Re: Inflatable boat trailer?
Lol at snapping turtle, Thanks for the compliment.
Here's the trailer, minus the boat.
I added the spare tire and jack. The jack is absolutely necessary if you want to move this thing around by hand. The tongue weight is heavy because the engine needs to sit on that side of the trailer. The tongue has negative weight if you put it on the other side. It's because the engine weighs so much and the boat so little.
Here is what I rigged to hold the transom bracket. It's two eye bolts side by side. The Transom Saver goes over one and sits next to the other. The pin goes through both and a hole in the Saver. It's rock solid with no chance of coming apart. I used two SS locking nuts on each bolt.
Here are the rails on the sides of the deck. They act as "bunks" sort of and guide the boat on to the trailer straight. Depending on the size of your inflatable, you may need to move the rails slightly in to get the same advantage. On my 14 footer, the rails are situated directly where the bottom hull meets the tube so it's perfect. The picture makes it look like the 2X4's overhang the plywood, but they are actually flush. The corners of the deck are cut off to accomodate the hardware.
Here are the lowered fenders, (a necessity for larger boats). The cutting board material is to prevent chaffing on the tubes. After a season of use, (maybe 1500 miles) the tubes show absolutely no wear. They still look like new.
And finally the countersunk bolts, again for chaffing purposes.
The trailer is rated for 1000 lbs. My boat is about 600 lbs. fully rigged. It drives really good on the highway, tracks perfect, no bounce. I'm really happy with it. I may replace the wood with marine grade at some point, but in Arizona what I have does the job. Clearly, you would never want to put this trailer in salt water. It would probably dissolve on the spot.
Good luck, hope this helps.
