Yesterday and today, I spent a lot of time finishing painting all of the additional parts for the tongue and winch triangle. Since they are new metal, I decided to buy some Rust-Oleum White Primer and applied that to all three parts, then coated them today with the Smoke Gray. I also put all of the parts outside yesterday until today to let them dry out a little more. The Rust-Oleum doesn't seem to stick too well to the sanded down red Harbor Freight Trailer paint. It comes off pretty easily right now, so I may try something different in the future, like sanding or sandblasting them down to the bare metal, and then putting on primer and paint. The new metal appears to be holding the paint WAY bettter.
Today, I put the trailer completely together, other than the modifications I will do to add the longer tongue. The trailer was relatively easy to assemble, but took more than 7 hours today! I made some new pieces for the front where the original coupler would be, as you can see it just sitting on the trailer. Those pieces were made out of 1/8" steel plate, and the lower one was made the same size as the top original piece. You may be able to see them in the photo that my daughter Selena is modeling.... Don't you just love her blue hair!! (Sarcasm) It normally isn't that big but I will be welding the new tongue to it so I want it to be strong. I am also thinking about buying a piece of 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" 1/8" thick steel tube to use for the new tongue, as the one piece I have that you see in the last photo is 2" x 3" and is working out to be harder to weld into place without making the bottom front plate completely different. It would have to be bent in several places to be able to be welded to the tongue and bolted to the A-frame.
I did take out the bearing grease that was already in the original trailer bearings and replaced it with a good quality grease from Valvoline after cleaning out the bearing with solvent and blowing them dry.
When I get some extra money, I may change out all of the fasteners on the trailer with stainless steel, so they would never rust. I checked out the cost and it is nearly $100.00 for new stainless steel fasteners!!
I also have checked the height of the trailer and the height of the boat, and it appears that it will be a very tight fit to get the boat inside the garage when it is on the trailer. It is so tight that I will have to actually try it before deciding what to do about that. It will get inside the garage one way or another when it is done. So I may buy smaller wheels just to use when it is at home, move the axle above the springs, or ????? Use dollies maybe?? Any ideas?
11 hours
That definitely looks like hard work, so it is doubly impressive that you managed to build a boat trailer on your own! Have you found a way to fit the boat and the trailer inside your garage? I think installing smaller wheels is a smart idea. You might want to check out bias ply tires. These are small, but are still as sturdy and durable as regular-sized tires.
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