The Xenon is a strongly built, gunwhale hung dinghy that tows very well. This article provides a few tips based on our experience of towing the Xenon over a total distance of around 700 miles.

The first issue is insurance. Normally your dinghy is covered by your car insurance when under tow. Marine insurers do not normally extend their cover to towing operations. You may wish to check with your insurers.

Make sure the dinghy is securely fastened on to the trolley. In particular the dinghy painter should be a heavy duty 10mm line. Use the painter to pull the nose of the dinghy tight to the rubber nose cup and lash it firmly. Obvious, but also check the pin locking the trolley into the road trailer.

Use a heavy duty ratchet strap to tie down the dinghy and trolley to the road trailer. The road trailer has two welded lugs for this purpose. Use foam packing or purchase gunwhale protectors, to protect the dinghy gunwhales from the strap.

Use a lighter duty ratchet strap to tie the dinghy on to the trolley frame. The standard 'Streamline' trolley has two welded lugs for this purpose. Again use foam packing or gunwhale protectors (these are available in 50mm or 25mm widths), to protect the gunwhales.

Even with two straps the dinghy will still rock fore and aft as the trailer hits bumps. An easy way to prevent this is to pass a lightweight polypropylene strap under the front of the trailer and over the front of the bow of the dinghy. Prevent this strap from sliding forwards off the bow by linking a bungee cord between the top of this strap and the main ratchet strap. Gentle bungee tension will hold the bow strap in position and will prevent any rocking motion in the dinghy.

Finally the rear lighting board carrier will need to be tied down using a bungee cord passed over the rear mast support and hooked into the lower rudder pintle bracket. If not fastened down the lighting board can be bounced out of the pintles and fall off following a too rapid passage over road humps!

Keep the trailer tyres on the soft side, 20psi, to cushion the jolt from any potholes.

A low profile PVC trailing cover for the Xenon, suitable for use when towing, is available from Purple Marine. The product code is XEN-TR-PV and cost in 2010 was around £140.

Driving technique
The dinghy tows very well and very smoothly. It follows the track of the car and cornering needs the bare minimum of clearance. On my Volvo Estate there is a very real danger of forgetting that I have a dinghy on the back!.  Avoid fierce braking and as far as possible do your braking in a straight line.

Reversing with the dinghy attached is an art and best done very slowly. As the dinghy trailer starts to swing turn the car to follow the trailer direction to avoid a rapid jack knife and consequential damage.

 Lighting Board

Topper can supply a suitable lighting board for the Xenon together with a combined carrier for the board and rear mast support. However there is a wide choice of boards available from different suppliers. Regulations require the lighting board to be a close match to the trailer / dinghy width. Choose a board approx. 1800mm (6ft) in width.  The lightweight aluminium rear mast support supplied by Topper (Lighting Mast Support Y152/2) is not very strong and the welds holding the lighting board fail. I have had to use two bolts to compensate for this weakness.

The trailer plug supplied with the Topper lighting board is a 7 pin type 12n on a long plastic flex. It is a plastic plug and the quality leaves something to be desired - water can penetrate the plug causing the small connector screws to rust. This is also not robust and the casing may split. I have found that smearing a light coating of petroleum jelly (eg Vaseline) over the plug pins works wonders for smooth connection. Aluminium plugs are available as a more robust alternative but do smear a little petroleum jelly over the pins for smooth coupling and uncoupling.

If you have problems with the trailer lights the main suspect is the internal plug connection. Servicing the plug requires only a small electrical screwdriver. Unscrew the gland nut on the rear of the plug. At the side of the plug is a retaining clip. Slide your nail or a small screwdriver under the clip and flick it out. The plug sides will unhinge exposing the connection screws. In my case the broken wire was immediately visible, I also suspect that the gland nut had not been adequately tightened exposing the wired connections to strain and subsequently to break. Strip the offending wire back, twist the copper strands tightly together and fold over to create a double thickness. Insert the prepared wire into the connector and tighten the small screw.

When reassembling the plug note that there is a small keyed tab to ensure that the plug connectors will fit only one way. If the plug sides do not easily hinge together check the position of the tab. Is it in its cutout?

Finally reapply the retaining clip and tighten the gland nut as firmly as possible.

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