The Laurie Ann has a King Trailer underneath it, one that was bought from the factory after they moved to the EZ Loader ones. I have had great experience with the King Trailer having pulled it from Seattle to Iowa, to Mobile, Alabama and back to Seattle. It has survived a slide off the freeway in Wyoming and King Trailer, as a company, bent over backwards to provide great service to us. The parts for their brakes and axles are widely available having replaced them in Alabama. I prefer grease bearings to oil-filled ones because I am old-school and trust them more.
The one downside of the King Trailer compared to the EZ Loader is that it is about 12" wider at the wheels and therefore is slightly wider than our truck. That only comes to play when we have been on very narrow lanes due to construction and we have to watch to make sure we do take out the cones.
You should get either a galvanized trailer or an aluminum one. Our boating buddy has a custom aluminum trailer made in Florida that is under his Rosborough 246 which is much heavier than the Ranger 25. He loves his trailer. Size-wise the beams are much bigger because it is aluminum-not steel. Painted trailers fail fairly quickly in the saltwater environment.
All these trailers come with surge brakes, not the electric ones like on RV's because the electric ones will do nasty things when they are submersed in salt water. Because these trailers have disc brakes and have an electrically activated release switch when going in reverse. Therefore, power must come to the brakes when backing down the ramp and into the water. The new designs make this safe and reliable. The newer trailers have all LED lights and that solves the problem of lights shorting out when submerged.
I have had a galvanized roller trailer for 10 years, Calkins brand, under a 5,000 pound Bayliner 24 and loved it because the trailer also had an electric winch and we could pull that boat onto the trailer when ramps were not steep enough or at very low tide. There have been many a mishap with roller trailers and all due to operator error.
That said, I do not believe the Ranger 25 is a good candidate for a roller trailer because of its weight, coming it at over 7,000 pounds when full of your stuff and tanks are full. We are very happy with the bunks because there is a lot of control when launching and retrieving. The carpet on the bunks do wear and we just screw on another layer when needed-it is indoor-outdoor carpet from Home Depot. We launch the Laurie Ann probably twice a month year round in Puget Sound. We float it on and float it off. We are not sticklers about submerging the King Trailer completely. Whether the trailer is submerged for 10 seconds or 10 minutes, the salt water is going to go where it goes. We rinse the trailer probably more thoroughly than the tug and replace the bearings every two years.
We use a nylon web tow strap that needs to be replaced every two years because of UV damage. We like that better than steel cable because it is easier on the hands. We use nylon, 3" wide tie down straps at the stern, from the transom hooks to the trailer hooks. Though I have read about folks who do much more strapping from their boats to the trailer, we have trailered 6,000 miles and this system has been fine for us. But we are gentle drivers, easy on the hills and turns and gradual stops; we are ones in the right lane going 10 MPH less than everyone else.
The key themes: get a saltwater trailer; get a trailer that is matched to your boat-the trailer support system should be tuned and adjusted by people who know how to do this; be gentle on the whole package; do not sacrifice on maintenance; and replace bearings every two years as just good practice.
