My Kayak Trailer

I found a old trailer in my late grandparents shed. It was originally built by my dad in the mid 1960's to carry a home made Hydroplane boat he made in high school. It was then outfitted to carry a motorcycle cross county and eventually was made into a storage trailer after my father moved back to Oregon from Colorado in the mid 80's, Its been sitting idle since.

I first removed all the crap from the trailer box. Removed the rotting wood and old trailer lights. I than used a power drill and several wire brushes to remove some of the old paint and clean up the rust that had built up over the years. The trailer had been placed on stands so the tires had not been sitting resting on the ground, I was amazed at how well the tires have held up over the past 30+ years. After wire brush and hand sanding the frame I used some matte black rustoleum to give the trailer a new look.

I removed all the bearings from the wheels and ordered new ones, along with all new seals. Both sides needed to be replaced. After repacking and sealing I was nearly finished... Time to tackle some broken wheels wells. At some point in time, the welds had been broken from wheels wells, instead of busting out the welder I just simply flipped them over and swapped sides and drilled new holes to install them back into the frame. Gave them a shot of paint and called it good.

Installing the new LED submersible trailer lights was more of a task then I first thought it would be. I figured I would just simply slap them on with some existing bolt holes and be done with it. Nothing is that easy. None of the holes already in the trailer would match up to the mounting spacing for the lights, thus requiring me to drill all new holes into the frame. After spending an hour looking for the appropriate drill bit, I knew I had. I finally got to work. Here I made my first mistake. I spaced my mounting holes on each side using only the RIGHT light. well guess what.. That doesn't work.. I ended up having to drill another set of holes for the left tail light. ugh... I finished this up and ran the wiring for the lights.

I knew I needed some type of decking or something to raise the kayak off the trailer a bit. I decided I wanted to build some side rails with some going across so I could install side carry saddles. well I currently only have one Kayak to haul around, and I didn't want to really run out and buy some metal right  now. Already having some extra wood laying around, I decided to make a simple wood rails for the Kayak to slide onto. I will eventually cover these with some marine grade carpet.

I am happy with the results and I know this will make it easier to get to the water now instead of having to borrow the wife's SUV every time I want to take the Kayak out, plus its a pain in the ASS to lift the Kayak up on top of the car every time, it got old after a couple trips out..

So, here is to some more time on the water and less time transporting my Kayak! Thanks for reading my ramble! "FISH ON"