Anyone trailer a 260 Sundancer

M

medic3538

Member
Aug 17, 2008
151
Charleston, SC
Boat Info
2005 260 Sundancer. 2003 F250 Super Duty V10 Ford Tow. 5.0 KW Kohler genset. Old school Naman GPS.
Engines
350 MAG MPI, Bravo 2 drive.
Have been working on purchasing a 05 or better 260 Sundancer. May need to purchase a trailer seperately from boat. Not too sure what the GVW rating should be on the trailer. I have looked at Sea Ray web site, spoke to dealer, done searches and I get a lot of different responses. I figure I should just find someone who trailers one already and give me the 411.
Does anyone use a powerwinch for their trailers as well? How do you like it? Any recommendations for a winch for this boat?

Thanks in advance!!
 
I trailer a '00 260DA, but it it lighter than the '05 you're considering.
I have a King Trailer rated for 8500 lbs. You're going to need a trailer rated for 10,000 and more than likely a 1 Ton Truck. With that weight I'd also recommend a deisel. I have a 3/4 Ton 2500HD Chevy but it's gas with a 6L. It does fine, but if it weighed any more I'd want a DuraMax deisel.

My Uncle has a '08 260DA he bought and decided to sell it. I talked to him yesterday and told him to list it here.
 
I trailer my 290da every weekend (2500 chevy duramax). I have a powerwinch and love it.
 
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I trailer my 05 260 every weekend. I tow with a 2006 3/4 ton Chevy with a Duramax diesel. As long as you have good trailer brakes and are competent towing larger loads it is plenty of truck. I would recommemd a 10,000 GVR trailer. I have a Tandem axle eagle trailer and it does the job fine. My boat is bottom painted so every once in a while getting her on and off are a bit tricky due to friction. If you don't need to bottom paint it don't. The reason i did mine was, before we moved to Lake Erie she was in a slip on a warm, dirty, algae, bottom scum loving lake.
 
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O.k.!! Thanks for the info. We are considering a Ford F250 gas V10 just because it appears we can get a good used one at a reasonable cost. I would go the diesel route if it was a good deal. We will go with the electric winch as the wife will be pulling the boat into the trailer.

Thanks everyone.
 
You will love the powerwinch.It will take a lot of the stress out of trailering.Be sure to use 8g wire from the receptacle in the truck bed direct to the + of the battery. The neg wire (8g) goes straight to the truck frame. "MEDIC3538" as in paramedic ?
 
You can get good deal on just about any brand diesel on the market. I would recommend it. That v-10 will get 10 miles a gallon towing or not. A diesel will get between 16 and 20 regular driving an 12-15 towing. Plus it will last forever.

Tell the dealer you would like to test drive one of each. Pull the boat behind both of them. The difference will make up you mind in a heartbeat.

As for the electric winch i have never used one. As heavy as the boat is you have to power it on to the trailer anyway so i ussually don't do much cranking. I also don't like depending on the strap to pull 8000lbs of dead weight on to the trailer
 
I do not "power" my 290 on to the trailer. The powerwinch eliminates the need to do that. It is a cable not a strap. You are not pulling 8000lbs...that would be if you were hoisting it straight up in the air with a crane. You are pulling it up a slight slope,while it is partially floating, onto wet bunks.
 
Quint4 said:
You will love the powerwinch.It will take a lot of the stress out of trailering.Be sure to use 8g wire from the receptacle in the truck bed direct to the + of the battery. The neg wire (8g) goes straight to the truck frame. "MEDIC3538" as in paramedic ?
Click to expand...


Oh yeah, I forgot to ask about that. How is the unit getting it's power? I should run the hot wire off the trailer light power source off the bed? I guess the unit will come with instructions, but I'll listen if you have any suggestions.

Yeah, paramedic for 12 years. Midsize system for our state. 8 trucks 2 QRV's, we do about 13K calls a year. You?
 
Zorba said:
You can get good deal on just about any brand diesel on the market. I would recommend it. That v-10 will get 10 miles a gallon towing or not. A diesel will get between 16 and 20 regular driving an 12-15 towing. Plus it will last forever.

Tell the dealer you would like to test drive one of each. Pull the boat behind both of them. The difference will make up you mind in a heartbeat.

As for the electric winch i have never used one. As heavy as the boat is you have to power it on to the trailer anyway so i ussually don't do much cranking. I also don't like depending on the strap to pull 8000lbs of dead weight on to the trailer
Click to expand...

Ahhh, well, if that's the case, screw the gas powered truck. I didn't think about the longevity of the diesel. VERY GOOD POINT. There is a old clunker diesel truck that's used at my work for training that has a cummins engine and this thing has over 300K and I swear it runs better than some of our new diesel trucks. Yeah, good call on the diesel.

I am guessing we'll be doing a little bit of floating, powering and winching the boat onto a trailer while learning how to handle this boat as we will be going from a 18 footer to a whopping 28 footer, so whatever help we can get we'll take. Always apprecitive for the advice!!
 
I did not say anything was wrong with using a power winch. I just said I have never used one. The way my boat and trailer are set up, and the ramps I use, requires that it be powered on to the trailer. I was just giving the experience I have with the exact same boat that medic3538 is looking at.

I understand that I am not lifting 8000lbs. Thanks for the physics lesson. The use of bottom paint on my boat creates a lot of friction on the bunks thus requiring more force needed to get the boat properly on the trailer. I prefer not to put any uneeded stress on the bow eye of my boat as well as the winch and strap of my trailer.

Since I have never used a power winch, in fact never even seen one in operation I was unaware that a cable was utilized. Thank you for clearing that up for me.
 
Zorba, we will be bottom painting as well as we will be in salt H20 all the time. Do you think I should get a trailer with rollers or would that trash the paint that much faster?
 
Zorba said:
As heavy as the boat is you have to power it on to the trailer anyway so i ussually don't do much cranking. I also don't like depending on the strap to pull 8000lbs of dead weight on to the trailer
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I believe that with proper setup of your trailer, as well as the proper set points. You will not and should not HAVE TO power up to get one or off the trailer. Most people I see powering up or off could have fixed their setup to ensure safty of others. Pulling or pushing water near a dock is a risky and in my mind a liability. I see it every week....

I have never needed to power up or off.... Never....

As for the power winch, I think you could save the money and just get your setup tweeked to be easy as loading a jetski.... Good luck...
 
medic3538 said:
Ahhh, well, if that's the case, screw the gas powered truck. I didn't think about the longevity of the diesel. VERY GOOD POINT. There is a old clunker diesel truck that's used at my work for training that has a cummins engine and this thing has over 300K and I swear it runs better than some of our new diesel trucks. Yeah, good call on the diesel.

I am guessing we'll be doing a little bit of floating, powering and winching the boat onto a trailer while learning how to handle this boat as we will be going from a 18 footer to a whopping 28 footer, so whatever help we can get we'll take. Always apprecitive for the advice!!
Click to expand...


Just a heads up when trailer shopping. I have grown to like and aprreciate the way my Eagle trailer is set-up but while getting used to the quirks of it i hated it. I have only been to one ramp where i did not have to power it on and that is because it was very steep and was basically floating before the front axle of the trailer was in the water. This ramp was at Lake Norris in Tennesse. The ramp(s) I use at lake Erie are rather gradual and I cannot float the boat off of the trailer or winch it on.

I believe this is because my trailer bunks sit very high in relation to other trailers i have seen. Once, while at the ramp, another 260 came to load and they had a different brand trailer (Loadmaster) which bunks were situated much lower to the ground. He had a much easier time getting his boat on the trailer without having to power it as much as i did. The down side i saw was that his outdrive was significanlty closer to the pavement when on the trailer than mine.
 
beachcombersc said:
I believe that with proper setup of your trailer, as well as the proper set points. You will not and should not HAVE TO power up to get one or off the trailer. Most people I see powering up or off could have fixed their setup to ensure safty of others. Pulling or pushing water near a dock is a risky and in my mind a liability. I see it every week....

I have never needed to power up or off.... Never....

As for the power winch, I think you could save the money and just get your setup tweeked to be easy as loading a jetski.... Good luck...
Click to expand...

Hey Beachcomber. We have a 18 bowrider and don't power on or off cause, well, it's 18 ft. We put in at the Hwy 41 bridge on the Wando. We are planning to store and put in the 260 there as well. The new boat will probably be a broker boat, but I'm using a Sea Ray salesperson from Hall Marine here in Charleston. I am guessing I could pay the Sea Ray guys to set up the trailer for me, OR do you think this is something I could do myself with the help of some mechanically inclined friends.
 
beachcombersc said:
I believe that with proper setup of your trailer, as well as the proper set points. You will not and should not HAVE TO power up to get one or off the trailer. Most people I see powering up or off could have fixed their setup to ensure safty of others. Pulling or pushing water near a dock is a risky and in my mind a liability. I see it every week....

I have never needed to power up or off.... Never....

As for the power winch, I think you could save the money and just get your setup tweeked to be easy as loading a jetski.... Good luck...
Click to expand...

I understand you concern about powering the boat on the trailer. I can assure you that i do this In a very safe and orderly manner which put's no one but Me, my boat and my truck in harms way. I'm sure theres no safe way in your mind but that is how i do it. THat is the way i have to do it.

Along with not liking the idea of putting all the stress on the front end of the boat I don't like getting my finger chewed off by the winch. Once is enough. I have pictures and would just love to post them.

Where I boat the normal operation is to power your boat on the trailer. I have done this my whole life and the rest of the boating community around me does it as well.
 
local 336...16yrs...paramedic...5 houses...9k per year. The powerwinch pulls lots of amps and requires it's own dedicated wire straight to the battery.If you decide to install one let me know , I have installed two of them (it is not that hard).
 
Quint4 said:
local 336...16yrs...paramedic...5 houses...9k per year. The powerwinch pulls lots of amps and requires it's own dedicated wire straight to the battery.If you decide to install one let me know , I have installed two of them (it is not that hard).
Click to expand...

WISH I had a union here!!!! You would laugh your @$$ off if you knew what we made out here, at least the municipal (county) benefits are good w/ State retirement. This is a boating site so I'll get off the soapbox.

I will contact you when I get ready to install that winch. Been having trouble getting a boat, couple of outdrive issues, one guy walked away when we showed up with the surveyor, it's all good though. Good things (boats) come to those who have patience.
 
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