MacGregorSailors.com

Wow Strikes...Kinda sounds to Me like You are planning too fast of a trip...here's why I think that. Only You know how long You can safely drive ....PERIOD You have a single axle trailer....is it loaded down as much as Your car/truck Bad idea if it is...single axle loaded down equals costly and dangerous situations at least. All the other replies where advise is offered are correct also. A night in a motel is well worth the safety of Your Family Travel safe & fair winds. Ron. Dauntless.

You're not go going to make it in 18 hrs. Sorry. I'm 12-13 hrs from Key West from Charleston, SC with my in tow at highway speeds. I've made the trip once with the boat and once without.

Bob

Coming back from the Keys to Atlanta it took just under 18 hours with stops. I'd say about 3hrs in stops. If you're lucky you can get through Atlanta without an accident holding you up. I wasn't lucky going both directions and had to detour accidents. I don't know if my detour was any faster than sitting in traffic though.

I have the stock trailer and pull with a Dodge Dakota. I avoided the FL turnpike to save about $70. It probably only added about an hour to the trip. Though I was surprised that I-75 near Homestead had a toll. I brought a grease gun and kept the bearings greased about every other tank of gas (Approx 400 mi).

The only issue I ran into was my truck was losing coolant and would start to overheat. I've yet to find a lek so it has me concerned but maybe it can be attributed to pushing the truck too hard for too long.

Well we made it down and back no problems other than a check engine light that came on before I left New York. Had it checked for free at Advance Auto Parts and it wasn't important. Changed my engine cables in the Universal Studios Parking lot while my kids dealt with the crowds. Put in at South Dade Marina and Bob was the nicest host and we had a visit from a Manatee. Had a great time in Key (Port) Largo where we spent lots of time in the pools and went out to the reefs every day for some great snorkels. Boat was a lot smaller now that my kids are 15 and 18.

It was too far to go for 6 days but now it's out of my system and on the bright side, the drive was so long I felt like I was gone for a month and came back nice and rested. Also had a lot of good family time in the car for the last vacation before my son goes off to college. He downloaded "WAZE" which is an app that got us around lots of traffic jams on I95.

fishheadbarandgrill wrote:You're not go going to make it in 18 hrs. Sorry. I'm 12-13 hrs from Key West from Charleston, SC with my in tow at highway speeds. I've made the trip once with the boat and once without.

Bob

Any travel plans I do will be based on driving
at 50 to 55 MPH. I live in Nevada, but like the
55 MPH speed limit that California has for
towing trailers.
After pulling the boat up Hwy 395, from
Calif. (picked up boat in Costa Mesa), to Dayton
Nevada, I found boat and trailer handled best at
50 to 55 MPH. Was dealing with a combination
gusty winds and opposing trucks. The area of N. NEV
that I live in tends to be windy.

Jeff

I went quite a bit faster than 50-55. My truck kept downshifting if I didn't go faster. It was probably a 24 hour drive. Stopped twice each way.