What a Day.
Started at 6am (first light) and it was a mess. My good deal has turned out to be lots of work.
First I installed all the lights, the foot, the fenders and the 2" coupler.
Don was here at 7:30 ready to help. I thought it was mainly gonna be just lifting and moving the box ... Oh My Lord was I wrong.
The guy I bought this box from screwed it to the trailer, then put 1" styrofoam foam on all the insides, of course, covering the screws. I counted 58 self tapping screws.
Next I had to pull all the carpeting and styrofoam, the air shocks and all the "tie downs". Then I had to use a wire wheel and drill to remove the mastic covering the screws ... I had to hold the tongue down while Don climbed into the box to get the screws out.
Then I had to use a flat bar to pry the box from the frame, because it had been glued with mastic. What a pain. My plan was to save the lights in the box and maybe add a few. I was careful looking for how the lights were wired to the trailer.
Here's a pic of both little trailers ... sans box, the crooked one is under the front of the trash trailer:
I worked on figuring out the wires in the box, this was worse than the trailer, Don worked on cleaning the mastic from the bottom of the box. (he said he was "teaching" me not to hate tricity).
We then sat on some chairs drank iced tea and decided the best way to mount the box. The problem is there are six bolt heads that he box would need to sit on, leaving a big gap. We decided drill the holes needed house those six bolts and four more, 2 front, 2 back into the box. This would mean the box was held on by 10 7/16 bolts and nylock nuts. We measured, measured again, marked the spots and he drilled the holes (I was still trying to figure out the wiring). Next the plan was to put a ratcheting strap around the frame to keep it square, remove the six bolts, put the box on, replace the bolts and then add the 4 new ones and be done ... not so easy. I gave Don some money and he went and bought longer bolts, washers and some silicon sealer.
Here's Don drilling holes, never noticed how bald he's getting:
When we removed the six bolts the frame stayed square, but, the cross members "rolled" a bit. I had to lay on the floor and grab the cross members with a crescent wrench and roll them back while Don put the bolts back in. This worked fairly well and in about an hour, we had all the bolts in, but, when we went to put the nuts on ... Don had bought 7/16 bolts, but the nuts and bolts we took off where 8.8 mm ... back to the Hardware store. When he got back, I laid on the floor and held the nuts while Don was in the box tightening the bolts.
We took the strap off and voila, no offset. Here's some pics:
John's Grandson did a great job with the box, the dimensions of the box are almost exactly the same as the trailer. It is about a 1/4" longer than the frame, but, exactly the right width. Don and I decided to let the 1/4" hang over the front. People would notice it if it was in the back ... maybe ... Anyway, we drilled the holes so the back was perfectly aligned with the frame and ended up with 1/4" in the front.
Next we set the trailer up on the logs and checked it for square, perfect. Even the tongue is now perfectly square to the frame and the axle, should pull great.
All that took us 8 hours ... well 8 for me, 6 1/2 for Don. At 2 pm it was 100* and I told him I'd finish it in the morning. I tried to pay him $100, but, he wouldn't take it, said he was helping a friend and he felt bad about noticing the offset. We agreed I'd take him and his wife to dinner next week, if mom is nice I'll take her too .. he likes Texas Road House.
So, all that's left is to finish wiring the box, put insolation back in, put the carpeting back in and reinstall the pneumatic lifts. I'm guessing 6 more hours ... couple hours a day before it gets hot. Gonna be a great trailer when it's done. If it ever gets done ... :AGGHH:
Forgot ... need to put the bull Dog back on, we took it off to set the box on the top to drill holes.