New to me 176 coming home, trailer help

Hey guys,

I have lurked in the forum for a while, posting sparsely all while looking for some form of Correct Craft that will fit in my garage.

Played with the idea of restoring another , mustang or something along those lines. But I some how stumbled on my dream boat today and couldn't let this one pass me by. Nabbed a 1996 176 with 352 hours on the clock. Interior is near perfect, new 4 blade prop, new prop shaft, removable swim platform brackets and matching trailer. It's due for a oil change and I'm going to replace the impeller at the same time

I literally fell over when I saw it, they are hard to come by and was willing to travel 6-7 hours one way to get it. Thankfully it's less than two hours away.

I do need help on 4 things before I can fully enjoy the boat

1) swing away tongue for trailer. Boat on trailer total length is 21'7" with platform removed, my garage is 20' 7". What swingaway tongues do you recommend?
2) recommend oil type, I promise I will not install a Fram oil filter
3) impeller part number and where to buy it at
4) can anyone tell me how to knock this smile off my face?

Picking boat up Monday so I'll have some pics of it to upload then. Again thanks for all the help

Sounds like a great find. Can't wait to see the pics. Congrats!

75 Tique wrote: ETALLEN wrote: 4) can anyone tell me how to knock this smile off my face? Uh....no.

Nice!
I know I need to call but as a quick update....how are you liking the new ride?
Also....did your old boat sell?



john

I should have added, congrats on finding a clean 176! There has been a fair amount of 176 discussion on the site recently, very capable ski boats in a compact size.

Orlando76 wrote: ETALLEN wrote: 4) can anyone tell me how to knock this smile off my face? 1) Get married. Soon that boat will just be an old memory and a cursed item you pull out the garage once a year, vacuum the dust off then it goes back into garage for the next year.

But Todd, you could hide a nice 176 in that new green Shelterlogic!!

Well i got a chance to run up the highway 2 1/2 hours to get the boat yesterday. Water test was near perfect, ride back was great right up to 14 miles from home. Both wheel bearings went bad. Not a single store was open so i had to man up and drag it home, fingers crossed i didnt ruin the spindles.

First attempt at uploading pics in a very long time, sorry if they are done wrong.
As of right now i lack 4" to get the garage door to close with the boat backed in straight, angled will work until the Fulton SwingAway kit comes in.

I dont know if a John and Judy Hale of Kingston TN are members of CCF, they are the original owners of the boat.

Beautiful boat- congrats! Sorry to hear about the trailer mishap.

Wow, Sweet boat -- Welcome to team RED !!!   

Ahhh those trailer mishaps though.   I had issues with mine on the way home as well but it was the tires. Two blowouts within 100 miles ( I drove nearly 900 miles to get it). I had taken one brand new spare with me since the PO said it didn't come with one. After the first one blew I didn't feel safe continuing without another spare since we still had over 500 miles to go so we stopped at a Tractor Supply and picked up another. Good thing too because the second one blew not 50 miles later       
On the bright side once you get new hubs you'll know it's one thing you won't have to worry about for a long time

Congrats on the new boat though, she's a beauty!!

176s used to be considered pretty rare. As of late, you cant swing a dead cat without it hitting a thread, post, conversation or ad about a 176. I guess the word is out.

That one is in much better condition than the 176 i recently picked up. Hopefully you will be enjoying yours sooner than i will be enjoying mine.

Do you have the removable teal platform brackets?

Nice Looking Boat! Congratulations.
Looking at that trailer the tongue could be shortened about a foot. It looks like it was built for a longer boat.
I too like your color choice. Team Red. Get it out and enjoy.
Mark

Looking again at your pictures and how long your tongue is I think I would change it without adding the swing away.
On my car trailer I took a 3" square channel and welded about a 1' piece on top of my frame where I wanted to add a hydraulic brake actuator. Ran the hydraulic lines to match and was done in not much time. I added a 1/8 steel plate at the front of the trailer where I cut off the old hitch and used that piece to connect the old front to the new front.   Added another piece of 1/8" plate to close off the back side of the 3" square tube. It worked out great and looks good. I did have to get a new receiver with a 3" lift to offset the new addition.
There is plenty of room to do that on yours and I bet you would be shorter by almost 2' based on the pictures. The new hydraulic actuator is bolted on now for easy future replacement.

doubtful rewiring the whole garage is necessary. You can always rig something up easy.

ETALLEN wrote: Ha, your right. It would be fairly easy to get the welder fired up, I just don't need the neighborhood knowing that I can repair their mower deck at my house

That would help pay for the swing away