In order to relocate the boat from Mystic, CT on Long Island sound to the eastern coast of Massachusetts, a trailer in working order was necessary. Mystic is a beautiful place rich in naval history, however it is almost 120 miles from home, and Cape Ann is much closer. Ever since her acquisition, I had planned that the maiden voyage of Copycat would consist of about 150 miles at sustained highway speed so it was important to have a sound and sturdy trailer with an axle, bearings, tires, coupler and safety chains in working order. It was important also to have working lights and to replace the most questionable u-bolts securing the frame
Mechanical work
A first part of a working trailer is a sound and sturdy coupler to connect to the pulling vehicle. The coupler that was installed had a 1992 date code and was covered with rust. While the rust didn’t seem to impair the structural integrity it is a simple part to replace. As shown in the photo below, an electric impact gets the job done to remove the rusted bolts. In a couple of minute, a new coupler and safety chains can be secured to the trailer frame.
While not strictly necessary for this first trip, I chose to replace the axle. Mainly because the old one had rusted brake flanges and I had planned to install some eventually. Since I was replacing the bearings, I might as well do the work properly and only once.
The old axle is shown below, in the first view: an electric ratchet easily removes the u-bolts securing the axle to the spring. Once removed and the axle out of the way, the spring can be removed. The old springs were rated for a much larger load than necessary which provided a much rougher ride than it should have been, I downsized by one notch. Once the spring was removed, the mounting points were reinforced with new u-bolts, and the spring bushing was lubricated with bearing grease. The new spring is then installed and the new axle is dropped on the spring perches.
Axle and spring removal and replacement in 6 steps
The new axle comes without the wheel hubs installed. New galvanized hubs were purchased separately and installed. The different steps are shown below: starting from a hub with bearing races installed, a pre-greased bearing in put in place, the rear seal in hammered in place with a rubber mallet, the axle spindle is greased and the hub is installed. The second bearing is then put in place and a thrust washer and castellated nut secures the assembly together. After tightening the nut fully and backing it off to be only finger tight, the nut is secured with a cotter pin. After that, grease was packed in the entire assembly by using the very convenient zerk fitting at the tip of the axle and the bearing area was closed off with a cover.
Bearing and hub installation on the newly installed axle in 8 steps.
The trailer frame is assembled using u-bolts. Most of them were in correct shape, however some them have started to rust — in particular near the tip. The nuts were sometimes so rusted that they barely secured anything together: this is bad for a road trip where the bump of the road can cause the small remaining amount of metal to yield and cause the frame to fall apart. It is impossible to remove those un destructively because the nut is basically gone and cannot be grabbed by a socket. The only way is to use a sawzall after clamping the pieces together: it is messy and noisy, but using the proper blades it works well. I tried using a bolt cutter, but in most cases there is not enough room for the jaws to make proper contact with the bolt shank.
How to remove a u-bolt where the nuts have rusted out? First secure the parts together with a clamp, then cut the bolt with a sawzall.
Electrical
The only electrical part of the trailer is a set of lights that need to be illuminated when the towing vehicle says so. I chose to install a 7-pins wiring harness connected to a junction box a shown below. A new set of wires was fished through the frame rails because some of the previously used wires that had been chewed up by rodent and were mostly gone. The wires were protected using a plastic wire looms in the vicinity of the frame to prevent the insulation from being worn through any rubbing action. After fiddling with the waterproof crimp connectors and ensuring proper ground continuity through the trailer frame, the lights turned on.
The tail lights were already the submersible LED kind but the side markers were missing. The wires for the side market were spliced from the tail light harness and brought forward. The mounting hole of the old side markers were enlarged to ¾ in diameter with a step drill bit and these grommet style front and rear side markers to be installed.
Finally because the trailer is more than 80 in wide, an ID light consisting off three separated LEDs was installed and spliced to the tail light harness.
Light installation: a 7 pins wiring harness to connect to the car, protective wire looms around frame entry point for the wiring. Fully operational tail lights and side markers.
Some cosmetic items still need to be addressed: the fenders are rusty, some bolts are rusted – but still solid. This will be dealt with later, the trailer is good to take the road!