The Maintenance and Restoration of your trailer should be as important as maintenance and restoration of your prized wooden boat.
I received this nice article from Riley Warddrip who you all know headed up our boat show tractor team forever. Riley and his team of volunteers have seen just about anything you could believe hauling a beautiful wood boat down the road, so it was fitting that Roger Winans a tractor team member shared his story with us.
It may be difficult to see everything Roger has accomplished during the restoration and update of the safety features on this neglected and rusty trailer but he wanted the trailer quality to be up to the same standard as his 22’ Sportsman that won him the John R deSausa award last year.
Some of the things Roger did during the restoration included:
Sand blasting the entire trailer removing all rust
Lengthened rear overhang
Lengthened the tongue
Welded additional steel supports
Moved the axels & fenders to the rear
Repositioned and added height to the front upright winch stand
Repainted top to bottom
Rewired and replaced trailer lights
Installed new brakes
Repositioned and replaced all new carpeted bunks
Redesigned centering guides
Installed diamond plate to walk ways & fenders
To see it today, you would think it’s now a new $8,000 trailer.
Perhaps the reason Roger took on this project has to do with the many years he has been a member and/or led the tractor team at the boat show. You would never believe how many $50,000 boats arrive on $500 trailers. I believe drawing attention to what can be done to an old trailer left outside might encourage our members to take another look at their own trailers. Maybe even before the boat show.