On the Trailer
The movie above is made from a series of stop action photos. They were taken over the course of an hour while I prepared and then pulled the boat onto its new home on wheels.
After several futile attempts to buy a trailer from local dealers and manufacturers, I posted an email to Road Runner Trailers in British Columbia. They were recommended by a several folks on the FishyFish Forum. Mike got back to me within 12 hours and built me a trailer long enough for the 24’ Jumbo. It is dual axle with twin 12’ bunks. It took two weeks to build, including full galvanizing. He shipped it across the border to a very salty dealer in Marysville, Washington (a 400 mile round trip from Portland).
I got it titled and tagged immediately but had to wait until today to slide the boat onto the bunks. The building jig was the same height as the trailer (pure luck), so I backed up trailer, “greased the skids” with high density polyethylene scraps, hooked up the winch, and cranked it on.
This trailer is 28 feet long and fits so tight in my carport that I am sure to take off some house paint someday, but it does fit.
Time lapse into 13 seconds
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Photo above: I jacked up the cradles and slipped in a 4”x6” pad of high density polyethylene for a skid pad. These were screwed into the bottom of the cradles, so when the boat was winched forward, the cradle would slide. The sliding cradles supported the boat until it was far enough onto the bunks, at which point, the boat slid out of the cradles onto the bunks. I still had to coax the cradles with large hammers as I pulled the boat forward.
Right: The new galvanized trailer will be fully masked off as I continue to glass and spray the topsides. I make a lot of messes, and continue to work in spite of them. I like to think that I have high finish standards, but no mess is too big to impede me. I amaze myself how sloppy I am and still get the results that I do.
