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View Full Version : Oceanic Trailers - Comments please



whichway
04-09-2006, 09:13 PM
Hi

Does anyone have any experience with Oceanic Trailers?

Thanks

Whichway

Eagle
05-09-2006, 12:02 AM
Hi Whichway
I have an Oceanic trailer that carries my Bluefin 4.75 Weekender fitted with a 60hp EFI 4 stroke. The trailer is ok but as usual, the manufacture cut costs on some of the parts. The main gripe I have are the lousey 1/2 inch Whit CHEAP bolts that clamp the roller and side supports at the required height to support/ carry the weight of the rig. These bolts rust up very quickly and because they are low (very low) grade steel, they shear off when you try to adjust them or replace them. To tighten them so the boat wont push/knock the rollers/ skids down and make the boat unstable on the trailer, the bolts also shear off in the process. This becomes a real pain in the neck! When I finally get my boat supported in a satisfactory manner, I will weld a small square bar to the support strut so the strut cant slip down.
There was another problem in that the "rings" that you hook the tie-down straps into, are too far inboard from the side of the trailer. I fixed this by bolting a short lentgh of angle onto the extreme edge of the trailer and hooking the strap directly to the edge of the angle. The size of the angle was 50 x 50 x 3mm. This works really well. I also replaced the steel wire winch rope with a new Spiderwire material. This new rope is much better on the 2 I.C.'s hands and she loves the soft rope. By bolting the 2 peices of angle onto the trailer it has locked the location of the axle and the axle now cant shift out of alignment which can happen when traveling on some of the lesser maintained roads. Like all other things, you get what you pays for. If I ever need to get a new trailer, I will scratch build it myself and coat it with col, gal paint with two top coats of a metal anti rust paint as well.
Eagle

Fat Chilli
05-09-2006, 02:14 AM
I also have one, and totally agree with Eagle's comments above, just spent 6 bloody hours re adjusting mine as the stealership the previous owner bought the boat from did a lousy job setting the trailer up, in fact I don't think they did a thing.
During the process of re-jigging the trailer to suit my boat (Sig 500C) I sheared two bolts, now got drill them out and re-tap them #>:(. Also like Eagle said, most of the nuts are badly rusted (cheap), not good when the trailer is 12 months old (but then I don't think the previous owner paid too much attention to the trailer). Oh! and my brakes have seized already (more fixing).
One other thing I have noticed is the limited height between the tyres and the mud guards, wouldn't want too much wheel travel.
Other than those gripes it does its job fine #:-/, my trailer came with an ALKO hand winch and webbing rope.

FC.

Eagle
05-09-2006, 11:03 AM
For Fat_Chilli
When you drill out the two sheared bolts, you wont have to re-tap the threads. The thread that the bolt screws into is actually a standard 1/2 inch Whitworth nut held in place by a short length of channel. To remove the nut/s, try and drill a 1/4 inch/6mm hole in the centre of the sheared bolt and open it up to 1/2 inch or 13mm. When the thread of the nut/bolt is removed, the nut will fall out or can be tapped out with a hammer and a drift. It's not a hard or time consuming job. It can be done with the boat on the trailer but is easier of course if you can slip it off onto some (lots of) old car tyres. If you slip the boat off, you could replace all the bolts so much easier. You might like to replace the bolts with a grade 8 bolt and paint them and the nuts with cold gal paint. This is what I will do with mine in the very near future plus weld the short 10mm square bars onto the strut to take the load.
Cheers,
Eagle

Fat Chilli
05-09-2006, 08:17 PM
Eagle - Thanks for the info mate.

ShaneJ
12-09-2006, 06:05 PM
I bought one and the two rear cross members broke out within 3 weeks :(
They did agree to replace the trailer after I yelled and swore at them for a while >:(
After it was replaced I had many more problems with the brackets that hold the rollers/skids which I ended up replacing myself.

I would never buy one ever again! Never!

Ally_Jack
12-09-2006, 09:18 PM
I've had one for a bit over 12 months now, and I've had no big problems. I didn't get to pick the brand of trailer when I brought my new boat (and didn't really think about it either).

First thing I did do is rip off the hubs and check the grease, and as suspected it was light on. A little worrying as I was travelling 6 hours to get it home.

I agree with Eagle that the tie-down points are in a prick of a spot, I have to get under the boat to hook it on. I haven't had the joy of the bolts breaking yet, maybe that's coming soon....

Jason.

toymod
13-09-2006, 11:05 AM
Ive got one and i think they are great not one problem, only grip is th handbrake dosent have a rubber cover ;D Other than that I would recomend them to anyone

mark221263
15-09-2006, 07:07 AM
I have thier 18ft dual axle trailer with mech brakes that I pull my cruise craft outsider around on, all up weight is about 1850kg.

Like most things it come down to price, it was one of the cheaper trailers on the market. In summary I found,

*Gal job is good

*General fittings are al-co and good quality

*Wheels, tyres, hubs and bearings are fine

*Bolts are cheesy and rusted up quickly in under 12 months

*Rear rollers were an absolute pain with my cruise craft outsider due to there deep chines so i had to make new rear roller brackets to run the tapered rollers like the redco sportsman tarilers run.

In the long run I probably should have purchased a redco trailer if I wanted to stay in the lower price ranges. Although you can see some quality improvments with some of the other brands like belco etc I find it hard to see where the extra $$$$ are justified. Shame Oceanic dont spend about an extra $150 on better bolts and add tapered rear rollers and they would have a winner that is $1000 less than most others.

I'm handy with stuff so the mods I made didn't really phase me but were a pain. Ive coated mine with a lanolin spray every year and its holding up well. I just serviced my brakes and could not get over how bad the discs were after only 2 years, but these are al-co parts which I think are no different to most oter builders. I was using a spray on wheel cleaner every 6 months which may of made things worse so that habit is gonig to stop.

Also Phil at Gold Coast trailer has been good with after sales, parts prices and general service.

Cheers Mark

chris_stanley
15-09-2006, 10:20 AM
After reading all the posts over time about trailers, boats and general customer service for all things marine, it would be good to hear some feed back from some of these suppliers / dealers. ie- that they have heard our concerns and are going to look into them and possibly make their products and services better. Its not always a witch hunt but an observation that we are making and if they care about their product and service and customer satisfaction they will do something about it. After all word of mouth is the best advertising you can get and where better to do and to hear it than on a forum like Ausfish.