When to replace/repair your trailer?

[Idiotfool]

I have a 26M with aluminum trailer and surge brakes. The brakes no longer activate and the steel tongue is pretty corroded. I recently made the mistake of trying to remove/clean the rust off the tongue and had a nightmare of a time trying to get it reinstalled onto the trailer. I only drive a short distance to the local marina to launch the boat and I think the tongue is good enough for another year or so, and I don't need the surge brakes for now, but I'm curious how others decide when they need (or needed) to repair or replace their trailer. How long would you let it go?

For any other 26M owners that did a repair - did you replace with a similar steel tongue or did you do something else to improve durability? Do you have brakes?

Thanks!

[C Buchs]

I was thinking about doing mine next year, but it turned out I should have done it last year.

Jeff

[Russ]

How much rust did you find on the tongue of the trailer? Inside?

Why was it hard to reinstall?

[Chumpy36]

It that the place (in the pic) where they tend to fail?

[Be Free]

It that the place (in the pic) where they tend to fail?

That area experiences a lot of strain. It is a common failure point.

Everyone with a steel tongue should give it the "hammer test" regularly. Tap the tongue with a hammer and investigate any areas where the sound changes. Rust on the inside will not show up visually until it is too late.

[C Buchs]

I had done the hammer test and thought I could get another season out of it. Luckily it failed at the ramp when we were taking the boat out of her slip on the Columbia River to spend the weekend on Swift Reservoir. I was able to put her back into the water and return her to her slip. I know that are several stories here about others who weren't so lucky. My niece's husband welded on a new tongue for me for $500. So I was lucky again!

My advice is, if you think it might need to be replaced, you should just do it!

Jeff

[Be Free]

Kinda like reefing.

[Chumpy36]

I'm trying to sort this myself. Here's my situation.

Trailer is the stock 26s trailer. main frames seem to be in good shape, tongue area seems decent and everything passes the hammer test. The worst looking part is the axle. It's got bubbled up paint etc and I feel like it must be rusting under it. It did make a 600 mile trip from florida but i prefer to have peach of mind so I want to do one of the following options....

1. When I put the boat in a yard to do the bottom job, I will take it to a trailer place, have them inspect and if ok, replace the axle (possible add another) or keep it and add another if they say it's worth keeping (unlikely), the new axle or axles will have electric brakes...

Remove the front surge master cylinder and run wiring for brakes and new LED lights. Sandblast and repaint as well.

2. Ditch the trailer and try to find a used boat trailer that will fit my needs (hopefully galvanized or aluminum) and then outfit as needed with bunks etc that will work with the 26s. Atlanta and area is lousy with used trailer and they can go for as little as 400-600$ for decent looking stuff.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

Thanks

[Idiotfool]

How much rust did you find on the tongue of the trailer? Inside?

Why was it hard to reinstall?

A lot of rust is present. Most is superficial surface rust, but I do have one hole that perforated through. The interior of the square tubing also had a fair amount of delamination rust.

It was hard to reinstall because of the surface rust and that the left and right aluminum beams did not sit flush. There are square aluminum "washers" adhered to the inside of the aluminum frame using 3M double sides tape (I think) and that failed, so I had to align 6 holes x 4 bolts. Sometimes i need to lift the tongue and sometimes lower it. Took a lot of brute force to get everything reassembled.

Will be planning a fix next year, for sure.

[Herschel]

I know with an aluminum trailer most of the discussion on this link will not apply, but for the remaining steel portion, you may find it informative especially the discussion around the use of POR15 rust sealant and preventative.
viewtopic.php?p=350988&hilit=por15#p350988