Maine Portage
59 Main Road
Carmel, Maine 04419
(207) 848-9991
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Our Trailers
Maine Portage prides itself in being the most responsive and innovative canoe/kayak trailer fabricator in the business. Since our inception in 2002 we have made many changes to what used to be the industry standard. The most significant change we initiated was to make the axle width about 1 footwider than it had been. This was done to address the stability of a fully loaded ten- place under road speed conditions. We have used Dexter torsion suspension from the start but we felt that the extra width could only improve the handling characteristics for the often inexperienced operator. A side benefit was that the extra width allowed us to place the average canoe on the inboard side of the fender instead of on it or having to place the fender inside of the boat.
We use only 1/8" or 3/16" steel and we weld everything we can. Welds tend to be more reliable than bolts. Maine Portage uses a double tree configuration for the rack system which allows for all of the load barsto be 36" wide and a vertical distance of 18 1/4". We put in a diagonal brace in front as well as a horizontal brace from front tree to rear tree. This set up allowed us to abandon the A frame which, as far as we could tell, was used for ease in fabrication rather than any benefit for the user. We also use tie loops which are located such that they do not interfere with loading or unloading.
Maine Portage does not galvanize the trailers nor do we build them out of aluminum. Both are expensive to do and we feel that the fabrication limitations it places upon us is not worth it. Besides the expense, aluminum is a poor material to use for this type of trailer. The inevitable consequence of this is that we have to deal with the paint issue. We have tried several products in the past which proved to be less than satisfactory. We recognize that appearance is important but in order the keep the cost of the unit within reach of most users we have had to compromise to a certain degree.
Please call or email us with your needs. As long as we can keep it street legal we will build whatever it is that you need.
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