Trailer Refit

Of course, I bought a used trailer early last year - shortly after I began the build. It's time to fit out the trailer to my boat. 

I've pondered the best way to do it. After much thought and looking at some other trailers (though there really isn't much out there to be seen) I've come up with a plan. 

It took two evenings to take off the old fittings and strip the trailer down to its frame. Here's a box full of the old stuff. Most of the old bolts broke. I borrowed a grinder with cutting blade from a fellow church member to cut some of the stuff off especially the roller which had frozen to the sleeves.

My plan is to put a plank down the middle of the trailer for the boat to rest upon and use some of the old hardware to add bunks. The cross members of the frame have holes drilled all over them. They had used those to attach rollers. I decided to bolt 2x4's to them to give me something to bolt the plank to. Here's the first one. I notched it because this cross member is higher than the rest. The forward part of the plank will end here.

Here all of the short 2x4 pieces are bolted into place and the plank is lying across them. I have drilled the holes to countersind the lag bolts so that they will not sit above the level of the plank. 

Here is the plank bolted into place.

Here is the last cross member. There was a gap at the rear of the trailer no doubt for an outboard which I will not have.

I notched it as well.

Here's a closeup of the countersunk lag bolts.

Today I spent several hours looking for square u-bolts. It took me four stores to find them. Tomorrow I plan to rough-in the bunk supports and winch. Final fitting will have to wait until the boat is on the trailer.