Trailer refurbish

[ski_king]

I plan on reworking my trailer this fall/winter. I plan to disassemble it, sandblast and repaint. I also plan to install new rails, carpet, jack, etc.

At one point I was considering doing it in the summer while I was on vacation, I could put the boat in the water, disassemble, prep the trailer and send it off to get painted. The problem with this idea is I don’t like the idea of leaving the boat in the water that long and I would be wasting my time working on the trailer when I should be skiing.

The idea of the fall/winter project makes more sense.

Now for the problem.

A friend told me it is a easy task to jack the boat up and pull the trailer out from underneath it. While lifting the back off the trailer and putting supports under it shouldn’t be to tough, but what about the front? If I could lift using the lifting ring that would be great, but the roof trusses in the garage I store it in won’t do.

Anybody have any ideas?

[east tx skier]

I've heard of setting it on a stack of old carpets or old tires, but I don't think I'd do it with my boat.

Redid the bunks, carbet, angle irons, R&R prop guard, primed and painted. Did it in early May. Put the boat in the water.

Short of that, I think the best idea I've heard is finding someone with a trailer that will fit your hull, who will let you borrow it for a couple of days or however long you need it.

Short of that, I'd put that expensive and somewhat delicate boat in the water or on a lift.

$.02

[bcampbe7]

Yeah, I was going to suggest finding a lift at a local marina to store it for a while. During the winter months it shouldn't be terribly expensive. The only problem would be the possibility of winterizing it while on the lift, at least getting all of the water out. I didn't look at your profile to see where you were located, but here in Tennessee you would be able to work on it for a while in the fall before it got close to freezing at night.

[bcampbe7]

OK, now I see you are in PA. I would say having it on a lift thru mid October would be fine. It looks like the average low in Oct is around 37 degrees F.

[ChuckD]

I was planning to refurbish my trailer as well. I am new to Mastercraft, as well to this forum... where would you buy matching paint, other than from MC?? (I recently bought a '88 PS190)

[ski_king]

Most any autobody supply store should be able to match the color.

[east tx skier]

I've got a white trailer. White rustoleum matched so closely that I can't tell what I painted and what I didn't paint.

[captkidd]

I posted this on the old site, but it would probably be hard to find. A friend of mine completely refurbed his trailer a few years ago, and they used two or three large floor jacks to lift the boat off the trailer (I assume they lifted the boat and then pulled the trailer forward until the jack got in the way, then used another jack to hold it while moving the first jack). Then they lowered the boat onto two very large blocks of styrofoam.

You can order the exact paint from your MC dealer. It comes in a spray can and costs about $29/can. I've used this for touchups and it works great; very high quality paint. For doing an entire trailer I would probably recommend going to an auto body supply store and buying some paint to match, assuming you have access to a sprayer, compressor, etc. I would also paint the fenders in order to make sure they match.

[BriEOD]

I'm with Doug, I found a gray Rustoleum that was so close to mine that I used that. I bought a few big roles of brown packing paper and taped off the boat. Then I sanded and painted while the boat sat on the trailer. As for the bunks, carpet well you would obviously have to get the boat off the trailer.

[Dan K]

I start sandblasting Friday, I'll let you guys know how it goes.
I bought 'chassis saver' paint to use as an undercoat. It is a very tough polyeurathane but must be sanded if not recoated with the final coat within 3-5 hours. So timing will be critical.