Hello GRM!
Some of you may remember my thread on adjusting carbs for my 2 stroke pontoon boat, and what the odd backfire/pop thing it used to do was. those few will also likely remember that i gathered enough information on here to successfully remedy that random pop. well, the rest of the story is that i took the boat out, it ran perfect for 3 hours, we had a great time, with ZERO issues, and we came home. all was well with my floating beer drinking porch, until i began to take the trailer off the truck. i noticed that the tongue of the trailer was raising as i worked that handle, but the boat was not. hmm. so i stepped back a few steps, and much to my surprise, the TRAILER was bending. further inspection led me to several, severe, long, open rust holes in every weld and bent corner of the frame. well $#**!
so, after doing some searching, I've decided to rebuild it. the following images pretty much speak for themselves. took me two hours to get the boat up on wood blocks and a recently dropped tree my neighbor was cutting up.
goal is to have it assembled, painted, and on the road by Sunday night...
pics loaded!
-J0N
I've thought about going this route on my little boat trailer which is flimsy and rusty but not really close to failure. Yet. I just can't justify the time and cost in steel and wire when a used trailer can be had in decent shape for less than $500 though.
How much did you spend on steel, if you don't mind my asking?
If only you had a big, open, indoor space to work on the trailer in, surrounded by welders and bead blasters and stuff. #garagejealous
I've got $430 in the metal, and about $60 in shop supplies as of now. ill probably have $650 -$700 in it all finished.
And you may be able to find good used boat trailers for your boat in that price range, but 24FT pontoon boats that weight three grand are bit harder to find trailers for, i found. best i could do was $1500, for something close to as rusty as mine. plus i already have $800 in the axle; new axle tube, high speed bearings, upgraded weight rated hubs, new tires and bearing buddies. this was done last year so i could use the trailer on the highway. it was factory rated for 45MPH, which made a drive to Florida a long journey from Ohio.
Nah, this way the steel is 1/16th thicker than factory, seal welded (no drain holes, oil filled tubes, no water entry), and i can remake the winch mount/bow stop the way i want it, with a better ladder for my kiddos and wife, and strong enough to hold the boat still at 70 MPH. Also, i want to make custom rollers for the bunks, to make pulling to boat up snug against the bow stop easier. even if i found a nice trailer for under a grand, id have another $500 plus in it making it what i want.
ill keep updating as i go, not much to post images of right now, just have the frame welded up about 75%. (ran out of arc-stix. :) )
-J0N
pinchvalve wrote:
If only you had a big, open, indoor space to work on the trailer in, surrounded by welders and bead blasters and stuff. #garagejealous
90% of what you see there is my FIL's. Yes, im spoiled. the drive on lift, 240V service, running water, 135PSI air, LED lighting, 26ft door...
-J0N
