Rusty trailer, need opions!

[74SkeeterHawk]

Hey fella's, well heres the deal. I bought a 16' Skeeter bass boat(tri hull) and King Custom trailer from the same era for a few hundred bucks last fall and it has turned into quite a project my wife and I never expected. I have been working on the boat restoration...check that forum for the latest... and recently been trying to rid the trailer of bad parts, broken welds, and rust. Like the boat the closer I look the less I want to see. After removing the keel rollers and guids and snaping half the bolts I realized the far aft cross frame is damn near rusted through and I will probubly have to have it replaced. The rest of the frame seems sound but a lot of surface rust. What should I do...work it or replace it. Im thinking of maybe getting the whole thing sand blasted and primed but I have no idea how much that will run. Im pretty sure that a few cans of rustoleum will do the trick as far as surface coat goes! I just don't know. Sometimes I just get tired of finding things wrong thats going to cost me another hundred here and a hundred there.. Well there it is....let me have it. Thanks all!

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

Well some photos of the worst bits would be a big help to us all. Especially that cross member you mention. A wire brush and some good rust paint slapped on with a big brush will do you fine if the base you have is sound. That is pretty much what I did with mine other than spraypaint the mudguards with rustoleum spray of a similar color to the boat. If anything is almost rusted through it should be addressed and made safe before proceeding any further.

 

[redone4x4]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

sand blasting will also remove a small amount of metal with it, another thing to remember. pics would help...i just redid my trailer, but it wasnt bad at all. sanded surface rust away and sprayed it. lets see some pics!

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

I know where your head is. I just finished up my old trailer before listing it for sale. It's a lot of work to get it looking decent. If I was keeping it, I would have disassembled everything, blasted away the rust and primed and painted. As it was, I ground off all accessible rust, partially primed and brushed on Rustoleum. You have only invested a few hundred to buy boat and trailer. To get it decent, it will be a few hundred more plus elbow grease. If your going to keep it a while, do it right. It's always cheaper to do it right the first time, than doing it over later.

 

[74SkeeterHawk]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

Thanks....I'll get some pictures up tonight of the cancer and as far as keeping it I have about $2k invested in the boat and trailer and more to come im sure. I got a trailer shop to quote me about 125 to replace the crossmember and I think I can handle the stripping and painting my self. Seems rustoleum goes a long way. Ill keep ya'll updated.

 

[Utahboatnut]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

I have done two trailers now with the rustoleum and have been pleased at the results, how long it lasted and the price of the product. I used a combo of things to prep and it wasn't all that bad(20' cuddy). I got one of those strippers that you put in a drill (kind of looks like a scotch brite pad but more heavy duty) and it cut through the old peeling paint and rust quick. It was pliable enought to get into most nooks and corners. I also used sandpaper, wire brush, rust inhibitor where needed and then on to painting. I also used a combo to apply the paint. A good quality china bristle brush and a bunch of foam jonny rollers(the 4" and 6" type) the rollers more to smooth it out once applied with the brush, you can also apply with the rollers on the flat areas. It needed two coats for the white to cover all the way but looked good when done. I was about $25 total for paint & supplies and that even included some blue pinstripe I put on the trailer to match the boat... I used the satin white it seems much easier to touch up fronts of fenders etc when the time comes.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

I redid one trailer last year, it was under a boat I sold, but kept the trailer. It was a painted TeeNee trailer that had been pretty well neglected over the years. I stripped it bare, straightened out the sagging tongue, built a new bow stop, sandblasted it to bare metal, primed it with Corroless primer, and coated it with an industrial metallic gray hammer tone finish. I sandblasted and painted all the small hardware in black, painted the rims with aluminum paint, painted the axle tube epoxy white, and disassembled, re-bushed and repainted the leaf springs. The result was great. I even put on a new set of roller bunks to replace the aging ones with rollers that had turned to stone.

Before:
http://i41.tinypic.com/wu23k.jpg
After:
http://i41.tinypic.com/2vxnbd2.jpg

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

Nice job on that one RF. 74SkeeterHawk, I am working on completely redoing one right now. $125 to replace the damaged cross member sounds like a very fair price. If I were you, I would first strip down the rest of the trailer to make sure there isn't more damage then you know of. I used a grinder with a knotted wire wheel in it to strip the paint and rust off. I tried numerous things and that worked the best. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96194

For paint I'm hitting the rusty spots I couldn't get to with Rustoleum rusty metal primer. For all the rest I'm using their clean metal primer. Top coat will be Rustoleum gloss white.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

I sandblasted the one I did here myself, but I redid a large equipment trailer a few years ago and took that to a body shop nearby that has a huge sandblasting bay with a pit. I figured for the $250 they charged me it was well worth it since they had it stripped bare in a day.
If you sandblast, plan on repacking the wheel bearings immediately if they were still on when it was done. The sand gets everywhere.
I have another one waiting for me to do, but for right now, it's serving as my painting platform for a few boats. I'll have to sandblast that one down and do a complete paint job on it too, that one's an all white Shoreland'r roller bunk trailer from the early 70's. It's got surface rust but nothing serious.

On a painted trailer, it's not too big a deal to replace a crossmember, just blast the weld areas clean, cut out the old crossmember and cut to fit and weld in the new one.

 

[BeeLiner*87]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

I have a galvanized trailer...will send pics...no rust but now wondering thanx to 4X4 what it would look like painted. I have to redo bunks as the couplers have had it. New wiring and foot, the wheels r fine. New winch coming too.

Any thoughts??

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

one would be suprised what a weekend or two with a wire wheel or one of those paint stripping disks will do.

a freshly sandblasted trailer is fine and dandy but for $250? its only $7 for a wire wheel, $10 for paint and primer and a weekend or two and you get the same results.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

one would be suprised what a weekend or two with a wire wheel or one of those paint stripping disks will do.

a freshly sandblasted trailer is fine and dandy but for $250? its only $7 for a wire wheel, $10 for paint and primer and a weekend or two and you get the same results.

The trailer I paid to have sandblasted was too big to fit into my garage, it measured 39' long and had three axles, and had been sitting for years down the shore. It would have taken me a month and a hundred wheels to clean it by hand. As it was it took 4 gallons of primer, and 3 gallons of highway safety yellow paint, $475 in tires, $140 in bearings, and $1200 of hardwood lumber to restore it. And that wasn't counting my custom built ramps, tongue storage box, and all the new tie down anchors I added, plus the double LED tail lights and 10 pair of LED side markers and center markers.

The way I saw the expense to strip the trailer was more time I could spend either making money or just out fishing, rather than working on a new trailer.

As it was I had at least a hundred hours in that trailer.

I have my own pressure blaster for doing smaller jobs, but it's cheaper for me to pay someone to just do it and let them clean up the mess. I'd kill half a day just blasting down a big trailer, then have a mad rush to get some sort of paint on it so it don't rust up again. The guy that I had blast down that big trailer, although not a boat trailer, I have hauled larger inboard boats on it, kept it inside till I came to pick it up. I had one of those portable garages ready for it at the shop, and a spray gun and compressor ready to dust on the first coat of primer. The hardest thing was getting it off the other trailer which I used to haul it home on. I didn't want to chance having sand in the bearings and hauling it back on it's own wheels. I also sent it over there with much smaller wheels on it so they could get around the wheel wells better.

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

a 39' long tri axle trailer is for sure different then one for a 16' bass boat. I would have done the same thing in your shoes.

 

[nrf414]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

Pictures would be helpful as posted above. As an outsider and to attempt to make this as easy as a decision as possible here are a few things to consider:

When you look at it closer and you want to see less of it, to me that means theres a lot wrong with it.

How much money / time are you willing to sink into this just to say you rebuilt the original trailer?

I did some work on my old 16 foot trailer for a tri hull boat and aftewards I was looking at prices of others used trailers in decent shape on craigslist. It was really a 50 / 50 split. I was proud of the work I had finished, but could have spent the time fishing. So what do you have more of to exhaust, money or time?

If I were to do it again, I would look harder on craigslist / newspaper classifieds.

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

Here in Florida craigslist is full of good used boat trailers. Some of them even come with a free boat or a free boat and motor! Yeah, there's some junk out there but I have found lots of trailers for some pretty good prices.
It might just be time to look for one. Maybe once you know what they sell for you can justify wether or not yours is worth fixing....good luck!

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Rusty trailer, need opions!

...........

How much money / time are you willing to sink into this just to say you rebuilt the original trailer?
....................................................................................................... So what do you have more of to exhaust, money or time?
........................................................

I think with me, it's more a matter of not wanting to waste or junk something that's still got some life left in it, as well as the fact that I have good access to, and own all the tools needed to restore a trailer.

I picked up a used, late model trailer the other day on which the original owner had ripped off both wheels and spindles somehow. The axle was bend on both ends, and both spindles were ripped out of the axle tube.
I went down to the steel supplier here, bought a length of 1.5" Galvanized tubing, $60, ground the old spindles clean, checked them to make sure they were not bent of course, and cut and welded up a new axle. I repacked the bearings, put it all back together and for less than $200 I have a 2008 galvanized trailer for my boat, or my next boat, which ever it may end up being.

Now if it were an old rusty wreck of a trailer, I'd probably not have bothered but since springs, axles, and bushings, and tubing are all pretty cheap, it's no big deal to fix up a trailer. Usually if the frame is good, and not too rusty or in need of any major repair, I'll opt to fix it, even if it's just to resell it later.