Winter project: custom 2-place canoe trailer

[bredlo]

Hey all.

After borrowing a fellow member's trailer for our New Year's Day paddle, I was once again struck by how quick and fun it is to load/unload at waist height… which isn't the case when wrestling 70 lb. boats onto the roof of our SUV.

Keeping basic words of wisdom in mind (specifically that those ultra-light sports trailers may bounce our old, wooden boats to death) I located a great mid-1950's Tee-Nee trailer in nearby SE Wisconsin.

$100 worth of box-beam steel. Big, 50's bubble fenders. Suspension provided by both springs and shocks, the latter of which I'm guessing are to handle the heavier speedboats for which this trailer was designed.

My plan:
Strip it, have it powdercoated, rewire for new lights (including clearance teardrop lights on the fenders), and make the following alterations to suit our needs:

1. Fabricating a 5x8 (or so) steel platform with a low railing all around, so we can use this as a utility trailer. My wife is an interior designer, and it would be great for her to be able to deliver large furniture pieces to clients, for example.

2. Make the entire tongue adjustable: short in the utility configuration, long to accommodate 17'+ canoes, or remove altogether so we can store the trailer upright in the back of a garage.

3. Lastly, room for a pair of canoes, of course. Uprights to be removable, again for storage. Guessing hitch pins would be strong enough for both uprights and the tongue (which would have pins in two spaced holes at all time, for stability.

Thought I'd run this past you all first. Any cautionary tales… or improvements I should consider?

 

[pklonowski]

If you make the tongue removable for storage, just make two... one short for normal loads, one longer for canoes?

 

[Benson Gray]

You can see several similar examples at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?3485 for comparison. Your platform appears to be centered over the axle so you may want to move or extend it forward to avoid ever having negative tongue weight. You only have to tow a trailer this way at highway speeds once to know that it isn't fun or safe. You may also want to simply put stake pockets around the rail and build your superstructure(s) out of wood. This will probably save weight and money while adding flexibility. It may not be worth spending a lot of time or money making the tongue adjustable. I have both a short and a long tongue for my trailer but have never bothered to put the short one back on after I got the long one. The ability to tilt the bed has been a tremendous help when I'm using my trailer to haul heavy things other than canoes. I have also found that having a hand winch at the front of the platform often makes it much easier to load and secure things. Have fun,

Benson

 

[bredlo]

Good point Paul. I figured I'd have a hollow "tunnel" running under the bed, ending at the axle. Then simply move the tongue in or out depending on the length I want.
Currently it's a tilt-able trailer - so with a couple bolts removed, it sort of already does what I want.

 

[bredlo]

Great thread, Benson - hadn't seen it!
Good point on the neg tongue weight, hopefully that would've occurred to me by the time fabrication rolls around, but perhaps not.

 

[shelldrake]

Brad,

I'm wondering about your comment about the ultra-light trailers bouncing our old boats to death. If your trailer was designed for heavier speed boats, aren't you concerned about the suspension being too stiff for a much lighter load? I would think that lighter springs would flex and dissipate road impact better than heavier springs and a light load. I'm not expert..........just thinking out loud.

Matt

 

[bredlo]

Matt - definitely thinking about that, it's a great question.

I'll have to research the possibility of replacing the springs, or possibly getting shocks that you can "dial" into the ideal weight based on which function I'm using it for. I'm totally new to this area, so if others who've converted boat trailers in the past would like to weigh in, I'm happy to take advice.

I will say that as is, it was surprisingly springy when I put bounced my foot on it.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Just a couple of thoughts, if its straight now you might consider sleeving the tongue and leaving the basic frame alone to avoid knocking it out of square when you re-do it, especially if you arent taking it completely apart. You might want to consider building a box enclosure, perhaps with removable top rails should you wish to take 2 canoes, for one canoe the top of the box would suffice, then you can put gear in it as well. Moreover, given its age i would suggest changing all the hardware you can, to save finding a broken bolt or two on a long trip - we go down some gnarly 'roads' so it would be a good investment for all it will cost. Rust and age can weaken 50+ year old bolts significantly. I've had similar trailers with the transverse spring, its a good setup over coils imho, but welding on some tabs for shocks will do a lot to tame the bounce, especially the recoil. Those fenders are awesome.

 

[bredlo]

Andre - great suggestions, thanks. I hadn't given thought to the closed, lockable gear box idea.
Sleeving the tongue sounds wise also.