Well, I started the (re)building of the trailer. After months of searching on the web and looking at every auction site in Holland I finally found something.
It was a double axel trailer with brakes. It used to be a boat trailer. The second axel was made out of a widened smaller axel (Brrrr, dangerous!). So this was the first thing to go.
Two hands full off all sorts of rollers where decorating the top, second to go !! The light bar at the back had seen better days and was used as battering ram, so it had to go too.
The little wheel at the front was broken and only the spindle was still there. Sorry had to go too!!
This left me with . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ok, one wheel of the removed axel was made spare and the little wheel at the front was bought new. I also moved the remaining axel a bit forward. That's why the wheel covers look a bit strange, there used to be two in there.
The size for the finished trailer must be: 6,35m X 2,29m (20'.8 X 7'.55)
The length is not a problem, but the width can not be wider, as I have red that I can not enter the UK if it is wider than 2.3 meter. I might go there once, so the tape-measure had to come out for a precise job.
I had to buy a ton of metal and a favour of my friend Maurits, the garage owner = WELDING
He did not do it and I had to brush up on my welding skills.
First all metal had to be cut. Than tack-welded in to place. This took almost a week. Next was welding it properly and rewiring the lights. The spray paint took me 5 cans of Hammerite (good stuff but expensive)
here it is half way done:
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I needed a lot of diagonal support, just to get triangles for stiffness. This is how that looks.
Now I still had to make the deck. That was easy. Throw the big boards on there, cut off the overhang, bolt it down and ready it is.
And here is the final result !
Well, final ?? nothing is final in the Hovercraft world!!
I decided to put the winch back on the trailer and that was the smartest thing I did in the last couple of years.
I was kind of optimistic not having a winch, thinking I could fly the craft on there.
Now I even bought an electric winch. This one will be detachable. I'll make a metal square pipe in the one with the hand operated winch and attach it to it. Pics when done OK??
To guide the craft onto the trailer I made 4 guiding poles they hook into holes 1/4 from the bottom of the pole and slide over a pin/bolt underneath. A PVC drainage pipe makes it a roller and guides the craft beautiful onto the trailer bed.
