Any opinions on Wilderness boats

[Justin Smith]

AFAIK a Wilderness Beaver 23 + trailer will just come in over the magic 2000Kg, obviously it will depend upon the fit out and equipment / junk on board.

Ian Graham ("Noah", designer and original builder of Wilderness boats), certainly thought that Mrs TNC's Beaver 23 would be just over 2000Kg, she never got around to having the trailer + boat weighed at our Local Authorities public weighbridge, at the local dump.

If you want to tow en France, the Frencies get very touchy about plated weights for the trailer and towing capacity of the tow vehicle, especially as most of the Wilderness crowd that go to France, come back with the boat loaded with wine!

After the demise of my son's Disco, we looked into 4x4's and concluded a Freelander or Nissan X-Trail would not be up to the job. We eventually went for a KIA Sorento.

Ian Graham swears blind by his ancient Izuzu Trooper, a half decent "R" reg one came up for sale for around £2000 through the WBOC a while back.

Mrs TNC has only just sold her Wilderness Beaver 23 "Mini Me", through Ian Graham.

http://www.wildernessboats.com/

The new Wilderness boats are made and sold through a new company

http://www.wildernesstrailboats.co.uk/

 

Why did you think a Freelander wouldn`t be up to the job ?

Which of the vehicles you think is up to the job would be the most economical ? What kind of mpg would you get out of it (round town, and on a run) ?

[Neil TNC]

Why did you think a Freelander wouldn`t be up to the job ?

Which of the vehicles you think is up to the job would be the most economical ? What kind of mpg would you get out of it (round town, and on a run) ?

 

As far as I can remember a Freelander and X-Trail has a max towing weight of 2000Kg, so right on the limit for Mrs TNC's Wilderness Beaver 23.

It seemed to be the case that all suitable 4x4's that would tow over 2000Kg were the more roughty toughty bunch, with a separate chassis.

My KIA Sorento 2.5 diesel would do around 27-30 mpg towing at 50-55mph, we chose it as being one of the most economical 4x4's, it could tow up to 3000Kg.

I never ended up getting much better mpg out of it around town and with short runs.

We went for this as we intended to go to France (somewhat curtailed by Mrs TNC's desire to do NO more trailing after our M40 jack knife incident.)

Sorento now relaced with rather cheaper to run 1.6 TDCi Focus.

I ended up doing more (and cheaper, overall) "trail boating" in 18.5 ton NB Earnest!

[Guest]

Looks like the Wilderness is beyond the scope of my Reliant Robin then?

 

I would suspect that there are many trailerable boats out there that could be towed by a more modest car and cost a great deal less? Dawncraft Dandy springs to mind.

[Justin Smith]

Looks like the Wilderness is beyond the scope of my Reliant Robin then?

 

I would suspect that there are many trailerable boats out there that could be towed by a more modest car and cost a great deal less? Dawncraft Dandy springs to mind.

 

But how big is it ?

I`d have thought 23ft would be about the minimum req for anything more than a long weekend ?

[Neil TNC]

But how big is it ?

I`d have thought 23ft would be about the minimum req for anything more than a long weekend ?

 

ISTR that they were 20ft.

You can also stand up in a Beaver 23, fit a full size sofa bed and all other mod cons that you find on NB's...that is why the weight increased over the years.

ISTR Ian Graham saying that the original basic Beaver 23 rig weighed in at about 1700Kg.

The clever design of the Wilderness box keels, fitting between the wooden slides means that Wilderness boats can be slipped in virtually anywhere...even the totally crap "slipway" at Harefield Marina. Only a couple of months ago, a Dawncraft 25 came to serious grief being slipped at Harefield, in the end they had to crane it off from the precarious angle it ended up at, when it failed to launch off the trailer.

[Graham Davis]

Justin,

max tow capacity of the Freelander 1 is 2000kg, as has been stated. There is nothing wrong with the diesels; I've had 2! The Td4 will do top30's, low 40's mpg if driven carefully, but not towing. I did tow around 2000kg with one of mine, and it was very slow!!

As has been said you would need a bigger 4x4 to cope with a Wilderness.

[magpie patrick]

We fancied a wilderness, and in some ways I still pine for one, but we bought our new boat, Juno, a 23 foot trailable cabin cruiser with less than 7 feet beam, butr looks like a river cruiser rather than a narrow boat. Why

 

Same age and condition but 25% less than equivalent wilderness, due to there being more Viking 23's than Wilderness boats and less of a cult following.

 

We may wish to go a bit bumpy, like the irish lakes or the odd river estuary, although narrow boat can cope with these (see Cotswold Man's post) a Wilderness can't.

 

Weight of a viking 23 without outboard is 800kg, all up on trailer with outboard and "belongins is 1500kg including the traile, making her towable but a "lightweight" 4 wheel drive, which are more affordable (although I may still get an old Land Rover Defender just for the hell of it!)

[Athy]

That was a good link, thanks. I now know that our Forester will, or is allowed to, pull 2,400lb, so it won't be towing a Wilderness boat anytime soon!

[Newold]

Would it not just be cheaper to arrange one of these boat mover firms to take your boat for you?

Realistically how many times a year are you going to tow the trialboat somewhere for it to be worth buying a Range Rover ect and a trailer and the running costs insurance of said vehical?

 

You know what we may look at something like this to potter about on rather than getting rid of the house and living aboard.

We could stay on it for as long as we wanted and just use the house as storage and an investment.

 

Oh dear more things to think about.!

 

Just noticed they offer a trailaway lol !

For 15k.

Not bad.

[jenlyn]

That was a good link, thanks. I now know that our Forester will, or is allowed to, pull 2,400lb, so it won't be towing a Wilderness boat anytime soon!

hmmmm, looks an ideal little thing for a butty

[Neil TNC]

Would it not just be cheaper to arrange one of these boat mover firms to take your boat for you?

 

 

It is certainly what I found!

[Morat]

we have a 1996 Jeep Cherokee 4.0 with the optional tow pack consisting of a transmission cooler, tow bar and rear limited slip diff. It is rated for 5000lb and only cost £1300 at the height of the snow panic last year. I don't think you can go wrong with one of these at the price. We put new front universal joints on it for £200 and a new set of tyres and it has been trucking away for nearly 5000 miles already (total now 86k). It IS thirsty, but it doesn't depreciate. £205 road tax too....

If you got one just for towing, you'd be fine. They are supremely comfortable too.

Edited September 13, 2010 by Morat

[magpie patrick]

Would it not just be cheaper to arrange one of these boat mover firms to take your boat for you?

Realistically how many times a year are you going to tow the trialboat somewhere for it to be worth buying a Range Rover ect and a trailer and the running costs insurance of said vehical?

 

Depends, our first "trail" is likely to be a one way back to the boatyard after a long one way out, fair enough.

 

But not long after that we plan that Grand Western Canal (eleven miles long) the Bridgwater and Taunton (15 miles 5 locks) and perhaps the Neath Canal (currently about seven miles four locks and three miles seven locks in detached portions) and the Cotswold (which should be six miles and twelve locks by then). A towing service each way for a series of two to four day jaunts is going to mount up, and I've got to have a car of some description anyway to do my job.

[tonyrad]

Had mine weiged last year, total weight boat and trailer with dry tanks 2300kg

 

add cloths,food,booze a bike or two you would be looking at over 2500kg , owners tow with a selection of vehicles and not aware of any one with a freelander. I was using a Shogun sport with max towing weight of 2500kg but have now changed to a Discovery with max wight of 3500kg

 

Tony Wilderness boat Hazricot