Having had our pay award (due last July!!) I have a little spare cash and wonder what the best combi value for money would be.  Also do you know if they are delivered "flat pack" or do you have to collect.

Soverign have been the gold standard for merlins for ages, but Winders have started doing their own now.  Worth finding out the numbers!

I have a Soverign now, great quality but i have heard that West Mercia trailers are the best

i have a sovereign for my merlin - excellent, and a west mersea for my wayfarer, also excellent and easier to load the trolley with a heavier boat, but not such an issue with a merlin, although west mersea trailers has been bought by someone else and there were support issues last year.

find a supplier nearest to you - no sense in buying down south if you want local support, and it's not exactly a mail order item!

10" wheel are a must, and make sure you get a good match of boat weight to suspension stiffness, different strengths available, ie the merlin has softer units than the wayfarer - 98kgs vs 165kgs!

Jon,
Please explain why 10" wheels are "a must". For low volume travel the extra tyre wear is not significant for the "8" ?

West Mersea have the cradle further back (I have both Soveriegn & WM) which helps the balance, useful if you have a long drag up a beach like Mill bay.

Last time I had a trailer delivered (from up north to down south) by a transport firm it cost £20, mind you that was about 10 years ago.

Garry get the larger wheels for your distances and because of rough roads (when you come south I mean).
Think about it. An 8" wheel has to go round more times than a 10" to cover the same distance and thus gets a lot hotter.

It's about the size of the wheel and the ride it gives the boat, tyre wear is a desirable side effect as well though!

If you have a bigger wheels they are more likely to ride over the bumps than the little 8" wheels and therefore give the boat a smoother ride.

mid circ chap

as above, gives much smoother ride, i'm not too concerned about tyre wear, but the boat deserves a good ride.

my west mersea combi under the wayfarer has 8" wheels and it's a bone shaker even with new suspension. I will be converting it this year, although converting a sovereign would be easy, the wm requires more sawing!

The difference with 10" wheels is amazing.

also the cross section of tyre can be bigger on 10" wheels - my sov combi takes (old-proper) mini tyres. volume of air / rolling diameter etc.

Just sold my West Mersea and about to order a Soverign! Don't recomend West Mersea for wooden boats as the cradle is aft of the thwart and has broken away the steps on my hull!

I had a west mersea on Armed Forces and it was fine. Are you strapping it down too tight?

A word of warning re; mini wheels. The old BMC/Leyland mini was not a heavy car, and each wheel was only designed to take (obviously!) one-quarter of the cars weight. This actually isn't very much, and you've got to remember you've only got two wheels on a trailer, not four. Towing the standard ply rating mini wheels at high speed might make the petrolheads amongst you feel good, but don't rely on the tyre holding together. Using the boat as a trailer for every bit of gear you might ever need at a champs week is also not a clever idea. I know a Merlin ain't heavy, but add in the weight of the trailer, and trolley and it all mounts up. Piggyback two boat trailer owners especially beware!

The problem is that when you hit a bump the hull flexes and the cradle is directly under the end of the steps and has broken them away. If i had a Soverign this would not happen.

It shouldn't happen period.

We towed Armed Forces for two seasons on a west mersea trailer with the cradle behind the axle with no trouble at all. It had hull steps the same as yours - no problem.

It really does sound as if you're either tieing it down to tight (Very easy to do with ratchet straps) or not tight enough and the hull is bouncing on the cradle.

bmax,

the rating on trailer tyres is lower than mini tyres, both in terms of speed and load, however, the trailing tyres have lower ply rating and are more compliant allowing a softer ride, i use trailer tyres for that reason, although the trailer was orig supplied with car tyres which i swapped.

loading the boat with loads of stuff just puts more strain on the hull.

either way, they are all rated at least 90mph which is 40mph faster than we should be going in any case.

i never speed when trailing (well, hardly ever)(ok, sometimes)

I don't use ratchet straps and the boat is firmly tied to the trailer. Don't know why it happens but it does. One way or another it would not happen with a Sovreign.

In my experience the Soverign trailer has proven to be the most reliable and easy to use, backed up by excellent after sales service and advice, it has also been a deal clincher when selling a boat, I have used them for Merlin's and Int 14's

I agree. When i bought my boat it was advertised with a Soverign combi but i guess the owner had swapped it with his new Winder Wonder. Had i realised the problems it would cause i might not have bought that boat as there is a problem somewhere with either the trailer or the boat!

I'm not knocking soveriegn trailers at all, indeed i currently own one. 

I'm just pointing out to Jeremy that there maybe problems besides his West Mersea trailer and the issues he's had with his boat. 3536 was on a soveriegn trailer and had to have the bottom 3 planks on each side reglued because it had been strapped down incorrectly.

It is very easy to over or underdo strap tension. Ropes and straps do stretch during transit.

My vote for Robert O'Neill and his Sovs!  Big and butch but you do pay a bit more but it is a safer bet if you do the miles.  A reasonable cheaper (both in price and quality) alternative are Hayling Trailers who might be worth an enquiry.  Generally you pays your money and takes your choice....

My understanding is that a Sov is about 200 quid cheaper than a W/M and a ton or so lighter! I can barely pick mine up with out the boat on it.

The other thing to consider is the way the trolley is loaded onto the trailer. This is the first time I've had a sovereign (with the Merlin) and I find having to pick the trailer nose up wilst also pulling the trolley forward to locate the trolley axle in the two little prongs on the trailer a bit of a pain. Got used to it now but...
Previously I found the trailers with a long metal roller across the rear of the trailer was the best means of loading. But that's just my preference...

Rob o Neill is looking at aluminium trollies , recomend you phone him

0208 202 8677

I believe the Sovreigns are available with a roller now too. I sent a guy up to Rob to buy one for my old boat before he picked it up and the trailer he came back with had a lot of new additions to it which i had not seen on a Sov before.

I believe there’s more to this than meets the eye, OK yes ideally you need the main support under the Thwart – I don’t believe any manufacturer makes such a trailer. From experience Mini wheels are more than adequate for small keel boats, and 8” wheels are OK for Merlin’s.

But have we considered the aero dynamics of this? The Merlin is a fantastic shape which I now believe would like the Fly especially at speed, then there’s the car, a nice estate shape will leave a wonderful vortex rolling horizontally off the roof I think sucking the front of the boat up and pushing the back of the boat down the faster we go the more force involved.

So which trailers tow well with which cars and a Merlin?

I have a Rover 75 Estate diesel and you wouldn't know the boat's there!!  Get on motorway at M6 junct 15 set cruise control to 65ish relax until you reach Scotland 4hrs later.  42mpg towing is not bad.   For this rare model will now accept £15k (boat and car becoming classics!!)  Main problem is to make sure that everything you need for the journey is accessable from the rear doors as the tailgate wont go right up - it just fouls the mast support.

Or buy a transit van and put the mast on the roof.

Loads of room for sails, bikes, camp bed and..... yep - a beer fridge woo hoo!

Worth mentioning that towing a merlin is OK because you can see it in your mirrors.  Towing a Europe you have to just hope it's still attached!

I have a Saab Convertable and towing the Merlin is a doddle. The MPG does not seem to change and you hardly notice the boat. The only thing i have noticed is that when passing lorrys at about 70 the boat likes to take off!

Funny if your boat insurance company agent was reading this forum.

Thats very true! However i never go over 60 for that very reason!

lol

For even more boat comfort, because the loading for 10" is normally 350KG, and the merlin all up with trailer is under 200KG, Don't pump the tyers up to the recomended levels of 35-50 psi, I run mine at 25 psi, the tyer is less stressed and the road contact patch is the full width of the tred, hence less centre ware.
And if I tow it empty of boat I drop them to 10 psi to stop it bouncing all over the road and shaking the tow bar bolts loose.

Your insurance underwriter DOES read this forum............

With the high top camper van the vortex comes off the aerodynamic roof and seems to give a lovely slipstreaming effect on the trailer, pushing it slightly towards the van. 
These modern 1900+ transporter based VWs are wonderful towing vehicles, being designed as load luggers and the sails just go full length in the back on the bed.

Ultimate insult to any driver, especially of so called sporty cars...
Being overtaken by a camper van... towing a boat... driven by a woman!!

I was looking at Trident Trailers website simply because they can send trailers ready to assemble and to Aberdeen that's a consideration.  The site showed they sell Rapide Trailers but when I phoned them (01795 427551 - the depot is in Sittingbourne)they now don't do them but they are getting in a combi trailer in the next week or so which will be suitable for a 14'6" boat at a price of £399 complete (plus delivery).  It might be worth looking out for this.  Anyone know anything about dealing with them in the past?

Garry
Stop being Scottish and get a Sovereign with a good wide cradle on the trolley.  The system to load the trolley on the trailer is very simple and easily done singlehanded unlike those trailers with rollers (which inevitably stop rolling) which require a gorilla to pull the boat on.

Och aye - I'll just open my sporran, let the moths out and tae hell wi' the expense!!

Er, aren't you Irish anyway, Garry?

Yep I am - does this make me too thick to work my wallet!!

I just assumed that he was adopting the local habits for camoflage.

If anyone need a new car to tow their boat with (when i say new i mean slightly used) I am your man.

If you are towing a Merlin behind an MGB you have very little view of anything behind you EXCEPT the boat.  So if you see me on the M5 tonight just bear it in mind.

And unless you have a tallish mast support you can get banged on the head going up a dip after going down! (In an MGB that is, but remember "You can do it in an MG"!)

stop showing off!

Last time I was in an MG we broke our mast on the greengrocers blind at the bottom of Salcombe High Street on the first Saturday of Salcombe Week. We also destroyed his blind and knocked over his display of fruit. Not a happy greengrocer!