keltik

Managed to rip one of the lifeline stanchions out of the deck.  I knew it had leaked a little water under there but was hoping for the best.

Sent it off to the old mans place so he can play boatbuilder.  He loves fiberglass.

Since that particular stanchion takes a lot of stress and the docking cleat is close by - he's cut the hole out until there was good wood, glued in a new piece of ply, glassed it all together then set the deck skin back over the patch.

While it's there, he's also going to repair a few dings in the gel coat on the hull so we can apply a new barrier coat and paint the bottom.

Got a deadline to work to. He wants to go sailing around Tauranga for his birthday in 3 weeks.

Anyone want a boat?  Hawkes bay peeps perhaps?

Up for sale on the tard and bookface munterplace.

Uncle keltik needs the money for jag parts. 

Ended up deciding to bankrupt myself and get OEM Bilsteins.  Should be about 4 grand landed.  They finally came back into stock at the start of February but In the meantime I spent all my savings on bits for the yacht.

So now I'm just patiently waiting for the jet boat to sell.

On the to-do list;

Get all instruments working.  Managed to get the depth sounder to power up after rewiring +12v to the correct pin.  Need to make sure the transducer is good next time I'm in the water.

The mast head sender unit for the wind angle and speed gauge is missing.  Luckily, all my gauges are made by Midas who still support the old stuff and can provide parts for an acceptable price.

Sort out wiring for cabin lights.

Install the solar panel and charge controller.

Replace the jib.  I've got 2 sizes currently, they're both kevlar laminate ones that are fucked from age.  Need to decide what size and material I want the new one made from.

Install my chartplotter somewhere in the cockpit.

Repair a few chips in the gel coat then paint or antifoul the bottom.

Sail it in a decent wind and see what breaks.

The big goal for this year is to do the legends regatta without dying.

Got the new springs in.

Managed to bleed the brakes properly by unbolting the caliper and tilting the bleeder nipple to the top as it's in the 11 o'clock position when installed.

Not sure why, but it tows a million times better now. No more banging the back end of the tow vehicle around - it just follows along smoothly.

Went for a WOF and failed on front wheel bearings.  Previous owner said he had done them but one was rust fucked and the other had no inner bearing cage left... Just powder.

Had to tidy up the seal surface on the stub axles so hit it with JB weld to fill in the pitting.

Should be better than it was. 

Replaced the lights with some of those Narva kits that have oring sealed connectors on the harness so there's no joins - you just plug it all together and cap off any connections not used with blanking plugs.

Hopefully get the WOF issued next week when I can get it back down the local for a recheck.  

We both know you should just be thankful the WOF inspector didn't find the massive amounts of rust.

Don't tell me it's a Leone without rust, thats unpossible.

I failed a WOF on trailer wheel bearings today... Which was a legit fail.  Also had to do the brake test with a tapley meter because it was a braked trailer.

Hitting the picks with 3 ton of boat behind you on a wet road with no ABS was mildly exciting.

Anyways, he also failed it on a piece of angle iron tie bar which had been scalloped to bend it around the boat hull, but the cut scalloped section hadn't been welded back together good enough.  It seems the VIRM is pretty strict/maybe overkill when it comes to which bits of a boat trailer are structural.

Semi related vehicle category yarn.  I had 4 CX-9s in the workshop.  All AWD, all the same spec with the same ride height and bumpers and visually identical.  2 of them were MA and 2 of them MC. 

WOF auditing inspector was visiting so asked him and his explanation was the rules are basically shit interpretations of old legislation that's applied by people trying to do their best..... And we all know it doesn't work 100% of the time.

So yeah, not your WOF inspectors fault that 2 identical vehicles are different categories so your tints are illegal.

Pic for Fred. Only going to hit this position with all of the trailer weight on the front axle (curb or start of a boat ramp).  Shouldn't happen on level ground unless I've done something very wrong.

Now to deal with the weird ancient American hubs that have a sight glass and fill plug to run the bearings in an oil bath.

Ok so I found marks on the trailer frame where the front spring hangers had been previously so welded the new ones into that spot. 

Eyeballed the spring length and after welding was maybe 5mm out from where I wanted to be on one side which means the shackle is a gnats pube away from the crossmember at full compression.

The other side was 15mm out meaning the shackle hit the crossmember at half bump travel.  So had to grind out the welds and stick it in the right spot.

Thoughts on adding a bump stop? Or some kind of rubber cushion

I guess I won't know for sure till I hit some speed bumps.  The new style hanger for the equalizer bar had a piece of angle iron welded in to limit travel.  Since I reused my original one - I don't have this feature.

I've decided mig welding upside down is one of my less favorite things to do

Had to notch one beam but welded the spring hanger into the beam as well as the chassis to add a little strength back. I'm sure I'm worrying about nothing.

Had 5mm height clearance going under my car port with the old springs.  Stay tuned to find out if I can ever take the boat out again.

18 hours ago, Mof said:

I think you would find the springs will find a way to be above the equaliser, probably with a bang.

You're probably right.  Fine. I'll do it properly

I could move the pivot point for the equalizer upwards closer to the frame which would constrain it's movement better and reduce the shitty spring angles

Was this;

Planning on making it this;

Ride height is similar between the 2 setups.  I understand the correct way to set this up is to have the spring eyes above the equalizer bar but this introduces a few problems.

1) The axles would need to be underslung or replaced with gull wing type to clear the frame.

2) The rear spring eye hanger (to the left) needs to be moved 10mm further back... Which would require notching the crossmember it's currently mounted in.

3) The front edge of the equalizer has reduced articulation due to hitting the crossmember mounted next to it.

Thoughts on doing it the easy way vs. doing it the 'right' way?

Not overly relevant but the trailer frame bends downwards towards the rear from the equalizer bar hanger.  So the front spring front eye is mounted a bit lower

Internets reckons 2.5t but I have no idea.  Sounds about right. Feels a bit heavier than a typical car trailer.

Will chuck it on the scale at work sometime.

The double eye springs also have less camber so the ride height should drop by 30mm which is very welcome.  Can't get any lower without going to a pair of gullwing axles as the center would contact the framing around the hull at any decent amount of bump.

Trying to solve my trailer suspension issues.  After much head scratching, I think I've worked out the problem.  The trailer chassis was previously fitted for 50mm eye to eye springs with a standard 1390mm span and an equalizer rocker.

It seems the standard spacing for eye to slipper tandem setups is closer to 1470mm.  Because that's been crammed into the narrower space between the crossmembers (circled orange) the spring slippers don't sit in the right spot.

So even if I moved the rocker pivot closer to the chassis, it would hit the crossmember located there... Which I don't really want to notch as it would significantly weaken it.  It would also exacerbate the issue with the spring slippers contact points.

So the fix is going to be swapping back to double eye springs.

Spent a day out on the water yesterday.  Still had absolutely fuck all variable wind so failed at sailing.

New motor runs well but discovered at low power settings, the stern of the boat doesn't squat into the water as much... so it's pretty easy for a wave or two to get the propeller shallow enough to suck down some air.  Annoying.

The trailer springs did their flippy articulation trick which caused all the weight to come off the front axle and lock the wheels under braking. Annoying.

It's going to be hard to mount my fish finder transducer in a good spot.  More experimentation required before I'm 100% sure where it needs to go, thinking it will go under the transom just ahead of the rudder but want to make sure the rudder won't interfere with the image. 

The lack of self tailing winches is a massive pain in the arse for 2 handed sailing.  Keeping my eye on the tard for some second hand ones.

The autopilot doesn't work.  Powers on but wont pick up a compass heading.

10 hours ago, Roman said:

Hmmm if it does fully open only by 95 deg then maybe it's not so bad, as it only got to 96. 
Will need to drive it for longer to see if that number keeps going up, so long as it's not over 100 then it's probably fine. 

Retrofit one of those ghastly electrically heated thermostats so you can run a high temp for efficiency on the road then heat it to open early on the track.

Did Toyota run a thermostat with the electric water pumps?

Yeah that's exactly what it used to have.

Not sure of the benefits of either style?

Do I shorten the bracket or go back to double eye springs

1 minute ago, Vintage Grumble said:

Is that outboard 2-stroke?

I'm not happy about it

Had some outboard issues. With my bracket at full height, the prop still touched the water when under sail.  Thats unnecessary drag!  So I could've moved the bracket up a few inches and figured out how to deal with the holes in the transom... Or just swap it out for a short shaft version of the same motor and sell my one on.

The new motor hasn't had much love. Time for a new impeller

A new thermostat and plugs

Don't think this motor had ever been apart, I did my very best but still managed to snap one bolt and spend the next hour sorting that out.

Finally got all the salt scraped out and rinsed clean. 

I plan on taking the power head out at some point and touching up the paint.

In the meantime it got a good long run in a wheelie bin full of salt-away and now the cooling water is flowing much better.

Starts first pull too with the new plugs.