Re: New member, about to buy a Z202...
 

Well guys, I'm getting closer! A couple of days ago, I bought a junk boat and trailer for $800. I sold the boat to the Marina for $350 for basically just the engine. Now I have a dual axle trailer for $450! Of course it needs work. I'm a little worried about the max weight of the trailer. The tires are rated at 1045lbs each. I'm going to pull the bearings and see what size they are. There are charts on Iboats that'll tell me the gross weight of each axle. It does have surge brakes on one axle. The tires are 12", a little small, but I think they will be OK.

Here's the boat:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...-32-42_894.jpg

Here's the trailer:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...-19-41_867.jpg

I've got some work to do. I'm going to get new wheels and tires, brakes, new rollers, recover the bunks, new wiring and LED lights, winch is OK, just needs a new strap. I'm also going to paint the trailer.

I want to replace the winch mount. It's ugly as hell. I'm hoping to be able to find a universal mount for cheap.

I figure I'm going to have about $1200 tops into this trailer total. I figure it's not bad considering the best I was able to do was $1200 for a trailer that needed about the same work this one needs.

The marina told me I should lower the bottom rollers, and move the outside bunks inward by several inches. That should get it close to the shape of the Mariah, then they will make the final adjustments when they lower the Mariah onto the trailer.

The marina is getting ready for a boat show and doesn't have time to go through the Mariah and service it for me before I buy it. That's fine though, they took the old boat as a deposit, and he isn't advertising it anymore. This will give me time to fix up the trailer.

I figure I'll have this trailer as good as new, and it'll be good to go for many years to come. I'm planning on taking the boat to Charlotte several times, 3.5 hours of highway, so I want this trailer reliable and safe.

I'll keep one of my old wheels and tires as a spare, try to sell the rest for $25 or something.

I figure I'll have about $8300 into the boat and the fixed up trailer. That's not bad considering the trailer is going to be practically brand new.

I'm getting closer to being a Mariah owner!

Steve