Dual axle Ramlin trailer rehab

Thought I'd post photos of this project now that it's nearly finished. When I bought the boat last year, the trailer was original in every sense. Hadn't been pulled much, spent a lot of time sitting. Decent amount of rust - most notably, the front curved fenders were completely rotted out. The rear fenders badly pitted but solid, otherwise scattered surface rust. Every component of the braking system was shot, the brakes lines fell apart in my hands as I removed them. Tires were fortunately new (a condition of sale), but the hubs, bearings, drums etc were all worn to pieces. Tongue / brake actuator included. Of course, all of the plywood was disintegrating.

In short: I had a pretty solid trailer frame surrounded by literally everything else but the tires in disrepair.

So...

1. Body / fenders.
Figured this was an easy place to start. Removed all the old plywood. My plan was to use the original stuff to template some new plywood, but that fell apart (literally). The old stuff just disintegrated at the lightest touch, so it was unreliable. A lot of trial and error here with cardboard/plywood to cut out new stuff (kinda tricky as the trailer frame curves gently). But in general, pretty straightforward and plenty of info on the forums, so not a lot of pictures here...

Removing the old stuff...



Installing and shaping the new... (1/2" ply - chose not to water protect it, wanted to keep this cheap, boat stays covered).


I decided to use cheap-ass home depot outdoor carpet for this. Not available in black, so went with gray. It's not perfect, but again... it's cheap. If I have more time in the future, I might replace this all with diamond plate anyway.

Very simple to wrap the carpet over the new plywood, and keep in place with glue / staples. Broke out the air-powered stapler for this which made it a breeze.



The fenders were beyond repair... Rusted out cosmetically and structurally. Had to be replaced to secure the steps back safely / properly. Fortunately, my buddy with engineering / welding skills and equipment came to the rescue. Spent the better part of a day grinding away as much rust as we could, then cutting / shaping / welding new steel fenders (I purchased a 12' section of 4" steel for this part).

Primed / painted the new fenders and went around the whole trailer and spot ground / primed / painted various other rough areas that needed the attention.

The equivalent fenders on the rear are severely pitted out, but structurally sound. I elected to just touch those up for now - applied a coating of POR-15 and then primed/painted. No rust anymore, but they look like total garbage up close. Maybe I'll replace them at some point, I don't know.

Also did the crash pads with this which was pretty straightforward.

Bought new stainless bolts / washers / lock nuts to secure everything (mcmaster).



2. Brakes. Ugh.
Decided that I didn't want / need a brake on each wheel. I had been trailering with zero brakes without issues, and these boats can easily be towed on a single axle trailer, so decided to simplify things and just replace the brakes on one axle (the front). On the rear axle I installed idler hubs.

Some photos showing the process. All stuff purchased from etrailer, including pre-bearing'd / greased idler hubs, 10" drum brakes (same as the ones that were on before). Also bought / flared new NiCopp lines, fittings, and flex hoses. Slightly modified the existing brake line routing for the sake of simplicity. Seems to work OK. This entire process was pretty miserable as everything on there was disintegrating and a pain to remove and then replace.

The wheels were caked in grease that had spewed out at some point - just cleaning them up revealed that they're in fantastic condition, and makes the trailer look so much better.

I had to pick up some tools for this - brake line flare tool, and a new fitting for the Motiv power bleeder. Overall worked out OK. The brakes seems to work well, and not losing brake fluid.

The new brake actuator was basically plug and play and works great.





3. Wiring / lights.

Decided just to r/r everything. Bought some basic submersible LED's from etrailer, and a new trailer wiring harness also from etrailer.

No pics of this process - it's boring and easy, just used the existing wiring to pull the new wiring through. Used heat-shrink butt connectors for everything. Pretty straightforward.

4. Bunks.
I may have to come back to these at some point. Didn't have the time or stamina to replace these. They're solid, no rot, and still held down well so just decided to put some new carpet on them and leave them alone. A couple of the screws were starting to loosen a bit so I'm sure I'll be circling back to replace the wood and secure it better in the next year or two. I'm also not totally happy with how the carpet looks (not long enough to put one run so has a seam in the middle), but it'll work for now. It is two layers of carpet for extra padding.

So that's about it. Here are the final pics... Bought some new guide covers from CCFan to top it off (only came with one that was competely faded).

Picked up the boat today and with the new hubs / bearings/ brakes it pulls noticeably smoother, and it does feel nice to have working brakes!

Great Job!   My trailer needs the same treatment.   Don't suppose you travel ...?    

gt40KS wrote: Great Job!   My trailer needs the same treatment.   Don't suppose you travel ...?

I'd be down to help someone do this locally! But, no... not traveling haha

Trailer looks great! That's more effort than I've ever put into a trailer. I suspect you won't have to do another thing to it beyond greasing the bearings, before you sell it and buy a v-drive.

Not doing a very good job- here is one and you'll have 5K extra on hand

vdrive link

Disc would have been less work and less maintenance later I have done 2 trailers in the last year with Kodiak integral hub style , sure you have to change coupler but in both cases lines were already bad. it wasn't that much more considering the braking is far superior and not catchy

Did you seam plywood on side or get a 10' piece?

The smoothness braking is so much better after having it both ways. the cost and longevity will far outweigh. and bearing repack is much quicker for next year. It was really a bolt up deal fit really nice. probably saved 10lb a side..

Just so you know your way above a 3500lb braking with only using one axle so you may have some heat issues in the summer if you have some hills there in thats why they have both axles for 7000lb of coverage for braking. Better some than none though I guess

Thanks for the plywood info thats what I though when no one really had 10' available last thing on my list.

DockDoc wrote: rosconole wrote: The smoothness braking is so much better after having it both ways. the cost and longevity will far outweigh. and bearing repack is much quicker for next year. It was really a bolt up deal fit really nice. probably saved 10lb a side.. Just so you know your way above a 3500lb braking with only using one axle so you may have some heat issues in the summer if you have some hills there in thats why they have both axles for 7000lb of coverage for braking. Better some than none though I guess Thanks for the plywood info thats what I though when no one really had 10' available last thing on my list. May be right, but after trailering 40 miles with the boat, felt totally smooth so far and no heat buildup. So we'll see. Not going to switch now. I could find no legitimate reason to put brakes on the other axle. You could easily trailer this boat with a single axle trailer so why should it require 4 brakes?

Tyler, never mind the “whatcha should’ve done” crap. Your brake setup is spot on and what I would’ve done. I failed to see logic of how it makes bearing maintenance easier or whatever. I had a 23’ offshore boat with 4 wheel drums that I converted over to disk. I hated it with disks. Too much brakes for the load and way to grabby plus the backing up issue. My current single axle Ramlin with new drum brakes and actuator does the job right and smooth. But then again I’m another idiot running gt40p heads.

Doesn’t matter -none of you guys tow anywhere anyway......

over 1000 miles a year on the trailer, we all don't go to the same lake everytime lol.

Pete

You towing a boat without a trailer again ? probably close to 4000 with fuel. and gear.

Gary S wrote: Not doing a very good job- here is one and you'll have 5K extra on hand vdrive link

Well you snooze you loose-   Excel link

Gary S wrote: Gary S wrote: Not doing a very good job- here is one and you'll have 5K extra on hand vdrive link Well you snooze you loose-   Excel link

Must have missed that post before. Did that really sell for $5k? The open bow Excel was the unicorn I was looking for last year.

Hard to feel too badly about it... that boat needs some love (did they mount that tower backwards?) that I don't have time for, and I was going insane waiting around for a reasonably priced v-drive. Someday... after I've thoroughly vetted this sport nautique.

stepper459 wrote: None other than Jeff Carroll himself. Most people are not as well equipped to get that boat back to good working condition. He should make a nice turnaround on that boat.

It's cool I'm used to being told I'm not well equipped