There has not been much progress on the Cobalt in the past 4 months as my screwed up finger and working 65 hours/week took most of my time. But now with the move to Louisiana coming up in a few weeks I needed to get the boat ready to move.
The first thing I needed to do was to see if there were leaks around the new gimbal housing I put on last fall. I backed it in the water slowly last week and it leaks unfortunately. It's somewhere up high on the drive as water didn't start coming in until the outdrive was almost completely submerged. Really disappointed as I'll have to take it off the boat. Grrrr.... The focus now is to get as much stuff back in the boat so I can transport it.
So I've been looking at Tow Away haulers at U-Ship. But I knew the trailer needed some attention to the running gear before it was going anywhere. I found a local trailer shop, got an estimate for new backing plates w/brakes (2), new hubs (2), all new bearings and a new actuator. He quoted his labor at a flat 4 hours, $240. It took him 10. For those of you that don't rinse your trailer after dunking in salt water you may need to re-think that practice. This trailer was used less than a dozen times in 20 years because the boat stayed in the water. But every time it was used it was dunked in salt water, never rinsed and then put back in the lot. The trailer repair guy had to use a torch to cut the backing plates from the axel. Everything was corroded....and the trailer was galvanized. But all is now good and I can spend this week getting it ready to go.
Once I get to Covington, LA to our new home I can get started on this project again. Now that I've retired, for a while, I hope to find the time to finish this project.
Shawn
The first thing I needed to do was to see if there were leaks around the new gimbal housing I put on last fall. I backed it in the water slowly last week and it leaks unfortunately. It's somewhere up high on the drive as water didn't start coming in until the outdrive was almost completely submerged. Really disappointed as I'll have to take it off the boat. Grrrr.... The focus now is to get as much stuff back in the boat so I can transport it.
So I've been looking at Tow Away haulers at U-Ship. But I knew the trailer needed some attention to the running gear before it was going anywhere. I found a local trailer shop, got an estimate for new backing plates w/brakes (2), new hubs (2), all new bearings and a new actuator. He quoted his labor at a flat 4 hours, $240. It took him 10. For those of you that don't rinse your trailer after dunking in salt water you may need to re-think that practice. This trailer was used less than a dozen times in 20 years because the boat stayed in the water. But every time it was used it was dunked in salt water, never rinsed and then put back in the lot. The trailer repair guy had to use a torch to cut the backing plates from the axel. Everything was corroded....and the trailer was galvanized. But all is now good and I can spend this week getting it ready to go.
Once I get to Covington, LA to our new home I can get started on this project again. Now that I've retired, for a while, I hope to find the time to finish this project.
Shawn
