Trailer Refurbish (pics)

I'm in the process of refurbishing my boat trailer at the moment! Thought I'd share some pics along the way!

This past weekend I stripped the trailer of all the fenders, lights, wiring, winch, bunks, etc. and have fabbed up some brackets for two 3 inch caster wheels for the prop cage. As well as welded on a new swing away tongue. (old tongue was a surge brake tongue)...

Trailer is currently being sandblasted and powdercoated... Hoping to get pics after thats done but before PC'ing...

Thanks for posting the pictures.. I love watching projects like this.

Where did you purchase the swing-away tongue?

The swing away tongue came as a kit for bolt on or weld on from Croft Trailer, in KC...

I'll post more pics as progess is made!

Are you going to put brakes back on?

No on the brakes...

It looks like you are going to put rollers on the prop guard. Great idea! Mine work really well.

three comments:

1) were you done with the welding of the new tongue? I would have expected a bead along the top and bottom, not just along the sides. It would be really bad to have that tongue tear off while you were going down the road.

2) Why no brakes? In some states brakes would be required and they are really a good idea.

3) I am not sure that the rollers are in a good spot or right hieght, but I am not quite visualizing it complete. It looks like the rollers are going to be near the center of the prop guard, and substantially lower. This will put a lot of stress on the center of the guard when the rollers get used. The last thing you want is for the prop gaurd to get bent up into the prop.

My trailer has rollers that are mounted on the vertial supports to the prop guard in such a way that the bottom of the roller is just below the level of the guard. Here, look at this picture: http://www.dhmtrailers.com/online/home.php?cat=161

This puts any load forces up into the trailer frame instead of creating bending forces in the middle of the guard.

1.) The tongue is bolted through with 2 grade 8 bolts as well as welded on each side and bottom. I'm not to concerned about it coming off...

2.) The previous owner removed the brakes 10 years ago because they took a lot of maintenance to keep them functioning. I've towed this boat probably 10k miles and never had the brakes and frankly never needed them. I considered putting them back on during this refurb but it didn't seem cost effective when I hardly tow the trailer more than 25 minutes at a time these days and I have a full size truck (and a 2500lb boat loaded)...

3.) The wheels will hang down far enough below the frame to handle a 45 degree angle... That is 1/4 inch steel stock welded top and bottom and the force on those caster wheels is relatively limited so I wasn't worried about them bending.

I'll post more pics when I get the wheels installed so you can see the finished product. Hoping it works fairly well...

After powder coating...

Top view of rear wheels installed.



a little dusty from sitting in RMI's parking lot but sharp with the gloss black powder coating.

I'll be re-finishing the fenders and re-installing this week as well as all new wiring, LED'S and new MC stickers with pinstriping...

enjoy!


(Message edited by bbeach on March 27, 2006)

Nice work!

Sweet! Seems lke a very well thought out project

looks good!

I've moved on to the fenders... Last year I broke the right fender on a rock at a launch and had to refiberglass it. Once these dry this week and really cure I'll be putting new custom stickers, pinstriping (on trailer) and new rubber pads on the fenders and then new wiring and all new LED's...

fiberglassed back in the right tailight that was broken.

after sanding and puttying all the surfaces for a smooth finish







primered black and resanded

one coat of gloss black!

and another coat!