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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on May 17, 2009 at 7:19pm

A trailer will tow best if a majority of the weight is in front of the wheels and there is a reasonable tongue weight. A little too much tongue weight is better than too little. That is all for safety and tracking. Boats are often put on the trailer transom first for convenience at the boat ramp.

After you launch or land your boat you end up with it on the bank with the transom out of the water. You enter a drift boat from lower sided transom end. If you are launching, rowing, and loading your boat by yourself it can be a little easier to start and end with it on the trailer transom first. It's not a big difference but enough for some.

If you decide to set up your trailer to load transom first simply follow the two weight guidelines above and it will work out great.

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Permalink Reply by David Jensen on May 17, 2009 at 8:42pm

First person I saw do this was the legendary McKenzie River guide Dick Helfrich. I do it some times. The advantages are better vision out your back mirror, and less wind resistance trailering. The reason I don't do it that often is that on my trailers (Steve Steele built) the boat doesn't load as easily. Clearly, the stem is stronger, but reverse loading has not been a problem with pulling apart the transom.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Dearing on May 20, 2009 at 6:10pm

Jason,

Put the boat on your trailer whatever way you want, as long as you throw most of the weight in the boat(coolers, ect) towards the tongue like Randy said you shouldn't have any problems trailering.

The only reason I can see for putting a drift boat on the trailer backwards is if you are planning on launching at a really steep slide or bank. If you lower/winch your boat down stem first the higher sides will hit the water first and keep the boat from taking on water like it might if it was lowered stern first where the sides of the boat aren't as high.

Mike

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