This is what I wrote when I went through this exercise a few years ago.
In part, it is a way of describing what not to do, but...
Giles
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Until I bought her, Umiaq had been used primarily in fresh water. This
meant that the Trail Rite trailer, although fifteen years old, was in
pretty good condition. Living near the Chesapeake Bay, I have every
intention of making life hard on the trailer by dunking it in salt water
as often as possible. So it was that, a few days after getting back from
a trip to Florida with Umiaq, I was in my driveway with the idea of
inspecting the trailer to make sure that it wasn't going to fall apart
this coming summer.
Aesthetically, the trailer could best have been described as functional
(it isn't only dogs who look like their owners) but the overall
condition was encouraging. The frame itself was excellent for the most
part - probably because it has no enclosed box sections. The wheels were
new, and the grease from the leaking seals ensured that they weren't
going to corrode. The wooden parts were another matter: Although still
in the right place the side guides and the V-shaped keel guide just
behind the rear roller had seen better days, and the carpet on the side
guides would have been an insult to a parrot cage. The bunks were ok,
but the high-friction carpet on them was sometimes making life difficult
at the ramp.
It looked like the trailer would easily last a couple of seasons without
doing anything to it, so I did the obvious thing. A few minutes later I
was jacking up Umiaq's keel preparatory to pulling the trailer out from
underneath her. Tools available were a hydraulic bottle jack and
timbers. A landscaping timber formed blocks for the keel to rest on, and
two by fours took care of the rest. This was to be a solo effort because
my son is much too young to be scampering around under half a ton of
boat and my wife is much too smart to get involved with this sort of
thing. My mother was visiting, and is usually game for this sort of
thing ("I'll distract it while you grab it and slip the muzzle on -
watch out for the tail"), but even I have some shame
About an hour's work found me wondering why the trailer was still stuck
to the boat. I lost count of the number of times that I checked every
place where the hull was even close to the trailer. Eventually I noticed
that the mast was still firmly tied to the trailer at one end and the
boat at the other. Bingo! A few minutes later, the trailer rolled out
free, and Umiaq was sitting proudly on blocks.
But not for long. Before I could even stop the trailer moving, there was
a "creak". Uh, Oh! "Creak". Doesn't sound good. "CREAK". Oh, no! The
temporary props were too far back on the hull, and one of them was
moving slowly. Quandary: Do I go and hold the timbers, knowing that the
worst that can happen is that I break the hull's fall, or do I keep out
of the way. "Rumble, bump". Option B, by default.
To make the best of it, I decided that I would not worry about the
damage that I'd just done until I got the boat back on the trailer. And
the good side was that when my new centerboard arrived it would be
easier to fit it (see "Umiaq Has a New Centerboard").
The rest of the afternoon was spent in reducing the trailer to its
component parts. Here's what I found (remember, this trailer is about
fifteen years old and may not have seen salt water until this year): All
of the wood (bunks, side pieces, keel guide) were significantly
deteriorated. All of the fasteners holding the wood had corroded - some
of them almost to nothing. Many bolts had their nuts corroded solid with
them and a bolt cutter was extremely useful at this point. The wiring
was in such poor condition that it was a miracle it worked. Two of the
six plates at the tops of the bunk board supports were rusted paper
thin. The lights should have fallen off long ago. Apart from that,
things were in good functional condition, although the original paint
was falling off in many places. The hubs were absolutely free of water
inside and showed no wear at all, which may well be a result of the
bearing buddies.
The ensuing work lasted several weeks and involved two outside
contractors.
First I took the trailer to a welder and had all six of the bunk board
supports replaced. I also had him remove the single (permanently
attached) safety chain and put on two loops for new chains. I also had
him add loops for the hold-down strap that had previously been kind of
jammed into a convenient hole. In addition, I had him remove a skid that
prevented me from fitting a tongue extension (I'll write about that when
I find out whether it works).
I made quite a few phone calls about a new surface finish. My initial
plan was to get the trailer sandblasted and hot-dip galvanized, but two
problems prevented this. The first was return on investment. The only
galvanizer I could find to do it wanted nearly eight hundred dollars,
and this seemed rather a lot. The other problem was that I had to
arrange for it to be sandblasted just before galvanizing, and this
turned out to be really hard. Most sandblasters around here seem to want
to do only buildings or small metal parts. I phoned every one in the
Yellow Pages. Some were helpful, some were insulting, but most were just
uninterested. Now what? It turned out that I could rent a sandblasting
machine and, although not exactly fun, could expect to do the whole
thing in a day. But the machine was too big to carry in a car - I needed
a truck to carry it. Well, call me chicken but I opted out. There was
one company that would clean to bare metal and apply a powder coat
finish for under five hundred dollars. They and their work looked good,
and a few days later I was in their parking lot one misty, moisty
morning removing the axle, springs, wheels, hubs etc. "It'll be done in
ten days", they said (it wasn't, but I didn't really believe them anyway
so no harm done).
Meanwhile, I was in my basement making new wooden parts. I used
preservative treated lumber and stainless steel nuts, bolts and
fittings. This was an easy but long task that involved duplicating the
shapes of the old wood and bolting them together. All of the lighting
and accessories were new. I decided to change the bunk board surface to
Ultra-High Molecular Weight (UHMW) plastic. Somebody in the Potter group
has recorded frustration with trying to bend the stuff, so I tried a
different approach - I bought it thick enough to countersink and screwed
a flat plate of it to each board. This didn't cost too much more than
carpeting at well under $40 for two six-foot bunks.
At the same time I sent an order to Champion Trailers
(www.championtrailers.com) for new springs, bushings, U-bolts etc.
Everything that was available in stainless steel, I bought stainless
steel. Other pieces were bought locally at Boat/US or West Marine. I was
initially planning on using new hubs, but after looking at prices for
new ones I decided to fit new bearings to the old ones. (The cups were
so tight that it took a professional mechanic friend over an hour to
replace them). Considering that an idler hub is basically a lump of
metal with a hole in it, new hubs would probably have been a waste of
money.
Eventually, the trailer frame was ready (one day under three weeks) and
I was fortunate enough to be able to assemble it for the road in the
finisher's warehouse. He even supplied an assistant to help me. The
assistant was a little stand-offish at first, but after about an hour he
was sitting in my toolbox and playfully biting my feet. This assistant
was a delightful Labrador/German shepherd cross puppy with one blue eye
and one brown.
Never having done it before I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it
was to assemble the springs, axle and hubs. Just as well, really, since
that was the only way the trailer was going home with me.
Now what? The trailer, mostly reassembled, was sitting in front of the
boat. Neither of them was going anywhere unless I did something about
it. Actually, this part had been worrying me. One option I considered
was to invite all my friends round for a boat-raising, but it looked as
if it was going to be hard to get everybody together at the same time.
So... It was back to me, my bottle jack and plenty of lumber. It turned
out to be pretty easy, partly because the UHMW plastic on the bunk
boards allowed the boat to slide and partly because I had put a new, and
stronger, winch on the trailer. The whole job took about two hours
including tea breaks.
It's hard to describe the feeling of relief when Umiaq was once more
sitting squarely on her trailer instead of lying sadly on her side. And
what about damage from the fall? Thank you, Jerry Montgomery, for
building such a strong boat. A few scratches, nothing more.
Final touches: Fine tune the fit of the new bunk boards, fit the
V-shaped keel guide behind the rear roller, fit the new side bunks. Put
on new wiring, including a proper ground wire instead of trying to use
the trailer frame and... done.
Conclusions?
It was worth it for two reasons:
The trailer is now ready to perform its duties with minimal maintenance
for quite some time, and
I now know a lot more about the trailer, and any potential problems have
been addressed.
This wasn't an inexpensive exercise, without having bills in front of me
I would estimate
$125 for welding
$450 for stripping and refinishing
$200 for parts
Plus a considerable number of hours of my time. On the positive side are
a better-than-new trailer and a great sense of personal satisfaction.
One other thing. While I was doing this I decided that it was time to
make a tongue extension so that I could get the trailer further into the
water on shallow-sloped ramps without immersing the car in automobile
solvent. I've just about finished an eight-foot extension to the tongue
based on the design that was on the back page of Sail magazine a few
months ago. I'll let the group know how it woks out when I get the
chance to try it.
Giles Morris
Arlington VA
M-15 #264 "Umiaq"
------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
n.com] On Behalf Of Hughston, Larry
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 6:34 PM
To: 'For and about Montgomery Sailboats'
Subject: RE: M_Boats: Lifting in the driveway
The trailer is in need of lots attention to be made to look as new.
Boat (hull # 189) and trailer are 1981 manufacture. I want a safe
process to pull out the trailer that I can do at home with simple car
jacks, wood, bolts, carpeting and grabber screws. It will be made for
disassembly.
----L.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 3:26 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: M_Boats: Lifting in the driveway
Larry,
Once the boat is off. Are you doing work on the boat or trailor? Bill
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