MacGregorSailors.com

Hello all. For those of you that have upgraded your trailers to dual axles, did it make a big difference in towing properties? I have a 96x and I find the current setup a bit of a white knuckle drive up the the North Channel each year. It tows fine as long as I don't get passed by a truck or large van. When I do, the whole rig gets sucked in towards the passing vehicle, and then I get pushed to the shoulder, then some minor sway till it stops. Then when I get passed again, the fun starts all over.

Trailering can be stressful even with things going well. Dual axles are safer and steadier. You'll still get sway, but not as much. Plus the confidence that your single wheel isn't going to blow off. I fried a set of bearings in one wheel thank God I had three other wheels to limp home on

-GGaz

Short Answer, If you are going to tow a bit, Yes!

From the boat yard to the ramp, No.

Search on "axles" by member Chip Hindes. He got his tongue weight right by mounting the center of the new dual axles 9" aft of where the original axle was located. That's the reason for your sway... axle too far forward for the center of mass, or center of mass too far aft for axle location.

A lot depends on what you are towing with. What tongue weight you have on the hitch also effects sway. I have a single axle with my 2007 M and dont have any trouble with trucks passing even if I am doing 70-75 mph. I tow with a 2004 Dodge Durango 4x4.I have a camper trailer with two axles and find no difference between the 2 trailers while towing. The only thing I notice is, the 2 axles trailer is a bit more difficult to park as the wheels tend to crab more.Check the trailer and towing pages on here.

I have dual axles on my 2000 (bought new) MacGregor trailer. I also trailer to the North Channel (750 miles each way), and I have also had a significant issue with sway. Changing my trailer, after the second year of hauling the Mac, from one to two axles did absolutely nothing to reduce sway. I tow with a Chevy Astro conversion van AWD - 4.3 liter V6. This past summer, just out of curiosity when I was pumping my trailer tires to 46-48 lbs, I set my van tire pressure to 42 lbs - significantly over the 32 lbs I usually run. I was hoping to increase my gas mileage a bit. The tires are Michellin LST M/S with 70,000 miles (113,000 km) on them. I was pleased that the increased pressure in the van tires made the trailer tow straighter. I didn't expect that. I used to tow at 58 mph (94kmph) experiencing the same pulling and pushing experienced by the initiator of this thread. For this most recent trip, while I was on the highway, I was able to bump the cruise control up to 62mph (100kmph) and I had noticeably less sway than in past trips.
Such is life,
Dave "Jac"

I have towed trailers and boats and in my opinion the cheapest two fixes for minimizing sway is get the tongue weight at least 10% of trailer weight and up to 15% if possible and put in the highest possible tire pressure to stiffen the sidewalls. If these don't help you can look at sway bars but I am not sure which ones will work with surge brakes.
BTW even a dual axle trailer will sway if there is little or no tongue weight.

Best way to reduce sway (if you are adding an axle )is to get electric brake axle and a controller with a manual engage switch . When the trailer starts acting up just a fingertip away is control again

A lot depends on what you are towing with. What tongue weight you have on the hitch also effects sway.

I echo this. We have a single axle with a Suburban and can cruise at 75mph comfortably on a good road. We found a lower drop on the hitch helps, I assume this increases tongue weight. We probably put around 5000 miles per year on our trailer. Good tires help a lot.

Daniel

We found a lower drop on the hitch helps, I assume this increases tongue weight.

I think this would only help if it is changing windage - did you make a fairly big drop change Daniel??

I lost a wheel at 80kph 3 years ago when one of the wheel lugs came loose and then the others sheared off. Luckily we were able to bring the Explorer and the trailor to a safe stop although it was a little on the highway. A travelling garage was called and we had the setup fixed within a few hours and continued our trip. I was also nervous about the sway and since the second axle was installed I believe the sway is reduced, especially on a slight downward grade with a bend in the road and I also feel a little safer with 4 tires. I also stop every hour or so and check the tire lugs and pressures according to the directions in the MacGregor handbook.

Mike and Diane Purdy
Jedaro

PS: We are a 10 days into a trip of the Thousand Islands. We put in at Kingston ON, sailed to Cedar Island for a night then around Wolfe Island and down the US side of the river, overnighting at Cape Vincent, Clayton, and Alexandria Bay NY. The weather has been sunny and extremely hot. Last night we sat in the cockpit and watched a movie on the computer. It was like a July night but without the bugs. We have had a break in the weather with heavy rain this morning in Brockville, ON. It is amazing how nice the waterfront areas and the main streets of these towns are. My wife has had a great time visiting the many high end "speciality shops" to find "neat things" to clutter our house and cottage. Like most over 60's she's into this crap; although not as bad as most. As well the restaurants and bars have been great.

Mike Diane - I was sailing on the other end of Lake Ontario the other night...I thought I saw your running lights through the Tstorms..



Greetings from Albany NY

Cat

Brian,

One of the best "mods" I ever made to my Mac (26M) rig was to buy a real custom built boat trailer. Not the BS trailers that Macgregor puts out but a real fully aluminum trailer. Dual axels with removable hubs, Torsion bars instead of leaf springs and SS & cadmium brakes. I asked the mnfgr to put a port on the brake drum to attach my water hose and he said you don't need to wash out these brakes. These are real salt water brakes.

My rig is so much easier to haul with the new trailer and the torsion bar system actually makes the boat ride like it’s on an air cushion. Not the jarring and bouncing around that the leaf springs did on the old stock trailer.

If you have a flat with my rig the axel doesn't hit the pavement like on the stock trailer but mine will even tow with 3 wheels in an emergency. Of course I got the spare tire rack too so I got spare mounted on the trailer near the tongue.

The trailer mnfgr even made me a "ladder" at the tongue to access the deck from the bow like the stock trailer (was the only good feature on the stock trailer).

My new trailer extends all the way back to the stern of the boat so it doesn't appear to be too small for the boat like on the stock trailer that only came back abut two-thirds of the boat length. The bunks on the new trailer run parallel to the boat not perpendicular like on the stock trailer so now the boat is supported the whole length of the boat by the bunks. This also helps because I installed a transom saver on the back of the trailer to rest the outboard on so the transom doesn't support the whole weight of the outboard now when trailering. Also I don't get knocked around like I used to by passing semi-trucks and these days with the new trailer I'm sometimes passing them anyway.

My new trailer's got so many lights on it all the way around that when I brought it home the first night the admiral came out and had a look at it (was after dark) and she said "it's lit-up like a Christmas tree". And it is at that.

To answer your question, a resounding "yes"!! The new full length trailer with dual torson bar axels made an order of magnitude difference in trailering for the better.

Of course you get what you pay for and it put me back about $4,400 tax, title and license. But it's the only way to go. Best $4,400 I ever spent on my boat. And it was on my trailer. If you can see any humor in that!?

Kind Regards,
JonBill

Brian26x wrote:Hello all. For those of you that have upgraded your trailers to dual axles, did it make a big difference in towing properties? I have a 96x and I find the current setup a bit of a white knuckle drive up the the North Channel each year. It tows fine as long as I don't get passed by a truck or large van. When I do, the whole rig gets sucked in towards the passing vehicle, and then I get pushed to the shoulder, then some minor sway till it stops. Then when I get passed again, the fun starts all over.

Since I haven't added a second axle, I did not earlier respond to the OP. In view of multiple other suggestions, I think it depends upon your objectives.

• Want additional springing for the boat? ... it's not needed, and might be a disadvantage, for harsher towing ride, plus maintenance complexity.
• You want 4 tires instead of two? ... this reduces maneuverability and increases drag. It also makes the trailer heavier and more complex, as in keeping 4 tires inflated, 4 sets of bearings greased, two pairs of springs lubed ... etc. And, if you elect 4 brakes, you just doubled that complexity and cost, also.
• Yes, it adds tire capacity ... from 3,500 to 7,000. But now you've got 4 tires to keep (yada-yada). You can just upsize to 15" D-range tires to get capacity at 5,000#.
• Yes, it adds redundancy .... but reading here of a dozen blow-outs, none of those with 2 wheels have had any difficulty controlling the flatted rig. Besides that, those blow-outs were likely due to inadequate capacity ... solved with previous bullet
• Seems your main objective was to reduce tail-wagging? I agree w/TD and Daniel (above), it's not a good solution for tail wagging. Ninety percent of this problem relates to inadequate tongue weight, and tandem axles won't solve that problem, they just mask it.

I've suggested this numerous times before, but I guess it bears repeating. If you're concerned about tail-wagging trailer, you first need to insure 350 to 400 lbs. of tongue weight. You can do so for an investment of less than $50. Weigh the rig at a Mayflower yard, change to a receiver with 2 to 4 inch drop, and weigh it again (that's 10 bucks for weigh-tickets, 30 for the receiver, 10 for the gas you wasted). Now:

• if your Tow-V isn't dragging the rear bumper
• or flatted its rear tires,
• and hopefuly ... the trailer frame is roughly level, maybe slightly down at the tongue, else you need to do more work.

Take a test ride ... odds are, your rig will tow straight & steady. You'll just need to be sure your trailer tires have enough capacity for those weigh-tickets. Best case, you've saved about 1200 bucks. Even if you need to upsize tires AND convert to disc brakes, you'll still save a half-boatbuck.

I think this would only help if it is changing windage - did you make a fairly big drop change Daniel??

I suppose windage may also be a factor. I was thinking that the tilting of the boat forward was putting more weight on the tongue since the center of gravity pivots around the axle. I used to be able to lift the tongue on my Mac 25 and it got a lot lighter when I raised it higher.

I think we went from a no drop hitch to maybe 4" or so.

Daniel