My Shasta Miniflyte build

[xddorox]

Just got my trailer today. It is a $150 old boat trailer. Job #1 today was to get the thing plated and dragged home. Not having a hitch on my car, my son's Camry was pressed into service to bring the base of our project home.

Here it is after making it to my driveway with no working lights and a busted leaf spring blade.





All charged up and ready to take on this new challenge!



Brought back to Earth real fast and reminded to get cracking on stripping this thing.



We got busy and got the rotting timber off pretty fast.



Here's the suspension on the left side with jerry rigged fixed suspension.



Here it is without the high tech repair hardware, pretty scary!



The trailer as it sits now. Next step is removing the suspension and axle, then go for paint.



Stay tuned.

Gerry

[xddorox]

Just to explain the name of the build, my parents had a Shasta Airflyte when I was a kid and I always loved that trailer with the paint scheme and the wings. In reality I'm building GregB's profile (somewhat) and I will be adding the paint scheme and wings to it. It will be 62 inches wide by 110 inches long.

Since it will be tiny, hence the name Miniflyte.

My inspiration



Gerry

[Juneaudave]

Nice start!!! Did you make up some drawings of the design you can share?

[Henderson]

WE WILL BE WATCHING

[xddorox]

:thumbsup: Nice start!!! Did you make up some drawings of the design you can share?

Not yet. I'm still in full negotiations with the boss...I mean my better half for exactly what she wants before I start even drawing the plan. That should finish tomorrow while I'm elbow deep in rust dust and black paint. Then we'll start drawing the plan.

[jkidd6339]

The boat on that trailer doesn't appear to be in very good shape. It has a hole in the bottom. Oh well put something new on the trailer.

[xddorox]

The boat on that trailer doesn't appear to be in very good shape. It has a hole in the bottom. Oh well put something new on the trailer.

Yep, that's the plan.

btw I have to trim the tongue on that frame. Is there a set standard for how long from the front of the trailer to the hitch it should be?

Thanks for any help.

Gerry

[GregB]

Hey I'm an inspiration!! Usually I'm just a bad example.

Here is how it is going to look.

[grizz]

Neato, and enjoy the build.

[xddorox]

Thanks for the support everyone. We managed to take off the axle yesterday with the help of some big tools and a lot of loosener. So for my $150 I am left with a frame, an axle, hubs, spindles and a rim. Everything else is junk but I'm still happy with my purchase.





Here's a rough rendering of what I'm aiming for. Excuse the simplicity, I'm teaching myself CAD for the first time. I'm a lot more agile around Photoshop.





Gerry

[parnold]

I like your design and color scheme. Cant' wait to watch this take shape!

[xddorox]

Here's the final temporary design. I guess I'll be playing some more with Sketch Up in the very near future.





Gerry

[GregB]

Yeah, baby! That is looking smooth.

Greg

[Cliffmeister2000]

Yours isn't the first trailer I've seen that used a piece of 4x4 to temporarily replace a broken leaf spring! Great ingenuity, for the short haul.

[xddorox]

Yours isn't the first trailer I've seen that used a piece of 4x4 to temporarily replace a broken leaf spring! Great ingenuity, for the short haul.

I'll have to quote my Son on this. He said it best when we barely made it home with that junk trailer: "Dad it was a lot of fun, let's not do that ever again!" Somehow I think we're not done with doing crazy stuff just yet.