mysavioreigns' trailer project

[mysavioreigns]

I guess since I've been here a few weeks and asked a few questions, I'd start a thread showing my trailer build.

I have a 1436 old Jon Boat, that honestly I don't know much about, other than it floats and fishes well

I got really tired of loading it into the back-end of my pickup truck and taking it out to the lake, then re-loading it and going home, so my wife suggested I buy a trailer. Being the frugal nut I am, I found a $100 trailer about 40 miles away, so I went and got it. Here she is, once I got her unloaded and crammed into the garage. (sorry for the low-light, didn't take that into account at the time)

Structurally, it's sound. Axle is in great shape, all the metal is in great shape. A little bit of surface rust, but that came off pretty quickly. I don't know who manufactured the trailer, but I believe the "walkway" down the side is a modification someone did to it. Oh well, I like it. The paint (or what remained of it), on the other hand, was a disaster.

Also notice the stock coupler and rectangular tubing that it's attached to, are removable from the trailer. I'm not really sure why, but I guess if you have a short garage you could remove it. Perhaps one of you know? You can see that piece underneath the trailer, in the picture.

 

[mysavioreigns]

So I began by disassembling everything. The fenders, brackets, bunk-holders, license plate brackets, lights, and wiring were all removed. The rollers came off, and I'm not sure if they're going to go back. The wheels have been fused to the hub by the almighty strength of 1000 men (i.e. rust), and I'll spray some PB Blaster on those later.

The first thing I addressed after disassembling was to start sanding. And sand some more. And sand some more. And when I was done with that, I flipped it over, and started even more sanding. Somewhere along there, I got fed up with little wire wheels and bought a big Dewalt Knotted-wire Cup Brush, and that made things a little faster. The biggest time consumer is getting in between all the channels of the frame, which is less than 3" wide, and sanding that must be done mostly by hand.

After (most of) the sanding, I started to address the trailer length. I knew it was too short, so I set out to the metal salvage yard to try and find some replacement tubing for the front. After searching for a good 30 minutes, I stumbled across a 10' section of scrapped 2 x 3 x 1/8" rectangular tubing. It was like stumbling upon the sword in the stone. I couldn't have found a more perfect scrap piece. It was the exact size I needed, and at only $0.40/lb., it cost me about $35.

With the trailer upside down, I put the new piece on to see how long or short it would be. It works out just about perfect. Here's a picture of a very quick mock-up.

Also note, in that picture, I got 2 new spare tires along with the $100 I paid for the trailer. Can't beat that!

Okay, now it's time to do more sanding, but I should be getting ready to wash it and degrease / give it an acetone wipe-down, in preparation for the epoxy primer.

Thanks for checking it out.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

The trailer looks like $100 well spent. I paid around $75 for mine then spent maybe $150 more to completely rebuild it. I wish I could lengthen the tongue as easily. Be sure to check the bearings and seals and replace if necessary.

 

[mysavioreigns]

Thanks lckstckn2smknbrls. Good suggestion on the bearings, I plan on doing that in the morning. I spent 10 minutes trying to get the dust cap off with no success, so I gave up. Later, I looked on youtube, and found out how to do it in about 3 seconds, lol.

 

[mysavioreigns]

Well, today I had off work so I got a little bit more done. I had been procrastinating my organization of all these parts, so I bagged & tagged everything, and took pictures of how everything goes, before putting it all in totes.

While sanding/wire-wheeling the trailer frame is alright, doing so to a round fender is a pain in the butt. I went the easy route and used some Citristrip paint remover, and I'm loving the results (I had used Citristrip before, on my Mustang, and love it). Here's a before & after picture, about 1 hour apart.

Here's a tip: I put Citristrip on the "walkway" of my trailer, which has lots of raised bumps to help with traction. That was a HUGE mistake - don't do that! Trying to scrape off the Citristrip becomes near impossible, and an angle grinder doesn't help much either, since it wants to grind down the traction bumps. After about an hour, I got 1/2 of that junk off, and then I gave up to let the angle grinder cool down :lol:

Did some measuring before I drill the new holes in the tongue tubing, and I found that the trailer should be 16' 8" which ought to be perfect for my 14' boat. I still need to design a winch-post, and I think I'm going to make my bunks pretty long, as I've heard that's beneficial for getting the boat on the trailer. I've got 6 bunk-holders that came on the boat. Anyone have any definitive information on whether or not the "rollers" work for helping get on the trailer? Just looking at them, and messing with them, they don't seem all that much of an improvement over carpeted bunks.

Thanks everybody.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

If it's a flat bottom jon the rollers don't do much.

 

[mysavioreigns]

Wow, I can't believe it's been that long since I've updated my trailer thread. [-X

Well, the trailer was completely disassembled and sanded down to bare metal / factory primer. That factory primer is a real pain in the butt to remove. The rear axle was completely taken apart, and all new hubs & bearings were purchased, and are awaiting installation.

Mostly, I've been working on building my copper air compressor lines for painting, hence the long wait.

Now, I have 2 questions that I have not yet figured out...

1) The original rubber bushings for the leaf spring axles are flanged, and were torn to shreds from deterioation. What can I use in their place? The hardware store has bronze flanged bushings, but I'm not sure if that will work in this situation.

2) My epoxy primer should be here soon, and I am unsure how I am going to paint the trailer. The trailer is made of C-channel and angle-iron, so getting into some spots is pretty tough. Plus, I'm not sure how I will paint both the top and the bottom of the trailer in the same go. I could stand the trailer up vertical, but I don't think it will fit in my garage, and I am not sure spraying epoxy primer outdoors is a great idea either.

Thanks for any help you all can provide.