Boat trailer to utility trailer?

[matt167]

I can be frugal, and stubborn at times.. I need a trailer capable of hauling 1 pallet of shingles ( at a time ) and more frequently haul my 3,000 lbs Massey GC1710 TLB tractor.. The local HD sells the nice Karavan trailers but the price went up to the point, being cheap kicked in

A local classefied has come up for a 5000# boat trailer that has been stripped of all boat stuff. By looking at it, I can slide the axle ahead, and easy build a deck frame, and replace the V supports with 2x3 square tubing, then build a deck.. Anyone ever done this? Conversions I've seen were smaller trailers and sketchy at best

 

[Mcfltfyter]

Depending on the trailer it can be easier to cut the front of the frame and fold the supports into an A frame tonge. This way you can leave the springs, fenders and wiring intact. I really liked one that we left the axle close to the rear. It pulled and backed like a dream, and you could set a pallet on the back, back up 2 feet, and slide the pallet right over the axle where you could still pick it easily.

If you are wanting to leave it full length, be nice to it and load evenly. It's pretty easy to fold a boat trailer in half unless you do some serious reinforcement.

 

[Bondo]

Anyone ever done this?

Ayuh,..... Quite a few times,....
Stripped off the "Boat" stuff, 'n built a deck on one a few times,.....
Stripped another, 'n built tractor hauler,....
Stripped, 'n stretched one to haul 50 canoes at one time,.....
'ell, I've got one boat trailer that I've changed several times,....
Most recently, back to a boat trailer,.....

 

[Willyclay]

Tagging along on this thread and feeling much better about my "former boat trailer" project! Thanks, Bondo

 

[LundAngler1650]

Ayuh,..... Quite a few times,....
Stripped off the "Boat" stuff, 'n built a deck on one a few times,.....
Stripped another, 'n built tractor hauler,....
Stripped, 'n stretched one to haul 50 canoes at one time,.....
'ell, I've got one boat trailer that I've changed several times,....
Most recently, back to a boat trailer,.....

50 canoes sounds like a scary load to drive around with.

 

[alldodge]

I took a single axle bass boat, put a deck on it that flips open in the middle with bunks. Its a flat deck for light hauling and flip the middle open and my seadoo rides on it

 

[matt167]

The one I'm considering has a very short tongue. It's pretty old, not like the Venture trailer I bought for my SC Holiday that has a 6' tongue with the boat being 1'6" under the max length

I even have a 2001 EZ Loader with a junk 19' boat sitting on it. I took the boat/ trailer for the trailer as I need one for another boat I'm building however it may be too long and not adjust down small enough making it perfect for this. It has a short tongue as well..

The biggest load will be the 3,000 lbs tractor- loader- backhoe

 

[Bondo]

50 canoes sounds like a scary load to drive around with.

Ayuh,..... I wish I had a digital picture, but I don't,.... it was before I had a digital camera,.....

What I did was, remove the original short tongue from my ole 80s something EZ Loader tandem, 'n put on a 20' long 3"x4"x1/4" tongue, with all the boat stuff removed, I build a set of double bunks over the original trailer, 'n another set of double bunks on the extended tongue, so I could put 4 stacks of canoes on the trailer, 'n 2 more stacks on the truck's ladder rack,.....
I stacked the 6 stacks from the racks up to the max limit of 13' 6" high,....
'n the lower canoes in the stacks, I'd removed the thwarts, 'n seats, to stuff a shorter canoe into the longer canoes,....

I then hauled 'em from Old Town Maine, to Watertown Ny,..... 500 miles, over unimproved goat trails,.....
Took me a week to put 'em all back together, 'n 'bout 2 months to sell 'em all,....

 

[GA_Boater]

Ayuh,..... I wish I had a digital picture, but I don't,.... it was before I had a digital camera,.....

Awhile ago you did put up a photo of the loaded trailer and the truck racks loaded to the gills. It looked like rig was outside a shop.

 

[Bondo]

Awhile ago you did put up a photo of the loaded trailer and the truck racks loaded to the gills. It looked like rig was outside a shop.

Ayuh,.... A scan of a paper picture, 'n now I'm on a different computer, a chromebook,....
No access to that, at the moment,....

 

[GA_Boater]

Ah, forgot about the switch to a different computer.