Mariner Trailer Replacement Time takes its toll on a boat trailer but there are great bargains to be had if you are patient and put in a little effort. My boats trailer had some issues although it was fundamentally sound it was wider than necessary, missing a fender and there were some minor issues with the frame. The springs on it were pretty old and although it did not ramp launch much in its lifetime they had failed once on the road. My original plan was to work on the trailer with new wheels and tires, new springs and replace the fender but in the end it still would have been a trailer with a broken nose wheel and pretty wide for trailering. It sat nicely on the rollers although a little high but I do prefer a bunk style trailer and considered replacing the rollers with bunks. The next challenge was how to do the work with the boat on the trailer. I restored a trailer on my last Mariner by putting the Mariner on a mooring for a few days which worked OK but put a lot of pressure on to get it done quickly so I decided to keep an eye out for a used trailer that I could fix up then swap and sell the old trailer.
I was fortunate to find a suitable trailer on craigslist that was located in NE Philadelphia. The price was where I wanted to be at $200 or less. When I arrived the roller elements were in very bad shape, heavily rusted and almost falling off. Not a problem as I did not plan on keeping them. One fender was dented and crushed down a bit. The trailer had a new nose wheel and bearing buddies so I figured the hubs were in good shape. The frame had almost no rust and the wheels were closer together. The trailer was also higher load rated then I needed and wanted to set the boat as low as possible to I replaced the 14 tires and wheels with smaller ones. That lowered the frame by about 2 but the fenders still sat up high and replacing them was cost prohibitive. I decided to pound out the dent in the damaged fender and had an idea to lower the existing fender by drilling new mounting holes in the back and lowering and stretching the fender to suit. It worked really nicely and I think looks great. With the wheels and fenders taken care of I put on the new bunk brackets with carpeted bunk boards. I used 2x6 boards to spread the load out as much as reasonable New Bunks New Wheels and Lower Fenders
With the structural work done I decided to paint using cold galvanizing compound, I had good experience with this in the past and it brought up a nice uniform appearance: The thought of a breakdown always scares me so I checked the hubs and bearings and they were good so the only other concern was the springs and hardware so I preplaced them. Corrosion causes pits, pits cause stress risers and stress risers make cracks so I figured it was money well spent.
The last step was to put the boat on the trailer; I added a roller from the old trailer to support the bow then adjusted the bunks to set the boat height above the fenders. I may add one more bunk down the center to support the centerboard when traveling to take the weight off the CB cable.
The final trailer strapped and ready to go The new trailer is narrower and the boat sits lower and is a little longer, not enough to make maneuvering difficult but it really goes down the highway nice. One of the primary goals was to end up with a sturdy trailer and spend as little as possible so I kept an eye out for deals and sold everything I could: Trailer $200 Bunks and Hardware $100 New Tires and wheels $65 New Springs and hardware $110 $475 Sold old rollers $30 Sold wheels $45 Sold old trailer $100 $175 Net Cost $300 Replace tires and wheels - Pre-Mounted Trailer Tire & Wheel Tire Size - 175/80D13 Center Bore - 3.19" Tire Weight Rating - 1360 Lbs Configuration - 5 Lug on 4.5" Tire Type - Bias Ply Load Range - C Center Color - White Tire Section Width - 175 Wheel Type : Steel Trailer Tire Aspect Ratio - 80 Tire Type : Bias Ply Trailer Rim Size - 13" Tire Use : DOT Approved Construction - Steel Offset - 0" Load Range : C Rim Style - White Spoke Number of Lugs : 5 Bolt Circle : 5-4.5" 2-Pack Trailer Wheel & Tire #425 ST175/80D13 175/80 D 13" LRC 5 Hole White Spoke by Kenda FREE Shipping, $65.21