Express 27 trailer rebuild

When I purchased Kincora I placed the trailer value at $800 which I think was accurate.  Knowing the trailer was rusted and would need a lot of work to be safe an pass my road worthy inspection.

Before the trailer could be rebuilt I needed to get it home from Maine with the boat. This required the brakes to be removed, which the previous owner kindly set up with the local garage along with a few quick fixes.  The brake lines had been cut an I feared going down Rt. 95 and having the brakes seize up would be a mess.  Also the axle was badly rusted but that was a risk I needed to take on this one trip home.

One positive is the newer LED lights were working and the trailer is one of the original Express 27 Trailrite built for the boat, so she fit well.  It did have some original design flaws with longitudinal stiffness.  When the boat was lifted off, the back of the trailer flexed came back up 1-1/2″ which I knew I had to fix.

One last item for the ride back to Rhode Island was a spare rim an tire, so I purchased one in Bangor Maine at the start of the drive.

At 2400 lbs displacement plus trailer around 900 lbs my Tundra had an easy time towing the load, and the trailer tracked well.  You have to love a great open water boat that you can put on a trailer an easily drive home with a normal pick up and no wide load.  Thanks Carl Schumacher.

Once home and free of the boat the work started on the trailer.  First on my list was to take the trailer to Santos welding.  Bill Santos has been welding for Carol and me for years, with lots of trailer work an some custom parts for my helicopter filming kit.  Great guy to have do the work an Bill prefers if I work along side him, which is great fun.  He is talented an a very hard worker which I appreciate.

On my first visit we designed the changes consisting of the following changes and ordered the parts.
To stiffen the frame and remove the flex aft along with the twisting.  We did with a 6″x 2-1/2″ steel channel running from the forward cross brace to the back of the trailer.  This keel pad and  brace had to be notched over the new back axle.

Yes, I went from single to double axle, not due to weight but ride and safety.  One blow out an I could loose the boat.  I have driven across the country towing about a 15 times an more then 30 times up an down the East coast.  Blowouts happen.

Another nice stiffening feature Bill designed into the trailer is the dual axle frame so it stands on its own an moves as a unit.  This contributes to the trailers stiffness by moving the axle frame back by 30″ and spreading the two axle loads over 6′ which reduces the cantilevered load on the frame .

The axles are Dexter Torque Flex so there are no springs.  Bill also talked me into these and it did not take much persuasion.  I had owned a Torque Flex axle an knew it was a soft ride.  So now I have four wheel independent suspension an also four wheel hydraulic disk brakes running to a new surge tongue.  It is now a soft ride and stops well not burning out the Tundra brakes.

A few finishing touches included new dual fenders welded to the axle frame, which still need stiffing to be stronger steps.  And new Brownell TLC stand pads that do a great job draining the water while not marking the 1500 grit wet sanded and burnished bottom finish.

Once the welding fabrication work was completed, I took the trailer to my buddies (Jibe Tech, Andrew Pimental) shop so I could paint it.  After a full day of wire brushing and sanding with a wire wheel and by hand the trailer was ready for a good wipe down.

The next day starting early painting three coats of primer, then three coats of flat black paint.

When I pulled it out of the shop the next day she looked new.  Once home an array of reflective stickers which are worth every penny were added to the frame. Think of the nights when you are driving an the first thing you see are the trucks reflectors before the truck.  They work great on trailers and are a must in my opinion.

So Kincora has a new pimped ride for close to half the price of a new trailer.

Trailer value at purchase.            = $800
Materials to rebuild the trailer   = $2,000
Labor not including mine.          = $750
Total.                                               = $3,550
Estimate for new trailer
Spec’s the same as rebuild          = $6,900

Here is a short video with Kincora on the finished trailer for the first time.