtripper

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I know I've seen a few trailers at KOG meets, but I haven't asked what brand they are!

People that come to mind are:

  • Kimbo & Ned
  • Geoff & Deb
  • Shane & Elle
  • Chris & Val?

but I'm sure there have been more.

My questions are:

  • What trailer do you use?
  • Are you happy with it?
  • Would you buy the same again or buy a different one?
  • Is it easy to put together - how long and how technical? Tools required?
  • Was the supplier helpful and offer suggestions on fitting it on your van?
  • Does it tow well and to highway speeds?
  • In your travels, have you really needed it or has it been just as easy to drop the boat straight in the water? (The Gall boys seemed to do it this way without any problems)

Any help most appreciated.

(I didn't see any at the 4x4 show)

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We have a lightweight foldable aluminum Almac trailer. http://www.almactrailers.com/

It folds up under the boat on top of the car. It is registered for the road but is not recommended to travel over 80km per hour.

Tools: 2 sizes of spanners.

How long: Takes about 15 minutes to put together.

We do not use it on the highway only on smaller roads. When on the highway we have the van behind us, and the trailer up on top of the car. The heavier trailers, I understand can be towed at higher speeds. This is of course a tradeoff, more weight to carry - against speed.

We would certainly buy the same again. Have been very happy with it. We use the tinny and trailer when we travel north and the Hobie when we go south.

Retailer did not know we even towed a van so no comment there.

The need for a trailer is dependent I think on the type of travel you are going to do, and the length of time you are staying in a given place.

Eg., if you are only camping by a river, and for a short time, you don’t need a trailer as much. If however, you spend any time in a caravan park, as we do, we use the trailer to move the boat to the boat ramp. You can then leave the vehicle parked with the trailer attached, drive back to camp and leave on trailer till next fishing expedition. We don’t put it back on the car till we are about to more on. Some places we stay up to 2 weeks and would not like to put boat on and off each day.

Another option is wheels you attach by clamping on to the side of the boat. If only needing to get boat from campsite to boat ramp these are a reasonable idea. Can only be used to move by hand over shorter distances.

Cheers

Eric and Jody

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Thanks Eric & Jody,

Had a look at the almac but I want it highway rated.

These are the other ones we've researched so far:

http://www.flipneasy.com.au/ (Coopers Plan QLD)

http://www.realezytrailers.com.au/ (Maclean NSW)

http://www.familyboats.com.au/boattrailers...bulldog/lb.html (bulldog - can't find manufacturer's website)

http://www.belcocustomtrailers.com.au/cft.htm (Brendale QLD)

Seem to be favouring the realezy at the moment, but will try to have a look at the Belco and flipneasy as they are local to us.

Anyone else have any feedback?

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Guest yoshy&kerry

We have the Real Easy Barcoo coil suspension model mounted on the back of the top ender which was fitted by Rob at his workshop in Maclean. Its well worth the trip as Rob builds the brackets to secure the trailer on the back of the van in an extremly profesional manner. He designed my brackets to suit from the photos I emailed him and I picked up the trailer two days later.

This trailer can be towed at normal hiway speeds and is very stable. Ialso have the older leaf suspension model which I use to store the boat on when at home and used as a weekend trips to the bay. The only

setback is I can not see it cos its so small.

Putting it together does take a little time but who cares, we are on holidays.

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Hey Yoshy & Kerry,

I didn't realise you have your trailer on the van - I should have had a look last weekend!

Thanks for the info.

P.S. At the 4x4 show on Friday, the AirBag Man guys were talking about some lazy axle configured landcruiser they were helping to build and were pretty excited about. Who would do that to their nice shiny new 200? :shades: :thumbsup:

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Hi David

I have the realezy barcoo same as Yoshies and when folded it just sits in the rear tray on the van flat and isnt an issue.They arnt the lightest of trailers but I am like you need it for when I'm home to tow the boat around locally and it is speed rated to 100klms from memory.

Before I purchased I towed the van to the dealers and tried it where I wanted it to sit

I had the little bulldog trailer and found it to be to big folded up and cumbersome so I sold that to buy the realezy.

My opinion on the flip and easy and the almanac trailers was they were toooo light and wouldnt withstand to much travel on the rd but they would be great if all you needed was for short trips to the boat ramp and you were really concerned with the weight issues.

hope this helps

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Ditto for RealEzy. We're from Perth, but we settled for one of these after much research (including the bulldog which is made over there). We got it because:

- At the time we had a Windsor Rapid which didn't lend itself to trailer mounting, so the trailer had to go in the Landcruiser, which it did quite comfortably on the floor right behind the front seats. I then put a bit of wood over the whole thing as a false floor, and Bob was my uncle. (These days of course, he could just as easily have been my aunty.)

- Rob was very helpful over the phone when conducting my research.

- It is road licensable, and heavy duty enough to tow reasonable distances.

Subsequently, after we hit the road and got around to Brisbane and traded the van in for a Kedron, we dropped in on Rob at McLean unannounced, and got some brackets for the trailer and wheels made up on the spot - fabulous service! Now the whole lot sits happily on the back of the van.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry its been awhile for this reply, We have a flip n Ezy , Geoff says the new one has a better weight distripution then our model, our's has no suspension so it is lighter and tows well we have had it up to 100 k's on the highway from Redcliff to Donnybrook. it takes about 15 minutes to put together with a couple of spanners and a couple of pins , we have ours on the back of the van all time and I think we use it every time we stop long enough to put the boat in the water .

Regards

Deb :shades:

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  • 1 month later...

Just thought I'd post an update on the trailer.

Rob has done a great job of the trailer and the installation/mounts.

I've posted some pics here:

http://www.kedronownersgroup.com/photos/th...ls.php?album=59

Rob's a nice guy and went well out of his way to make sure we were happy.

We'd be pleased to recommend him to anyone else considering a trailer.

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  • 9 years later...

Hi

Another update. We sold our Bulldog trailer and bought a Real EZY Barcoo trailer as it fits on the back of the van better. We dropped in on Rob at Real EZY Trailers in Maclean and he organised a bracket to carry the trailer.

We have ten inch wheels on the trailer so he designed and built a set of brackets for the wheel/mud guards as well.

To make it easier to load and unload the outboard we also bought an outboard carrier with the pulley/crane setup to mount on the A frame.  It’s soo easy to setup the boat now. We just need to keep the ball weight down (I carry a set of ball weight scales for this).

Rob from Real EZY trailers went above and beyond to sort us out for which we are very grateful.

Hope this helps.

cheers

Stu

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Hi,

 

I have a flip and easy.  When the van was made I had backets made for the draw bar(extended) to hold both the trailer and a slide for the outboard motor.  The trailer wheels have integrated into the rear bumper.  The trailer has been assembled with all rollers etc in place. To assemble take the trailer off the draw bar open out and insert the pin. remove wheels from rear bumper and add to trailer. job finished.

Hope this helps.  We only use trailer for small distance travel.  I have also installed a tow hitch into the front of the truck so that I can push trailer as well as pull. very handy.

 

Leon

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