SeaNova - Adventures of a Sedate Fellow 

I got the new axle prepped and both attached to the frame. Here’s what it looked like after I got the bunks reattached.

I was keen to get the boat off the blocks and back on the trailer. My wife thought the Danga looked precarious propped up on blocks like this. I guess I did too since I didn’t let any of the dogs set up camp in the shade under the boat…

Here I started the process of jacking up the boat and bringing the trailer back under the boat:

And here things are some 30 minutes later, sitting pretty and nicely balanced.

and you can see here that the rear spring is primarily compressed, confirming our speculation that the center of gravity was actually BEHIND the front axle and causing all sorts of trailer performance problems. Now the tongue weight is a respectable ~120 lbs, w/o the extra weight I had added to the front supports of the trailer….

All in all, I’m pleased that it has gone well. Now all I need is to tiddy up the lighting, reinstall the alignment runners and create a new fender for the tandem set…..

Well, the majority of the welding is done but I won’t quit my day job just yet. After picking up the tandem axle kit, the second axle, more springs & wheels, I got to work. Using the recommended spacing for the slightly larger springs listed in the documents provided by Six Robblees as a guide, I spaced out the hangers until the various angles and spaces were appropriate. I prepared the surfaces, clamped down the brackets and then started playing around with the welder. What a Gong Show! It took 45 minutes to find ‘a heat’ appropriate to lay down a bead. Once that was worked out, the actual welding went OK. Here’s an example…

Here’s the equalizer showing the linkage between the two springs:

Here’s what the four spring sets look like in the final layout:

I was able to re-use the steps that my father-in-law, Bob, had fashioned from strut, welding them to the stern, behind the second axle:

The last thing I did was to paint the undersides of things so that I can tie everything together tomorrow and get ready to flip the frame right-side-up.

The trailer has been a problem for some time. The poorly distributed weight in the boat (all in the stern - the fault of yours truly) puts the center of mass behind the trailer axle. This causes all sorts of trailering issues.

Not only that, the flattening of the springs to the stern brings the tires very close to the fender in the back of the wheel well. Any bump and it rubs. Worse than that if the trailer hits a pot hole the wheel shifts back, gets caught under the weight of the boat and rubs continuously against the fender. This make using the trailer a headache.

Not to mention that I need the trailer fixed so I can devote the garage to the car restoration…..

So I’ve decided to bite the bullet and fix the thing. After consulting w/ a number of folks (notably my neighbor Byron) I’ve decided to convert the trailer to a tandem axle. I’m heading off to the store tomorrow AM to get the parts and start the conversion. I’ve already taken the boat off the trailer, flipped the trailer onto a set of horses, removed all the hardware, and cut off the rear suspension hangers….

Pictures as soon as I can find the camera….