TexasKayakFisherman.com

So, I added a rack to my lil trailer today! Loving it so far.



I'll post finished pics tomorrow if rain allows!

4X4FOREVER wrote:My setup.


LINK To my kayak trailer build.

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 3&t=114720" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Beautiful

An update! Almost done!

It's going to be a work in progress. I am setting it up to carry two kayaks vs. carrying one on trailer, and one on the roof. Regardless of kayak I find the roof rack to be a pain - so I just installed these 2x4 cross bars and I am mounting the Malone J carriers onto it.

I got lucky and got this Harbor Freight boat trailer for $150.00. It's apparently an online only item, and someone had it returned to a store - so I walked in looking for a utility and got offered the boat trailer by the manager.

PWC trailer with upper bunk added. I store them this way with no hull distortion.

New to the forum! Thanks for the add. Picked up 4 yaks a couple weeks ago for me and the family. Picked up a 5x8 light duty utility trailer from Tractor Supply a couple days ago For $600. Looking to build a rack with a buddy this weekend At his welding shop. Can't seem to get pics to load currently. Will add some when I figure it out.

Final pic:

UPDATED PIC 4 aS i GO ILL UPDATE THIS POST OR i CAN ADD A NEW REPLY WHAT EVER THE MOD WANTS.


Here is my work in progress. Drove all over today looking for new hubs and tires. No luck if they had them in stock they had three prices on them. Thought I found great deal on amazon hubs $14.99 but shipping was like $17 each. Trying to keep this cheap as possible.

Bought this yesterday 17ft long, 5ft wide between fenders, steel boat trailer. Gave $300 for it.

Plans:
New tires/rims
Need one new hub so probably just do both.
The boat guides on back are coming off. Place lights on lower rear.
Took off all the rollers and winch. Have one more to go it is welded on.
Putting on a new tongue it has 1 7/8in changing to 2in.
Lights work but need work, bulb change on one.
Needs new safety chain.
add spare tire carrier and hoping to salvage one of the three tires and rims that came with it as a spare.
New paint
Was looking at a truck rack for second tier rack. But amazon wants more on shipping then the rack costs. So may have to go with unistrut or something else.

Speaking of unistrut it took me going to a lowes and two home depots before I found the stuff. Even one home depot store manager didnt know what I was talking about and we walked the whole store except electrical.LOL Took the guy at lowes to tell me where it was at home depot.LOL








UPDATE 2

Today I sanded/primed some of the spots where I took off the rollers and winch. Sorta got happy with the primer used the whole can. Painted the axle and springs with truck bedliner. Picked up two hubs from academy, $34.99. Decided to change from 4 lugs to the 5 lugs. Was going to get the 530/12 tires white rims $47 with 20% coupon from Harbor freight but the 20% coupon only covered one tire. SO I guess Ill order from ebay. They wouldnt let me buy one tire at a time and do multi trips. They use too.

I will use unistrut for the lower rack I will come up about 4" from main frame just about a 1" above the fenders because I need 62 inch for two kayaks more really because that is with them touching side by side, moken 12.5 32"Width and dicks F&S talon 30"width. Really want to use the truck rack for the upper rack but the way they bend in may not work with the bottom rack with kayaks on. Still exploring that issue.

So far $$$
Trailer $300
hubs $78
paint/primer/ 1 10ft unistrut & 1 1ft unistrut $39






UPDATE 3

Bought 2 530/12 5 lug 6ply tire rim combo at HF $102
Bought a new 2in ball 3" channel hitch at HF $13
Bought unistrut, connecters, bolts nits, primer and plasti dip paint for rims. $86

Finished priming the trailer got the lights off and after inspecting the wire going to just redo the whole set up.

SO far I am up to $618 plus alot of cussing and elbow grease on my part.

That trailer is going to be perfect.

I got an LED set of lights at etrailer.com that work great and it's a good idea you're using a center light. We didn't but just ordered it the other day.

For unistrut you might ask a buddy in construction if he could get you some. We use a lot of it in some MEP trades...especially hvac.

Tim

Update 4

Decided I would put one kayak on the trailer frame using the 2.5 in conduit it will be attached in the front and rear beams of the trailer it is clearing the center beams by a couple inches. The pics is just a mock up plan on cutting the pvc back to fit the beams. I will come up about 15 inches above the frame for the second level. I have all my unistrut cut returning the bolts decided u bolts would be better. Going to use 2.5 in conduit for the field/stream talon and the moken 12.5.

Tried to find the black pvc but all they had was 3 and 4 inch which is way to big. In fact my moken probably would sit better on the 2 in. Plus that black pvc is 3 times the price of the conduit.

I m around $700 right now but i do have some stuff to return so should be around $650. Hoping my spring issue doesnt require new springs.

I would be thru by now if it wasnt for the incompetent idots you have to deal with in stores and businesses these days.

My neighbor is lazy so I gave up on him doing my metal work. The fab shop wanted $120 for a 15 minute job. SO I said F' em all. I bought a $14.99 grinder and some cut of wheels and sanding wheels at Harbor freight. Did it my self took about 3 hrs but that is because I had to let the cheapo grinder cool down alot. Got the boat guides (see above pics) cut off sanded down primed and the new hitch on.

All I need now is to bolt on the uni strut and the PVC bunks.. This is where I am running into trouble the trailer frame is made out of 3.5 in steel. They only make sq u bolts in widths 2', 2.5",3", and 4", Every damn size except for what I need. any suggestions on where to get 3.5in width u bolts? I have already tried every hardware store, lowes, home depot, fasten all, and the fab shop with no luck.

Ill post more pics once I get the uni strut on.

Ok here is the last mock up still need to cut the pvc to length, paint., run the new lights. Hopefully have it completed tomorrow. As of today I have around $680 total in the project including paint not counting the gas for numerous trips to town. I could have done it cheaper. I could have simply left the hubs alone and ran them to they broke that would have saved another $70. Could have saved the lights an that would have saved another $25. I did screw up a couple things which cost me around $25 or so. But as of now everything from frame up is brand new.

I will run it for three kayaks most of the time but can easily fit 4. One with J rack maybe even 2 with J rack depending on how much rail space they take up.

Finished!!! Well almost still have to wire up the lights, put the tag on and bolt on 4 brackets had to design my own u bolts. I will finish it on Saturday. But here is the final version. I just did a rattle can paint job. They wanted over $200 for automotive paint 3qts so I went with Brilliant metallic blue rustoleum and one coat of clear coat. I have right at $ 700 in the trailer total.

OK- need a little help here... After following this thread for years I finally decided to jump in on the Harbor Freight 48" trailer. I plan to carry a 14' Big Tuna and a 12' Cuda (plus maybe 1 more).

Questions that I have are mostly around the tongue extension.

-I'm assuming you remove the factory tongue and replace it completely or is there a coupling between factory and extension?
-Do you Where do you normally buy 2" square tubing?
-What material- steel, aluminum?

I finally found a metal dealer that does but I don't know what gauge or thickness I need to buy. Additionally I'm trying to figure out how long to buy it. I'm guessing that a min of 2' and maybe as much as 4' will be under the trailer. I'd like to minimize the back end hang off of the bigger boat (3'-4 maybe?) and I'm thinking of putting a support off of the tongue between the trailer and the truck. So... 10'? 12'?

I would appreciate your insights!

Thanks in advance!
David

Newt556 wrote:I would be thru by now if it wasnt for the incompetent idots you have to deal with in stores and businesses these days.

My neighbor is lazy so I gave up on him doing my metal work. The fab shop wanted $120 for a 15 minute job. SO I said F' em all. I bought a $14.99 grinder and some cut of wheels and sanding wheels at Harbor freight. Did it my self took about 3 hrs but that is because I had to let the cheapo grinder cool down alot. Got the boat guides (see above pics) cut off sanded down primed and the new hitch on.

All I need now is to bolt on the uni strut and the PVC bunks.. This is where I am running into trouble the trailer frame is made out of 3.5 in steel. They only make sq u bolts in widths 2', 2.5",3", and 4", Every damn size except for what I need. any suggestions on where to get 3.5in width u bolts? I have already tried every hardware store, lowes, home depot, fasten all, and the fab shop with no luck.

Ill post more pics once I get the uni strut on.

Newt, I got some of the large U Bolts for my unistrut at a hardware/lumber yard called Woodsons. they have a location in Lexington Texas and another one in Caldwell. There may be some other locations. Not square but they worked good on my trailer and held the unistrut just fine. The large U shaped ones may work for what you want. Good job on the trailer build

Duplicate.

Duplicate

Duplicate post.

Hey everyone, long time lurker, first time poster. Apologies to the mods for the quadruple post...didn't realize each post needed to be approved, so I kept clicking "submit" thinking the problem was on my end lol.

Earlier this year I picked up a PA12 and spent a total of 3 weekends car-topping it before admitting that it was too burdensome. I've been kayaking in some form or another for more than a decade, but white water kayaks are a fraction of the weight of the PA12. Anyways...

Shout out to G-man, who answered my PMs when I was asking for details.

Base trailer


New tongue. This was probably overkill...12 feet of 3/16 in steel. The tongue extends 8 feet from the front of the trailer.


Cutting the tongue and crossmember down to size.


Coating with bedliner.


Installing tongue and coupler. I used all grade 8 hardware for this install. Once again, probably overkill, but if I build anything that will go 70mph on the highway, it's going to be overbuilt.


Installing 3" UV resistant PVC pipe attached to unistrut (credit goes to Mofishaker for this).


Final picture. Sorry. Started raining.


End result: the trailer fits the kayak like a glove. It no longer requires a feat of strength and/or dexterity to awkwardly perch the yak on top of my car.

A couple points: I intentionally left the yak close to the ground so that there's very little lifting necessary. Also, I put a pressure-treated deck on the trailer for storage and easy tie-down access.

There were two big unexpected expenses incurred while putting the trailer together. First, Virginia charged about $150 for titling and permanent registration of the trailer. Yikes. If I would have looked that up ahead of time, I might have just purchased a better trailer off the bat, but I suppose that's a fixed cost. Second, the new tongue cost about $60. If I had a background in engineering, I'd double check to see whether 3/16 was necessary. The tongue alone weighs almost as much as the rest of the trailer.

$140 for the trailer (Harbor Freight)
$150 to title/register (Virginia DMV)
$60 steel beam (BMG Metals)
$20 for unistrut (Home Depot)
$20 lumber (Home Depot)
$20 in bedliner spray paint (Home Depot)
$15 in grade 8 hardware (Tractor Supply Company)
$10 trailer wiring extension (Tractor Supply Company)

From hardware store to the launch point, this thing ran about $435. It took a whole weekend to build, in part due to trips back-and-forth between the home and the hardware store. It works extremely well--as well as I could have hoped for. In hindsight, I might have looked harder on CL for something similar for less than $285. All in all, it's a great piece of hardware and I'm looking forward to using it.

dmorgantx wrote: -I'm assuming you remove the factory tongue and replace it completely or is there a coupling between factory and extension?
-Do you Where do you normally buy 2" square tubing?
-What material- steel, aluminum?

I finally found a metal dealer that does but I don't know what gauge or thickness I need to buy. Additionally I'm trying to figure out how long to buy it. I'm guessing that a min of 2' and maybe as much as 4' will be under the trailer. I'd like to minimize the back end hang off of the bigger boat (3'-4 maybe?) and I'm thinking of putting a support off of the tongue between the trailer and the truck. So... 10'? 12'?

Assuming you're talking about the 870lb HF trailer, I have some insight on this. Just completed my mods last weekend.

1. Yes, remove the original tongue.
2. I believe you want 2.5" rather than 2". This can be purchased from a steel supplier. There's usually a couple of these in every big town.
3. I used A500 steel, 3/16in thick. This was probably overkill. The thickness/material type largely depends on how long you'll be extending the trailer. I think aluminum will be much more expensive, but probably lighter and more corrosion resistant.

I ran the tongue across the entire trailer (4') rather than just half like the manufacturer did. This will make the trailer more sturdy and also offset some of the tongue weight, since the trailer is now very front heavy due to the extension.

I just finished a trailer a month or so ago and I love it. But yesterday at work a guy tells me I can have an old trailer of his and I can't say no to anything free.
I think this new trailer has a bunch of potential (I think all junk has potential lol). We shall she, I may be selling the old trailer if it works the way i'm thinking.
It definitely needs to be cleaned up and painted but I'm excited to fix it up. Let me know what you think

After looking at every single picture, post and idea in this long post, I've finally built mine. Started off as a new Magic Tilt 13' PWC trailer....$385 off of Craigslist. Used 1 foot lengths of SuperStrut for the uprights, Malone round bar clamps, 58" Yakima crossbars and 2 sets of Yakima Jaylows. It holds 1-4 kayaks easily. Can't believe how easy it went together, and more importantly, how well it tows. It's a little tongue light to make it easier to maneuver in tight places.

Can't remember if I've posted my latest trailer. Built from scratch. Rolls on 31-10.5's.

The rack will hold 4 boats, and pops off to haul a four wheeler. Few other add ons.....

Can't remember if I've posted my latest trailer. Built from scratch. Rolls on 31-10.5's.

The rack will hold 4 boats, and pops off to haul a four wheeler. Few other add ons.....