Great Loop-moving boat trailer?

[sunfish]

Am planning on purchasing an R25 or R27 for doing the Great Loop. My question is how often did you move your trailer/towing vehicle while doing the Great loop?
I can see the usefulness of having a trailer to get from the NW to the gulf coast or the NE or Lake Powell etc.
but once doing the Great Loop,do you leave your trailer/truck in one spot and come back in about a year?
At what point does moving your tow rig become a pain in the butt?

 

[knotflying]

I have done sections of the loop and plan on having done it all some day. The answer to your question is dependent on many variables as I see it. The sections I have done have been in short increments of about 300 miles or so. Some I have done that were 150 miles and I stopped at half the places going and then turned around and stopped at different places coming back. Other times I have launched in one place and drove my rig to the ending destination and left it there to be available when I arrived. I have the advantage of having a fellow pilot pick me up and bring me back to where I am starting. If I were going to do the loop in one shot I would just launch the boat and store my rig at home and pick it up to haul the boat when I got back, but I'm on the East coast so that is an easy one for me. If you are going to do long legs in segments I would launch, leave the rig in a safe and secure place and then either rent a car or take a plane to where the rig is and drive it back to pick up the boat. Some people use a towing service and that eliminates the back and forth thing. So as you see there are several options and not one fits all people or circumstances.

Kind of like a Chinese menu, pick one from column A and two from column B

 

[sportner]

Toni and I left our truck and trailer in Fort Pierce, Florida in secure parking offered at a marina. We thought we would rent a car later and drive back but one way car rental is WAY expensive. We ended up mooring our boat at a friend's house on the Potomac river, they drove us to the train station in Richmond, Va. and we returned to as close as we could to Fort Pierce. We then rented a car drove to the truck and then took the car back. Next time we will start and finish somewhere near either a train station or an airport.

 

[j&lgray]

We took the Laurie Ann from Iowa to the Gulf on the Great Loop in about 90 days. It did not take as long to establish a pattern of moving our our truck and trailer. Simply, we were rarely longer than a 4 hour drive one way. Sometimes, it us a 10 to 14 days of boating to go the same distance. We looked for friendly marinas who had storage space for the truck and trailer and they were easy to come by and free or very low cost.

To retrieve the truck and trailer, we also discovered that by using Enterprise, we would do a "24 hour" rental on a Saturday and because they are closed on Sunday, we would have the car to Monday. So, on Saturday, we would rent the car and drive 4 hours (200 plus highway miles) to the marina where the truck and trailer were, Laurie would drive the rental back and I would follow with the truck and trailer. Sunday, we had two cars for fun and Monday, the rental goes back Enterprise.

When we pick up the Loop again, we will do this pattern again. You can see our blog and photos from that trip on our website.