I found this trailer on Craigslist listed for $250. I called the guy and set up a meet about halfway between our towns. I had already decided to buy the trailer because if he was hauling the trailer, half of my concerns were already dealt with.
My wife and I arrived early. When I saw him pull up towing the trailer, I was impressed. The wheels turned, all the lights were burning, the trailer looked good for an old workhorse. I was even taken further aback when he only asked for $200 to seal the deal. OK, now I'm wondering but, I gave him the $200 and we parted company.
The next day I began my thorough examination of this to-good-to-be-true trailer and this is what I found:
Plenty of rust but not enough to be of major concern however, the rust will have to be dealt with to inhibit deterioration, more on that later. What I found next made the whole scenerio crystal clear.
My examination of the crossmember where the tongue is welded to the trailer frame revealed a broken weld in the corner and the frame was buckled adjacent to the gusset. When I measured the ratio of weight distribution over the axle, I found that the ratio was 50/50 instead of 60/40 which means that the axle carriage was moved forward, I imagine, to lessen the weight on the tongue but, caused a serious situation instead. I know, by now you have probably figured this out however, I will document my conclusions.
Moving the axle carriage too far forward created, in essence, a giant fulcrum. Normally, when a boat is being remounted on its trailer, the weight is immediately transfered to the axle. By moving the axle forward, the weight was transfered to the trailer frame behind the axle which tried to lift the front of the trailer but, the trailer was hitched to the vehicle. This caused tremendous stress to be applied to the crossmember where the tongue meets the frame and something had to give! One corner of the trailer jack-knifed, which must have been an awesome sight to bystanders and a dire situation for the boatowner.
Now that I know where the problems are, I can prepare to fix them. I'm going to start with the hard part, or so it seems. Actually, moving the axle carriage back to a safe position is a lot easier than it looks. I start by applying paint stripper to all of the securing nuts. I use the viscous kind that stays where it is put. I give it ten to fifteen minutes to work and then I blast it away with a garden hose. Next, I use a wire brush to clean the threads and remove all the nuts and bolts (4 & 4).
I jack the trailer up and set blocks under the frame making sure that I have the trailer centered over the blocks to maintain safety.
When I lower the jack, the carriage falls away from the frame with ease. Now its time to remove as much rust as possible by any means available. Then, I wire brush the area to prep it for primer and paint.
I give all mating surfaces 3 coats of a good outdoor enamel. The idea is to saturate the porus metal with as much paint as it will drink. I've heard it said that rust can't be stopped but, by God, I can sure slow it down.
The final step with this proceedure is to re-assemble the parts after the paint dries. Now it's time to move on to the frame welding.