I have looked and looked repeatedly at kayak trailers on Google and every manufacturer there is. After checking prices and so forth I decided that I would build my own trailer and make it exactly the way it would work best for me and my wife on our kayaking trips. I located a 1972 Bass Boat trailer with boat still on it and picked it all up for 225.00. Boat was trash and trailer was in great shape just need new tires and maintenance pulled on axle spindles. I have been working on trailer for almost a year and finally took it on its maiden voyage to the Narrows of Harpeth outside of Dickson TN. The Trailer is 16' long and was the perfect set up for what I had envisioned as the "Perfect"
Kayak trailer upon completion. I widened trailer to be 7'6" wide and inserted floor frames to attach deck too. I installed tree to hold yaks and then went to tweeking the things that I thought would make it perfect. So I installed small LED lights in top of tree to light up the deck during the early morning hours of unloading and for the dusky dark evening loadings. I also installed a 25 gallon fresh water tank with 12 volt demand pump to wash off our gear or our selves if need be. On the 12 volt system I installed a RV Battery with a Solar Charger so that the battery is properly maintained even when not in use and reguardless of seasons. As long a sun is shining it is trickle charging the system. I inserted a full size truck bed tool box in rear of trailer thru the deck and a military grade water proof, air tight storage container for anything that we may need to protect from the environment on tongue of trailer. Trailer also has Fork Clamps for Bicycles and Ez-up Awning storage location. I am currently installing a 9KW generator on Trailer to power my camper in remote locations or for overnight stays on the road traveling to our destination. I attach trailer to rear of my Camper and tow triples and I am 4" shy of being 75' long when hooked up and read to roll. I will post some before and after pics later. Started this thread because I am so excited to have my trailer done and I just wanted to tell somebody and share my ideas that I used when making my trailer. Well I was gonna post a pic of the whole rig hooked up and can't figure out how to post a pic on here. Any info on how to do that please let me know.
To show photos you have to
use an image hosting site or your own web page, then provide the link in a Pnet post.
Gotcha
Thank you very much!
try Flickr
I have liked using the free Yahoo owned site Flickr for posting photos and using links to share them. Unlike most of the other photo sharing sites they don't bombard users and visitors with ads and pop-ups. Also very easy to upload and to tag your images on there. Like this album of instructional images I posted on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snapdoodlekid/albums/72157667706271353
TIP: when you cut and paste the link to your photo site, go in and delete the "s" from the "https" prefix. This makes the link more effective.
Love to see a pic
I’d love to see a picture of your trailer. I have a 9.5 X 6.5 all purpose trailer that use for my whitewater raft as well as hauling gear. I’d love to fit it out with something to make it kayak friendly as well. For my purposes, I’m thinking of just adding some cross bars to carry kayaks or canoes???
Pictures FINALLY!! Lol
http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/o701/Mayordick/image_zpsouq837hb.jpeg
What about cushioning?
While it isn’t as important for plastic boats, I find that possibly the one most important aspect of a proper trailer for composite boats is a nice soft and supportive rack system. Some dedicated kayak trailers do have very soft suspension systems with shock absorbers and that might be the best.
My trailer is a flatbed utility trailer and has a 3000 lb. capacity. I use the trailer for lots of different things, so for hauling kayaks my bunks have to provide the cushy ride. The bunks are very thickly wrapped with carpet padding then also wrapped with plush carpeting. This works well enough, but now and then there is a bump that makes me cringe. I’ve toyed with the idea of building a suspended wrack system, but I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.