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#1
02-14-2007, 10:14 PM
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One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
As most of you know, the trailer under my SF18 was pretty rough when I got it. The one fender still hanging on didn't even make it 20 minutes drive to my house.
The boat needed a fair amount of work too, so I've been trying to balance the resources ($$$) between fixing up both to where I can at least use the boat (which is pretty much done) as long as I don't have to trailer it very far to launch. Coming back from an outing a couple weeks back, I stopped to gas up, and noticed a distinct "leaning inward at the top" appearance to one of the trailer wheels. I've just previously replaced both wheels, tires and hubs, so this wasn't a good sign. Fortunately, home was only a few minutes away, and I drove carefully to avoid major bumps and potholes (as it turned out, one big hole could have spelled disaster). Once parked up in the yard with the trailer frame blocked up, It was time to pull all the undercarriage out and see what was rusted away to oblivion this time. It was not a pretty sight.  The axle tube was rusted thru at the bottom on both ends and the spindles were bending up. As if that wasn't enough, the front right spring hanger was totally rusted thru on one side and almost nothing left of the other side. The rear hanger was only slightly better, and the left side wasn't much better. I ended up making new sliders for both sides with all new hangers and also a new axle. It took me two weekends of working in a shop to make all the parts. .... Which the welder then welded up in about 2 or 3 hours.... One of the drawbacks to living here in paradise, is that you have to make everything from scratch, since there's no place that you can just walk into and get what you need, or even order it and find any place that will ship here. At least this time around, I made everything an order of magnitude heavier duty than what it replaced, so no matter how long I keep the rig, I won't be having to go thru this ordeal again. Anyway, it's all done, and I took a couple vacation days this week so I have a 4 day weekend to put it back together. The leaning post finally got here, so I'll be installing that as well. (or at least that's the plan) So for everyone that's read all the way thru this post, here's the pics of the trials of being surrounded by salt water, and the joys of living in paradise. Darlene            
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#2
02-14-2007, 10:21 PM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
Nice Trailer Fix'em Up Darlene...How abouts a shot of the leaning post you ended up with...Did you score one from MCL I took shots of for you
__________________
   1978 23' Superfish/Potter Bracket 250HP -------- as "Americans" you have the right to ...... "LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT of a Classic SeaCraft" -capt_chuck
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#3
02-14-2007, 10:53 PM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
Quote:
Here's a pic of it waiting to be installed, hopefully that will be tomorrows endeavor. That's one of the teak strips I cut to mount it to the floor with sitting on it. They will be epoxy bonded to the floor, and then the leaning post will screw into them. The floor needs some help to hold anything screwed into it. It isn't all that great, but I'm not going to redo it anytime real soon. That's my spare 200hp in the background, just waiting for the right 20' or 23' to come around. Darlene 
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#4
02-14-2007, 10:58 PM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
Shoot Darlene, just hang them 200 ponies on the back of the 18!!!
 You will be the FASTEST thing in the Islands. See ya, Ken Oh yeah, the trailer should be able to make it around the island now.
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See ya, Ken ©
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#5
02-15-2007, 12:12 PM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
Darlene-Happy B-Day. Nice trailer work and Leaning Post. I am just about ready cut the bolts (on my 18 SF trailer) off that hold the axle to the leaf springs and replace the plates, u-bolts, and nuts with stainless. Towing in confidence is the way to go!
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Snookerd
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#6
02-15-2007, 06:29 PM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
Yep- Happy Birthday! Nice job on the trailer- she was definitely in rough shape. One suggestion if you might. You mentioned screwing the leaning post in- if you dont have room to bolt it in , i used those stainless toggle bolts i bought from west marine. If there is foam underneath where you drill a hole for the bolt, use a coat hanger , put it in your drill and bend a 45 in the end of it, to use to ream out the foam inside the foam. that is what i had to do to get the toggle to spread. good luck, the post looks nice too!
__________________
"Lifes too short to own an ugly boat"
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#7
02-15-2007, 08:15 PM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
I installed the leaning post today as anticipated. ... Wasn't quite as easy as I hoped it would be, but then boat stuff seldom is.
As planned, I attached the teak strips to the leaning post, and then set the unit onto the prepped floor with a big wad of coloidal silica thickened epoxy spread for each side. The teak strips and floor were first prepped with regular epoxy to soak into the wood and glass. I got a nice full squish out all around the strips. Tomorrow, I'll do a bit of dress up sanding and snap some pics. ... If I have any hint of trouble, I'll keep those stainless toggle bolts in mind. Darlene
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#9
02-16-2007, 10:29 AM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
As a side note to Miles' method of removing foam from under a deck through a small hole, the L shaped allen wrenches in a drill work pretty good too.
Keep up the good work Darlene!
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#10
02-16-2007, 09:49 PM
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Re: One Pothole Away From Disaster...............
Quote:
Did a bit of tidying up on the leaning post installation today, and overall, I'm liking it. .... Will try it out Saturday. As promised, here's a few pics. ... Darlene      Thought you guys might like this bracket I made to use a 4 step Armstrong ladder on my swim step.
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