Sailboat Trailer Build, Complete Steps S2-E79 

I never knew there were so many trailer construction guru’s in your audience! If it works for you, it’s a winner!

Finally! Someone who uses cutting oil when drilling steel/iron. I'm so tired of seeing WD40 used as a drilling or cutting lube.

Was not expecting the Easter Bunny to bring a new Art of Boat Building episode this morning! ⛵🐇🐣

Never heard about the drill bit thickness benefit of not being wider than the thickness of the material being drilled. I have experienced the affects often. ;-) Thank you for this trick. ⛵

Good Deal, that's probably the most beautifully welded boat trailer in the country!

Buddy, back in the day the western union splice was the first thing a wireman learned,cool. Those welds were art. Ya the trailer is going to get wet to the waterline I hope the tongue is long enough and the lights are perfect. I'm looking forward to seeing how the mast is cradled and if you are considering a cover of some sort. 👍 Bob keeps walking the walk 👍

Bob - your truck and trailer combo play a lovely Cello note at 31:13 😁

Robert, I do believe that your trailer will be submerged often enough, so making everything submersible is important. Great video Bob, and it is a beautiful design.

Great shout out to Chuck! I've been watching his channel for years. His haven build and yours were two very different ways to end up with almost the same thing. He muscled through it while you crafted artwork. And I deeply enjoyed watching both.

ATD = attention to detail (and action this day): this build has been a superb example. The workmanship has been exemplary and the end result is certainly beautiful.

Congratulations Bob! I wish you could see the big grin on my face from seeing the Haven on its beautiful new trailer ☺ Almost done now!

You may want to consider making a lifting bridle for the boat. At our club, all of the boats the size of your Haven are launched via dock cranes, and it’s a one man operation. I used to single hand my 16 ft sailboat that way, and launching via crane and lifting bridle was less wear and tear on the boat.

It’s all coming together. I’ve been watching since the beginning and have thoroughly enjoyed each episode. One thing I’ve been wondering about is how a carvel planked boat can be “trailerable”? The taking up of the planks could be as much as a week. Then plank shrinkage happens very quickly as the boat dries out on the trailer. I assume you’ll launch and come out of the water seasonally on a nearby body of water and not be going in and out multiple times at different locations. Can’t wait to see her in the water.

Those are some nice welds and the trailer looks great. I would suggest drilling some drain holes to prevent any standing water in the frame and rounding the trailing edge that the keel rests on. Another well thought out design. Well done.

Great video, again! Unless you cut out the bad parts, this went extremely well,lol. What a special moment it is when you lift her off the cradle and put her on the trailer. Congrats Bob. It is at least as big a moment as turning her over. I wish more people could experience the level of satisfaction and accomplishment that these projects bring. You are inspiring me to do some work on an old trailer frame that I have laying around. I’d bought an axle and wheels assembly some years ago. You’ve encouraged me to get that project rolling. Thanks for the shout out. Cheers, Chuck

Of course! Bob builds his own trailer! Another great video Bob!

Bob another fine piece of work. See you on the east coast soon! Off to see Steve and Arabella next weekend. Cheers Bill.

Really amazing work, Bob! The trailer looks fantastic! 😃 And finally the boat met one of its homes... Now it needs to meet the other one! The sea! Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

Trailer is very nice looking, they did a great job on it. The loading real well. I bet you can't wait to get her on the water.

Nice trailer design. Look forward to the launch.

It is beautiful Bob, when it was suspended in air I could begin to see her on the water. Very pretty!

I was hoping for a 100% cast brass trailer. Lol.

Nice job Bob!

Good looking trailer for a good looking boat. You deserve to take a lot of pride in each of them. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

Quedó muy bonito el remolque.Felicidades.

absolutely beautiful

Gorgeous!

A great looking trailer Bob!

The 'clips' are usually referred to as Adel clamps.

Lovely video and workmanship as usual, over here in Australia and NZ we use a lot of rollers on our trailers.

Beautiful trailer! Well done, sir.

Great job, and as always amazing quality and attention to detail.

I've built a boat but Bob's a bit more skilled. I was imagining doing this sort of video myself, and realized he'd left out one major thing: the cussing.

Great work as always. One thing you may want to consider is to swap out your tongue jack for a nose wheel. It makes it a lot easier on the back for moving around.

very cool tutorial on that. The only advice I have is to drill drain holes into the bottom of the adjustable support tubes. If they fill with water, they will quickly rust.

Hi Bob, The trailer looks great but please make sure you carry a spare tire. I have blown out a tire on the highway before and was very grateful to have a spare and tire jack.

Nice!

Beautiful! Nicely done! Happy sailing!

You’ve really surprised me Bob, I thought you would have got your trailer galvanised. My boat trailer and most others you see in Europe are nearly all galvanised. No more painting and just a quick wash off when you emerge from the sea.

As an electrician I have heard about western Union splices, but can’t use them because code requires all connections to be done with compression connectors. I never thought of using it on my trailer lights though. I’m always fighting corrosion with the aluminum but splices and ring terminals. I am going to try it now, but I think I will add some solder to it as well. By the way, you crimped your ring terminal wrong. The crimper jaws should squeeze the top and bottom together, not the sides.

Can’t wait to see it and you at Mystic. If you need a place to tuck in for a night, I’m one hour west of Mystic on RT 95.

Mais uma obra perfeita.

Spare wheel, safety chain from trailer to car tow bar!

Any concerns about the 90 degree corner of the keel support gouging the boat if you are not exactly centered while recovering the boat from the water?

Looks more than adequate, Bob. Having it welded professionally makes good sense, even though I have no doubt your skills would have been up to the task. Surprised to hear she's headed for the east coast. Are you moving?

Классный трейлер! Пора на воду)

Beautiful trailer! Three things I wanted to mention based on many years of experience with small sailboat trailers that may improve your experience over time. The first is the location of the tail lights. I realize you probably have them "outboard" for visibility, but they stick out so much that you are likely to gouge your thigh walking past it if not paying attention, especially with a rather sharp angle iron end. Also they hang out enough that they are likely to get broken even protected as you mention when the trailer is being moved around in a tight spot. Did you consider having them "inboard", essentially under the boat or at least putting some kind of padding on the end to protect your leg? I have a trailer with a similar set up at shin height and I finally cut them off and relocated inboard after whacking my shins for years. The second is consider having a direct ground wire instead of one that uses the trailer. My experience with these is they always fail due to corrosion (especially if launching in salt water) and it's so easy to knock the ground wire connection off with your chains etc when moving the trailer around. Also if you have a little rust on either the male of female part of the hitch the lights won't work well until it gets scraped off and may send you down a time sink tracing something that is really a simple ground issue. Not really a problem for a new trailer, but it doesn't take much time outside before it does become a problem. The last is now that you know where the bunks lay, you might want to alter them to fit smooth so you don't have a flat bunk on a round surface that might result in a flat spot. Hope these ideas help and really looking forward to seeing the launch. I have really enjoyed watching the series as I am partial to these kinds of boats having grown up MA near a large fleet of H 12-1/2s and my Dad had a Bullseye (the L Francis Herreshoff fiberglass version of the 12-1/2) for 60 years.

That's a solid trailer! With all the amazing detail in the boat building, I'm surprised you didn't form the HDPE around the channel. Some clamps, boards, and a heat gun, and it could be one piece. You could cover the upper edges and ends that way, too, as I'd be concerned with the boat yawing a bit on the water and the channel biting the keel when loading. Of course, you could always form some strips around the tops (or use some other soft product) later. If doing so with HDPE, I would overlap them over the inside liner pieces and plastic weld them at least at intervals to assist any adhesive. Hate to throw up something that seems like criticism on such an incredible build that I could never approach the quality of, so I hope this comes across more as suggestive and helpful in tone.

Please, where did you get the plans for the basic trailer? Thank-you.

Aren't you worried that the vibrations from driving are going to loosen the screws, especially the scaffolding supports?

Great build those folding rules Looks like you have an inside read Bummer that most that are sold are outside have about 7 From various companies Craftsman, stanley, Lufkin Milwaukee and Hultafurs Only the Milwaukee is inside The Stanley has the sliding inside extension Those and my folding 2 and 3 foot rules are what I use the most I use a tape measure a lot less And, the one I have has the Center point A guy that worked on the whaling ship the Morgan said he uses the 6 foot folding rule the most Since he seldom measured anything over 6 feet

What size tires did you go with? I have a similar trailer and feel my tires are undersized.

Boa tarde Bob. Fiz o meu atrelado da suspensão de um citoen 2 CV. Ao ver o seu, lembrei-me das voltas que dei para o construir.

Beautiful as usual Bob. Do you have any concerns about water getting trapped between the HDPE and the paint?

I hope the supports have drain holes in the bottoms

Surprised you do not seem to need indicator, reversing or perhaps fog lights on the trailer in the US. That would be necessary in Europe

Geez Bob…. A corded drill… is this the last one in captivity?😂

You should put drain holes some of the tubing.

Do boat trailers not have brakes?

No solder?

Why do you use 3 individual wire strands and not a single (shielded) cable with the three wires inside? And furthermore why don't you use (several) rollers underneath the keel but instead use a C-channel? And do I see it correctly that the stands are just held in place by gravity? Does that not become an issue when you drive around (on bumpy roads/potholes) without a load? Does your self-built trailer need to be checked/certified before using it on the road? This is very dependent on the country you live of course, here in The Netherlands you need to let it certified and approved by the government. Such a lose item that can fall out and is not secured would be for sure a failure-item on that check. In the EU in general it is not worth the effort to build yourself a trailer as you need all kind of approvals to use it on the road. Its better to buy a base trailer and modify it and let that modification be checked.

No concern that you’re gluing the HDPE to the paint and not directly to the steel?

I'm surprised you didn't solder the Western Union splices. Ignorance on my part?

Needs carpet on your pads. As is, they're going to scratch the paint.