Two trailer questions: rust and location of spare

[strokeoluck]

1) Please take a look at the two "rust" pictures (hope I posted these correctly; it's my first time using PhotoBucket). What's the best way to stop the rust from spreading any further?

2) Take a look at the location and angle of the spare tire. Our driveway is somewhat short and a little steep. When I pull the boat in/out of the driveway the bottom of the spare drags for about 18" on the asphalt. I'm not overly worried about the driveway - it doesn't even really leave a mark (though it did put a hole in the spare tire cover). But I am concerned about the spare in the long run. We just bought the boat this winter so it hasn't been moved much. After three attempts to properly get it in the garage after washing it today (60 in MN!!!) the sound of the spare dragging was driving me nuts. How should I fix this?

Thanks!

[capt sam]

wire brush, Ospho and paint for the trailer.

You will need to see if you can mount the tire horizontally on the trailer tongue if not you may have to keep it in your tow vehicle.

[reelfishin]

The above post about says it, sand or wire brush off the rust, apply some good primer and repaint.
As far as the spare, if the driveway is that much of an incline or hump, your probably better off just putting the spare in the truck.
I find that they don't fair well rust wise mounted on top of the tongue since many rims will pool water around the lugs and outer rim and tire area when mounted face up.

[HAV2FISH]

Looking at your spare, can you move the rim up and around to the next hole on the right while still using the same hole on the left. This will give you more ground clearance.

[kamby]

Looking at your spare, can you move the rim up and around to the next hole on the right while still using the same hole on the left. This will give you more ground clearance.

Its hard to tell with the pic, but it looks like its just bolted to the side of the trailer, i got one of these from harbor freight to today.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93341

Bolt it to the frame and it acutally lifts the tire up a bit so its not so low to the ground. Works pretty good, just dont have a brain fart like i did and mount it next to the winch handle

[tashasdaddy]

you have a bad situation with a very short tongue. my best solution is to move the jack stand to the other side, and mount the spare, where the tongue jack is, with the mount mentioned above. it will restrict your tongue jack but you can flip it every 1/2 turn, or change out the tongue jack to a side handle.

http://www.iboats.com/Boat_Parts_Acc...39--submit.y.8

rust is going to be a very common maintenance thing with that painted trailer.

[zboot69]

I agree with the rest, rust will be common with painted trailers. I picked up a old gator trailer from the 50's and rust was everywhere on it (was still origanal paint) a good wire brushing cleans most rust up nicely and then pick a good primer for it and you shouldnt have a problem. On mine i used a rustoluem product made just for rust. I beleive its called heavy rust primer and it worked really good on mine but might be a little overboard if yours isnt that rusty. Any home depot or walmart should have it though.

[strokeoluck]

Its hard to tell with the pic, but it looks like its just bolted to the side of the trailer, i got one of these from harbor freight to today.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93341

Bolt it to the frame and it acutally lifts the tire up a bit so its not so low to the ground.

First, thanks to all of you for your tips and comments. I'll run to Home Depot this week and will take care of the rust.

Second, I'm a little new to this boating/trailer thing so I'm confused. When you say "bolt it to the frame", I guess I was thinking it was bolted to the frame. No? So when you say "frame" do you mean the tongue? There doesn't seem to be much to the whole trailer so I'm not quite sure what distinguishes the frame from...non-frame parts.

The tongue is a fold-away tongue so there's not a whole lot of room to work with there. I'm starting to think my best bet is to remove the spare and toss it in our Pilot when we head to a nearby lake.

[capt sam]

my current trailer doesn't have room for a spare so I have that stored in my truck since I trailer the boat so much, doesn't matter where you have it as long as you have it.

[redone4x4]

i slid mine face-up between the bowstop/winch mount and the keel of the boat. im not sure if you have enough room though. I made a custom bracket for it, a plate with 2 studs sticking up that you bolt the wheel down to. and, it makes a nice little step for reaching in the bow from the ground.

[kamby]

Here is how mine turned out









another thing to that i thought of, you might want to check and make sure you dont have too much of a drop on your hitch when its attached to the tow vehicle, if it is get less of a drop. If the trailer sits right on your tow vehicle you may want to reverse the ball so its a rise instead of a drop that will give you the extra distance when backing up your driveway.

My car hauler had to use a 6" drop on my truck but when i backed up my yard to park it on the side of the house it would catch the front landing gear and rip up the yard. I had an extra bar on hand with it reversed so it was a 6" rise, then i sold the truck and ended up needing the 6" rise to tow the trailer anyway..

Just a thought good luck :-)