We ended buying the 40x48 utility trailer with the small tires, it was on sale for $140 bucks when we bought ours. I then bought some 1 1/4" pvc tubing for the boat to sit on, on 11" centers. I bought some 1"sq aluminum and made my own extension to extend the trailer. The extensions are attached by pins to the 40x48 section so the trailer can easily be broke down into two pieces. The 40x48 part can also be used as a launch cart. When broke down the whole trailer fits in the bed of our truck or stored against the wall in the garage. We use ours mostly in salt water and it rusts away quickly, as each cross bar rusts away I replace with 2" angle aluminum (lowes). I bent up some 1/8x2" aluminum and mounted a cheap harbor freight boat winch to the front. With mine the boat itself is part of the structure so there need to be straps at the front and the back of the trailer. I mostly use the trailer locally. When we go to our key west place I bought another set of 12" american made tires for long trips, (I simply don't trust the cheap 8" chinese tires on the highway, (they were like $50 bucks ea at walmart). To strengthen the pvc tubing I just bought wood broom handles and shoved them into the pvc tubing. When you get the trailer it's worthwhile to replace all the bolts with stainless steel bolts and nuts (about $20 bucks worth, (lowes). At first I tried to re-paint everything at the first sign of rust. This ended up being a lost cause because the salt water gets under the paint and rusts the metal away. I ended up just scraping all the paint off and leaving bare metal, once the metal gets a rust coating it only needs to be rinsed off with fresh water and actually lasts way longer. As the cross bars rust away, I just replace them with aluminum angle. There are I think 3 cross bars, I replaced 1 so far (the rear one). I bought enough aluminum for all three, as the other ones give out I will replace, (takes ten minutes).
The lights are crap I don't recommend ever dunking the trailer. There are no good seals on the wheel bearings, Don't dunk the wheels, and you need to take the wheels off and re-grease before any long trip, I usually put the big tires on at the same time. Actually if you extend the PVC out the back of the trailer about a foot or so it really helps guide the boat in cross winds. I added a 9" paint roller slid over a piece of pvc pipe at the back of the trailer so the boat rolls on the roller when loading, ($3 bucks). Once I get the bow on the roller, I hook the winch up and crank the boat up the rest of the way, (I use my cordless drill) With the small tires on I only need to lift the bow maybe 5 inches (thats why I like the small tires locally). When using the back half of the trailer as a launch cart, I pull the two pins holding the trailer together, I slide the boat back on the trailer so it is balanced on the trailer, then grab the bow and walk the boat wherever I need to. With the hard tires and the wheel bearings the fully loaded TI rolls way easier than on any scupper cart we have ever tried to use. Lets be honest, it's a $140 dollar trailer, a total piece of crap, I had to work a whole weekend modifying so it would fit my TI. All the extra alum I had to add was about a hundred bucks, the crazy winch was about 25 bucks. The whole thing is a total piece of crap, and looks like crap (all rusty). The TI lives on that trailer in our garage, we try to go out every weekend, I don't ever remove anything from the boat, all 2-3 masts just lay over the boat, and remain rigged, both engines I tilt down for storage. I leave the seats in and just lay the PFD's over the leashed mirage drives laying in the hull. Sometime to save space in the garage I remove the AMA's and toss them on top of the boat. When we want to go out I back my Pontiac solstice out of the garage, turn it around and plug the reciever in. I back the boat out turn it around and hook it up, then I'm off (takes all of two minutes). When done I park the solstice in the garage, rinse the boat off with the hose in the drive, disconnect then roll into the garage. I release all the bungys, open the hatches, tilt the motors down, then just leave the ceiling fan in the garage on for a day or so till everything is dry, (takes all of 5 minutes) We also car top a lot (when we have our camper in tow), which is way more work, but neccessary, (it's either car top or leave the boat at home). I added a small caster wheel under the front so I can roll the trailer around in the garage. About once a year I flip the boat over and fix all the bottom scratches (the deep ones I fill with the Hobie Welder, the rest I just scrape away with a single edge razor blade held vertically scraping back and forth ( the plastic comes off like snow flakes). There is a lot of sand, coral, and oyster beds around here, so the boat bottom always looks like it has gone thru WW2, I don't worry too much about any of it. These boats are nearly indestructible. I do nearly nothing maintwise on the boat besides cleaning and lubricating the mirage drives once in a while. And of course you need to maintain the engines, no different from any other boat. In Florida trailers have to have plates, and titles, and have to be DOT approved with all paperwork in order, just sayin if you buy an old trailer without paperwork, your in for a nightmare experience with Florida DOT, (been there done that), The harbor Freight trailers are a total piece of crap but come with all the correct legal paperwork, after you register and title it, just do what you need to do to make it work. I'll be honest I did't expect the thing to last a year (a total POS). Every time I park it at the boat launches some trailer company leaves their business card in my window, I now have a couple hundred business cards in my glove box I swear (lol, not that many really, but there are a bunch).
If I had any pride, I would have just bought the darn Hobie trailer with cradles, would have saved me a weekend of busy work in the garage, ( I have no clue what the Hobie trailers and cradles cost). I had all this posted on the forum 3-4 yrs ago but photobucket stopped hosting pics, so all the pics are lost forever, (kinda sucks, I won't be posting anymore pics). I haven't done crap to anything since, I just use the stuff. FE
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