Whats the maximum length for a boat before you cant tow it on a trailer?

Question

I live in the state of Maryland. Me and my girlfriend are planning to build a 30 foot luxury boat and it stands about 10 feet from the undercarriage floor to the roof of the captain cabinet. Is this to big to tow on a trailer?

Answer 1

Any boat can be towed theoretically, but the bigger the boat, the more expensive it becomes. If you drive anything short of a dual rear wheel diesel truck, you aren't going to get far. And even with a truck that can do the job it is extremely inadvisable to tow a boat of that size regularly. And with a boat that size width will become an issue too. Anything over 8'6 is too wide to be towed without a permit. As if that isn't all complicated enough, if the gross vehicular weight of the trailer is more than 10,000 pounds, you'll need a class A commercial drivers license.

Answer 2

Length is not the problem, you need to be concerned about the width and the height.  Wider than 8'6" you will need a wide load permit, and that would be for each time you move it.  Also would be the height above the road - has to be less than 13' 6" or you need a permit for that too, the power company and or cable and phone will have to raise the wires so you do not pull 'em down.

Another thing aside - please take a boaters safety course before you do any more.  

Then do a little more reasearch on boats and construction before you waste a lot of time and money.  

Good Luck and Boat Safe ! !

Answer 3

Trailering rules vary from state to state, so you need to look up the rules from your state.  As far as height, it's not so much the height of the boat, but the boat on the trailer, so trailer specs will influence this.   30 feet will not be a problem, but as mentioned above width will be.   8.5 feet is I believe legal in all states.  In some states, it's winder, so, again you need to check.  However, for a project like this, I'd just assume you'd get a wide load permit.  Of course the weight and ability of any vehicle to tow this weight is a big concern.   Trailers and tow vehicles are both expensive.

If you only need to get it to the marina once, you are probably better off hiring a professional transportation service.  They can hire a crane to lift it onto their trailer and then a marine travel lift to launch it.

Also realize, that many launch ramps are not built to handle boats of that size and draft.   For example, the tires may be off the end of the ramp before its deep enough to float the boat.

Answer 4

there are different size trailors but idk if they make them that long.  .i would take good care of it and keep it in the water.

Answer 5

You also need to consider the total weight of your boat and a trailer vs towing capacity of your vehicle. If the boat is to heavy it will not only be unsafe, but it will also ruin your transmission.

It's relatively common for the 26ft sail bats designed for water ballast (like MacGregor) to be towed by a van.  

Answer 6

Contact a boat hauler in your area.  They have trailers built to pick up your boat and haul it to the destination.  They will taker care of any/all permits.

Generally a boat yard locally can direct you to one.

Size is not always a problem, a local boat manufacturer here recently built a 70' sail boat of wood and trucked it from Washington state to Rhode Island.  There was one area that they had to go through Canada though.

Again, there are other concerns, width, weight, height including trailer.  Also, you are not going to want to tow this every time you want to go out.

Answer 7

Tow it from the yard to the water once and that's it?  No big deal...

Tow it around every weekend??  Different story.

Are you sure you should be building a boat??

What is the "undercarriage floor" and what the heck is the "captain cabinet"??!!??