First time Grady White owner - Seafarer 228.

[vicpinto]

I spend the last 4 days driving down to Florida from New England and back to pick up a new to me 2005 Seafarer 228. This is the boat that was on Boat Trader at the beginning of last month. The wife and I spend Labor Day cleaning her up and making a list of items that need to be addressed. First trip out will be this Sunday. Here's a pick of the boat loaded up and ready to make her way up north. After adjusting the tongue weight I realize I need to flip my bunks around. I'll do that next time she's in.

 

[Hookup1]

I hope you had the wheel bearings gone over before you started back.

 

[Ekea]

congrats! i live in south east PA and drove down to St. Pete to buy mine and tow it home. it was definitely a long 4 days including dc-baltimore rush hour traffic on friday afternoon.

what was your target for tongue weight? the boat looks very close to the truck. i have much more space between the two.

 

[Coastboater]

Nice!
My first Grady was a 2004 228. Had a 4 stroke on it, a 225 Yammie. I put 2 Raymarine 6” displays in the dash cubby, one for depth/fish and the other for charts.
My fondest memories are of constantly replacing the vhf antenna due to forgetting to lower it.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

Congrats on the purchase and the safe journey home. I bought my 2004 Grady White 228 Seafarer back in October of 2021 in Maryland. Flew out from Seattle, bought the boat, rented a U-Haul box truck and trailered her back 3,009 miles to just north of Seattle where I live. Took me 4.5 days to do as I was going nice and easy, and wasn't in a hurry to get back. This was the third time I’ve done a cross country trek for a boat before, the first time I drove out and back in 7 days roundtrip. A couple of the days I did just under 1,200 miles of driving each day, not sure I'd be up to doing that task again.

 

[vicpinto]

congrats! i live in south east PA and drove down to St. Pete to buy mine and tow it home. it was definitely a long 4 days including dc-baltimore rush hour traffic on friday afternoon.

what was your target for tongue weight? the boat looks very close to the truck. i have much more space between the two.

View attachment 37928

My target weight was around 630 pounds. According to the Excel spreadsheet I got from Grady, max weight of a 228 fully loaded, gear, fuel, water, etc is 5300 pounds. Add another 1050 or so for the new Venture COM-6000 trailer I towed down with me. Grady specs the COG for the 228 at 84.42 inches forward of the transom/keel intersection. I would expect this distance to somewhere forward of the front trailer axle but it is over 24 inches forward of that. That doesn't seem right to me. I think my tongue weight scale is no good.

 

[vicpinto]

I hope you had the wheel bearings gone over before you started back.

Brand new trailer.

 

[Hookup1]

Brand new trailer.

That's good. Trailers are the most overlooked part of the purchase. I tow 1,300 each way in the Winter. I pay a marina on both ends to pull it off and put back on. My trailer has never been "splashed".

I like the matching wheel rims too!

 

[Mustang65fbk]

Definitely reassuring having a brand new trailer, especially when doing a cross country trek. The rims on the trailer look nice and are very similar looking to those on the truck, that being said they are slightly different.

 

[Ky Grady]

Congrats on the new rig!
I did the same with the trailer when I bought my '04 228 in Tampa. Had Loadmaster build me a new one and swapped out before the ride back home to Kentucky. Salt life had not been kind to the trailer it came with. Mine has pretty much gone through a complete refit since purchasing in 2017.

 

[seasick]

My target weight was around 630 pounds. According to the Excel spreadsheet I got from Grady, max weight of a 228 fully loaded, gear, fuel, water, etc is 5300 pounds. Add another 1050 or so for the new Venture COM-6000 trailer I towed down with me. Grady specs the COG for the 228 at 84.42 inches forward of the transom/keel intersection. I would expect this distance to somewhere forward of the front trailer axle but it is over 24 inches forward of that. That doesn't seem right to me. I think my tongue weight scale is no good.

Fir dual axel trailers, 5% is the appropriate starting point. I agree that your current placement of the boat is too far forward. It is common for the aft end of the hull to sit past the ends of the bunks. You bunks are sitting past the transom. The bunks should not run under trim tabs if present. Specifically the COG should be somewhere in between the centers of the wheels.

I am not sure if that trailer is fitted correctly since it kind of looks like the winch frame is back aft as far as it can go. You should look up the trailer specs for the transom to bow eye range and check that your transom to bow eye lenght is in the range. Not counting the pulpit, the transom to bow eye measurement is about 2 feet shorter than the length overall.

 

[vicpinto]

Fir dual axel trailers, 5% is the appropriate starting point. I agree that your current placement of the boat is too far forward. It is common for the aft end of the hull to sit past the ends of the bunks. You bunks are sitting past the transom. The bunks should not run under trim tabs if present. Specifically the COG should be somewhere in between the centers of the wheels.

I am not sure if that trailer is fitted correctly since it kind of looks like the winch frame is back aft as far as it can go. You should look up the trailer specs for the transom to bow eye range and check that your transom to bow eye lenght is in the range. Not counting the pulpit, the transom to bow eye measurement is about 2 feet shorter than the length overall.

The winch frame is all the way back. I just cranked on the boat and stopped when the scale said 630 pounds. It just so happened that that's when the bow made contact with the roller. I didn't realize dual axle starting target is 5 percent but it makes sense to me as you have 2 axles. That could be my problem. Anyways, we're taking the boat out Sunday and I'll play around with it once it been reloaded. I'm coming from sailboats so all this trailer stuff is new to me.