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....................................................--- New Side Bunks Part III ---
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This page will pretty much finish the side bunks. Here are two pieces of the thin will 3/4 X 3/4 inch square tubing. I've crudely bent these to match the lines I want along the boat. These along with one that is almost 20 feet long make up one side. I left all of these a little long at this point. I drilled one hole in from the end and mounted them one at a time on the rear upright and marked where the front hole needed to be and next.....
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.... I drilled them for the attach bolts. I drilled a drill size larger than 3/8 inch all the way through and followed that up by drilling this 9/16th inch hole just through one side.
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The large head allows the bolt to go into the tube and the head stops at the 3/8th inch hole on the other side.
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Likewise I did the same to the PVC pipe once I located where those holes should be placed. A 3/8th inch hole all the way through followed by taking the one side only out to 9/16th of an inch.
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The square tubing is inside the PVC and the bolt goes through the 9/16th hole in the PVC, through the 9/16th hole in the square tubing then out the hole in the square tubing and.....
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...out the other side of the PVC where a flat washer and nut sandwiches all of this together and it is ready to mount on the uprights.
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Once I was sure everything fit I pulled it apart and welded these reinforcement straps out of .120 X 3/4 inch strap over the 3/8th inch side holes in the square tubing. This reinforced these areas and I wanted to do this as there is no washer under the bolt/allen screw head.
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On the two pieces of square tubing that went all the way to the front of the trailer besides the reinforcement over the hole (top arrow) I added a side piece to reinforce the area by the hole. I didn't feel this was needed on the shorter bunk pieces.
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Here the pieces are in place on the starboard side of the boat, but they haven't been cut to length yet.
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This view shows how the long piece of square tubing goes all the way forward. Since the PVC came in 10 foot lengths I had to add a coupler and an additional pipe to reach the bow area.
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A plate was welded to the ladder (left arrow) at the front of the trailer and each long side bunk (2 right arrows) attaches to it. Here I had some short pieces of PVC in place to check for fit. The finish ones.....
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....go almost all the way to the plate. You can also see here that the boat isn't quite up into the "V" cushion. When I had it up on the rear support and off the trailer I let it down, but couldn't get it all the way forward. I guess the "Mac bump" will have to be used when I get it outside.
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Here the pieces have all been trimmed and capped off. You can also see how the allen screws have been extended through the brackets on the upright and secured with a second nut.
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A view from a little further away. Hard to get pictures with the boat/trailer crammed into the shop, but I feel so fortunate to have it inside. I really have some respect for some of the guys who do all of this outside. I did that for years in Wyoming on projects and it is not fun.
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A view looking towards the stern from the forward upright.
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3/4's view from further forward and one....
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....last view looking back. Of course all of this is taking longer than expected, but I'm enjoying it.
