FAE install - kind of crooked.

My install is not perfect, and thanks Larry for sending out so quickly the replacement stock that I messed up. There are many people on here that have posted up just perfect projects and, wow, they just got to be gifted or blessed or something.

So mine’s not perfect, but not so bad as to hide it. Some time ago, I asked for help, and got invaluable advice.

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/649213.html

Let me add a few other things that might help somebody else.

To stabilize the trailer, here’s a block to prop under the tongue.



Here’s swim platform off, and starboard ballast tank removed. The empty-tank sensor’s electric cord is only about 12 inches long before ending in a convenient connector.



Here’s what gets dismantled, the swim platform’s center bracket. You can cut that lanyard off now. That pin will be useless after the FAE install.



Here’s the starboard compartment with the ballast tank removed.



If knew what I’d find, I would have pulled the tank with the fill-drain hose left connected. To get slack in the line would require disconnecting the other end of the fill-drain hose at the water pump. I did put it back in that order (in reverse). There simply is not good clearance in the hull of the boat for that hose to come out from under a corner of the tank. The tank kind of crushes the hose against the hull. I replaced the original nipple in the tank with shorter one to give the hose more of a run before it’s crimped at that corner. Thinking about it now, I might have given it a different fix.


I asked this question way back when I asked for advice. What do I feel inside the hull of the boat that these bolts are holding onto? Because, whatever it is, it is going to interfere with a socket, and limit me to open end wrenches (14 mm by the way). Here it is. It is the tail end of the stern lifting ring. ??? Does anybody notice that, the lifting ring is attached to the hull by four bolts?, I mean, just four?



The FAE-specific bracket is constructed of (stainless) square tube. I thought I’d sleeve the bolt holes through that square tube to strengthen it. I used ten bronze sleeve bearings from McMaster Carr, 7/16 ID x 9/16 OD x 5/8 long.



Here, the FAE bracket and the boat’s swim-platform bracket are put together. You can see the sleeves in the tube for the bolts (ie., to prevent the tube from crushing).



Here is where things got crooked. I didn’t drill straight. I was supposed to make a square frame of tube, with the FAE bracket providing the top rail, a bottom rail coming off the FAE itself, and two loose pieces of tube for me to assemble and bolt between the top and bottom rails with about four inches apart. The bolting would be accomplishes by two 12-inch lengths of all thread (threaded rod). The bottom rail came pre-drilled with two holes in it. I would have to drill two holes in the top tube to match.

I did drill two holes, but not in good of alignment. So since I was going to end up with not a square but a trapezoid, I just dispensed with the two stile tubes (they would only serve as sleeves anyway for the all thread), got some thread lock, a bunch of 5/16ths nuts and lock washers and just tightened things down as you see it. I sleeved the top and bottom rails as I showed before with the other six holes. Trimmed things off and, it’s not perfect but it feels solid, real solid.