#2 trailer work

Thanks Marty,today I feel as good as before I went in. I would think that stuff would be too slippery,the carpet also keeps the the boat in place

Gary S wrote: That does look good,however I just got home Tuesday from having a stint put in. My primary doctor talked me into going to have my heart checked I guess due to family history and age. That part was all out of pocket,cost me about 800,so in the past I was reluctant. I have felt fine,no symptoms etc but it turns out I had an artery 75% clogged. Supposed to take it real easy until Monday. Thanks for the axle info Tim. I assume that spring perch is off when you buy it o that you can weld it on where you need it?

Gary, I'm so glad you caught it during a check up. I hope you are doing well. I suggest to everyone that they get check ups even if they feel fine. $800 is a small price to pay for your health and some are lucky enough to have it covered by insurance and still don't do it. 3 years ago I had a heart attack and really had no indication of a problem before hand. I had ridden a 60 mile bike ride 2 weeks before without problems. I now have two stents and the blood flows backwards through one of my primary arteries. Im now on meds for it and feel pretty good, it's still pumping like a Jabsco.
Give me a call for lunch sometime, maybe a nice salad for the two of us.

Gary S wrote: but it turns out I had an artery 75% clogged. Supposed to take it real easy until Monday.

Gary,
Best wishes from the Brainard family. You'll be fine - You're too tough from climbing all those poles before the buckets!!!

Gary, glad you caught it early and are on the mend! Hopefully Eric heeds your advice on those bacon egg and cheeses.

On the spring seats, I was actually able to specify everything with the trailer shop up front- so the kit came in ready to go. I just called and the axle brand is Tie Down... this looks to be our axle listed at Trailer Parts Depot. I am not sure if Tie Down will always weld the spring seats to your specs prior to shipping or if that was just the way our kit was ordered (my trailer shop got the kit through a company called Franklin... which I suspect may be the same company as trailerparts.com). I think most axles come in with the spring seats still needing to be welded on- and I was glad to avoid the hassle and expense of doing that, in this case.

TRBenj wrote: Sorry Eric, I know you have high standards when it comes to social media. Better?

I'd have intercourse with that sandwich it looks that good

You're a nerd Tim

The only thing I can add is in the picture of mine above you can see that the u bolts are heavier than the originals. My spring shop made them up while I waited,they already have them threaded and cut to different lenghts and bend them in a special fixture to fit your springs.
Someday I might upgrade the axle, Tim do you remember what brand it is? Since you did not want to change rims you are still using the 4 hole ones. Do the hubs still use the same size bearings?

This thread seems to be the best repository for #2 trailer info, so I will add a few things. As I mentioned a few pages ago, I replaced the running gear (axles/springs/hubs and all associated hardware) on 2 different '71 #2's a few years ago. I just recently did the same thing on a '70 #2 and rediscovered a few lessons that are probably worth recounting.

First, some measurements from the original components:
Axle length (hub face to hub face) = ~66-3/4"
Axle length (overall) = ~72" overall
Spring seat (center to center) dimension = ~55-1/16"
Springs: 30" long, 6-leaf
Spring u-bolts: 1/2", 1-7/8" (inside width) x 3-1/2" long
Shackles: 4-1/4" x 1-1/4", 1/4" thick, 3" hole center to hole center
Bushings: 1/2" ID, hat style (6 per side)
Shackle bolts: 1/2" x 3.5" long
Frame width at the fenders = ~59"
Fender width = 7-5/8"
Hubs = 4 lug (bolts)
Spindles = 1"
Bearings = L44643 (inner and outer)

Aside from the hubs/bearings/spindles, I can say that just about NOTHING on this trailer is "standard"! Either the trailer industry has changed a great deal in the last 40 years or CC just did things differently back then- or maybe a bit of both! A few examples:

- Axles and springs attach differently on these trailers compared to modern convention. U-bolts go in opposite directions, spring plates were welded to the axle instead of seats, etc. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Original (borrowed from Gary):



Standard convention:



That means that almost no one makes u-bolts that match the originals. I did find some that *might* work from Loadrite.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, the 30" double eye springs are also a little bit oddball due to their length. As Marty found, the ones from Surplus Unlimited appear to be about as close to a stock replacement as youre going to get. They have 5 leafs, the proper load capacity (1250 lbs) and also (which you cannot tell from the website) come with 1/2" bushings installed.

If youre wanting to upgrade shackles, bolts and bushings while trying to keep the rest of other components in place, the problem is that no one uses (or stocks) all of the 1/2 hardware you will need. Standard trailer stuff is all 9/16" now. As mentioned earlier, the hat bushings from eastern marine are a close match to the originals- though the OD of the bushing was a bit large and had to be filed down to fit the ID of my rear hangers. For the bolts, I would recommend picking something up from the hardware store or McMaster- no one I found sold the fluted/splined bolts purposely suited for this that are 1/2" diameter x 3.5" long.

The other option if you need to upgrade all of the shackle hardware is to convert to 9/16", which is now the industry standard. 3.5" shackle bolts are available (usually marked for "slipper" springs... 3" is the industry standard for eye springs). Hat bushings that take up the slop are not available though- so you need to buy some large OD, 9/16" bushings and cut them down to ~3/16" wide to take up the space left on either side of the springs. It was harder than I expected to find something that matched this description at a reasonable cost, but Eastern Marine has them.

As far as the axle goes, many options exist for "custom" lengths and spring seat dimensions. My local trailer shop quoted me a Dexter for ~$110. I ended up getting a full kit of a different brand, as the "stock" 67" hub face dimension seemed to work well for my #2. In replacing the axle, the "standard" u-bolt kits can be used, as shown in the picture above. Actually, the full kit included the axle with spring seats welded to our custom dimension, springs, hangers, bolts, shackles, hubs and bearings. For $240 including freight, this seemed like a very reasonable upgrade cost... and much easier than piecing together all of the hard to find pieces from multiple sources to band-aid the original set up. The only thing not included in the kit were the aforementioned bushings that needed to be cut down.

The entire reason for starting this whole adventure was the bent spindle we found under our Mustang... no shop would consider replacing/repairing it. We called every place in the phone book within a reasonable drive (both CT and MA) and came up empty. I need to get some "after" pics, but here is the "before", notice the positive camber:



The springs that came in the kit used the standard 9/16" bushings, so that is what we installed. They are only 3-leaf springs, but the load rating matches the rest of the hardware (2k lbs) so they work just fine- and gave us quite a boost from the saggy originals.

A few more tidbits:
-In attempting to avoid buying a new axle, I dug out the original axle from my '78 Ski Tique... and found out it had larger spindles than the earlier #2's! Not sure if the entire axle is rated for 3500 lbs, but it required the same hubs as the #3's and #4's (1-3/8" x 1-1/16"). No 4-lug hubs are available for this spindle size that I could find, so we abandoned that idea, not wanting to buy new wheels and tires.

-Original style couplers used on both #2's and #3's in the 60's and early 70's are still available from etrailer.

Bump for Newbies

Thanks Tim ! I looked - must have not overlooked it.

The reason was Saturday-- I winterized the 66. But first took it down to our yard waste facility about 1/2 mile from me-- weighed the truck and boat
6100 lbs total
3900 lbs truck

2200 lbs left then for boat and trailer
1600 lbs boat
450 lbs trailer
   
Got a full tank of fuel- 18 gallons
125 lbs of fuel ?
Battery in boat

So guess this is about right.

Funny thing though about this

We weighed the boat and tandem trailer back in the late 70's after we had the boat-- and it weighed
   2200 lbs !

Weight of the #2 CC Trailer is ???

Chris--Still having issues Driving the boat on the trailer. It keeps coming of the left side bunk, even though I'm trying to scoot over to the middle. Guess maybe that's why they're called "Float-On" trailers.

Just used to 30 years of driving up on that tandem trailer, putting the hook on it and driving out-All in less than 1 minute!!

Beautiful!!

How is the loading/unloading going?

13" wheels and tires on the #2 !

Monty, I bought my #2 from Al here on the site. When I picked it up he had re wired the whole thing and used silicone to keep the wires in the frame of the trailer. I have to say it's been pretty nice not to have to worry about them and it's all sealed up so no water can get to the connections. Pretty slick if you ask me.