Boat trailer ownership and Vanclaes Excelleron GYRO 3500 review with Axopar 28 towing explained

HMS discusses the benefits of trailer ownership, reviews the Vanclaes Excelleron GYRO 3500 – 13” – 950 3-axle boat trailer and explains its relationship with PBR’s Axopar Cabin 28

In this article, I want to discuss the benefits of trailer ownership, to relate our considered opinion of the Vanclaes trailer currently employed by PBR and, as many of you have asked, to discuss the specifics of our Axopar 28 Cabin, MY Horizon, and how these relate to essential trailer law. Let me begin by saying, in every sense, that for those who own one, your boat trailer is your working partner, a complement to your boating activities that can offer so much more than simply the ability to get from A to B. Indeed, you can rightly view it as the means by which your boating horizons can literally be transformed. Rather than being limited to voyaging solely from your home port, a trailer can offer a world of opportunities, allowing one to access a limitless number of new coasts, and seas beyond, effectively, efficiently and with relative ease. This, of course, not only includes accessing your native shores, but – especially when current COVID restrictions allow – even further afield, to include the Continent perhaps.

But now, let’s move on to the chief matter in hand, namely our review of the Vanclaes Excelleron GYRO 3500 boat trailer. This particular model is a 3500kg braked, nanocoated, three-axle trailer, designed to take boat transportation, as well as launch and recovery, to another level of sophistication and reliability. It’s a product designed from the ground up for use in the marine environment. All its components have therefore been chosen specifically, not only with saltwater immersion in mind, but with safety as the essential priority. The latter applies to both the business of launch and recovery and the critical matter of safe road travel thereafter.

In terms of its functionality, the Vanclaes Excelleron GYRO 3500 scores supremely and shows itself in every detail to be the work of a company that not only understands the peculiar and specific needs of boat transportation but has made it its entire business to address the long-held shortcomings seen in so many other designs sold today. Offering such a high-quality solution, mind you, doesn’t come without cost. If purchasing Vanclaes’ top-of-the-range model with all the extras available is something you’re considering putting on your shopping list, then be prepared for an outlay in the region of 19K. This spec is not necessarily competitively priced, I admit, but neither is it designed to be in its all-singing, all-dancing guise. However, to be fair, if ordered in a more basic form, this particular trailer model can be priced at £9,500, and in addition, Vanclaes even produce a basic-spec trailer for a craft of this length for as little as £6,900.

In our view, the Vanclaes is in a class of its own and is also quite probably the only boat trailer you’ll come across that actually has the ability to turn heads when rolling into view.

A boat trailer qualifies as carrying an ‘indivisible load of exceptional length’ as a boat is an indivisible load. A table in Regulation 7 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, as amended, contains the details of the maximum length permitted for various sorts of vehicle and trailer combinations. Item 9 of that table does normally restrict a trailer towed by a vehicle that is not a goods vehicle over 3500kg gross vehicle weight (GVW) to a maximum length of 7m, not including the towing hitch arrangements. However, regulation 7 (3A) (a) disapplies the requirements of that table in a number of areas, including where a trailer is constructed and normally used for the conveyance of ‘indivisible loads of exceptional length’. In this context, ‘exceptional length’ means longer than the regulations would normally permit.

This exception would permit a trailer longer than 7m in length specially constructed to carry indivisible loads such as a boat to be towed by a car or other vehicle that is not a goods vehicle over 3500kg GVW. Note, however, that Regulation 7 (5) (b) still limits the length of (i) the towing vehicle to a maximum of 9.2m, and (ii) the length of the towing vehicle and trailer combination to a maximum of 25.9m.

Our Discovery (4.956m), plus Vanclaes trailer, plus Axopar 28 overhang totals around 16m total train length and therefore is well within the 25.9m maximum length. PBR drivers have the correct driving licences for towing. (A)

The laden weight of the trailer is around 3300kg (Axopar 1940kg, engine 272kg, trailer 950kg, plus allowance for extras), which means we are very close and therefore have to limit our fuel and gear on board when towing. (For an accurate weight of your laden trailer we would recommend checking on a weighbridge.) (B&C)

The trailer weight is around 950kg, the unladen weight of the Discovery is 2437kg, so the trailer is well within the limit. (D)

The gross train weight (GTW) adds the 3300kg + 2437kg = 5737kg, which allows just over 1000kg for kit and people within the 6760kg allowance. The GTW will fluctuate with the fuel, kit and personnel travelling, so a close watch is necessary to stay within the limits. (E)