Boat trailer lights

[jeff-register]

/BUCCaneer,
I have several friends who I have built a P.C. board full of LEDS. Get the brightest ones you can find & run a strip of 4 or 5 leds in a row, Then start another row till you get to the board full. Have the common run down the middle & have 5 on the left & 5 on the right & many rows down. The feed required two diodes to block the other circuit & a resistor to control how bright the tail lights are & the other "brake" feed has no resistance. The diodes blocked the other voltages. I used one LED for both functions, bright & brighter. I built the board under a magnified lens to have everyone tight against the board & polarity lined up. It worked out well. We potted the board in clear potting stuff so everyone was sealed away from water & the road crud. We epoxied brackets to mount on the frame. If a Harley won’t break them at 90 MPH nothing will!! E mail me for more data please. Be careful of the LED’s angle of view, Some are parabolic to the extreme & others have a wide view that don’t get back as far. One problem we did find out early that the hot rodders that wound up the motors we would over volt the LEDS & smoke them. We added a zener diode to block any voltage over 14 volts when the genny was singing. Any questions send me an e mail @ jeff.50@cox.net.
Jeff

[johnny-infl]

Buck, I would like to get the original Gator style trailer lights and somehow convert
them over to waterproof LED.
I have a 1959 Gator and am in the process of rewiring it now with just plain
cheap lights on it for now to get around town. I got the trailer with no lights
so I have to start from scratch.
just the lens alone is about $20 each on ebay and such and found some for $8 at
Vintage Gator Boat Trailer STRATOLITE RED LENS on ebay.
some nice LED lights of the same design would be jam up and jelly tight !!!!

and you mentioned that the original can lights are not waterproof.
I think with a little engineering, they can probably be made waterproof.

[Buccaneer]

Well, I bought a Walmart submersible trailer light kit with the
lights, 25′ wiring, etc. I may or may not use it, but wanted it
on hand in case I had nothing else ready for when the rest of the
trailer is ready. I have another trailer I can use them on anyway.
I "may" try redoing the old metal buckets with LEDs. If I remember,
the two buckets are different, so not sure if either is original to the
trailer. For now, I’m going to concentrate on getting the frame cleaned
up the best I can, painted, and back together….. then of course, new
tires, check out the wheel bearings, etc.
Thanks!

Prepare to be boarded!

[reivertom]

Submersible lights are OK until you back into the water with hot bulbs , then the bulbs crack, at least they did on my trailer.. Water proof of any type are the way to go.

[johnny-infl]

saw this project while surfing around for Gator Trailer stuff.
its a good read.
http://www.fiberglassics.com/fiberglassics-forums/home/trailer-talk/restoring-an-old-gator-trailer

.

[Buccaneer]

Johnny, thanks for the link! Those refurbished Gators give me hopes that
I’ll get mine prettied up and back together again too!

Prepare to be boarded!

[gdcarpenter]

Mine wasn’t a true "Gator", but it was made by the same company and called a "Champ", and did have a "Gator" winch. It came with a bent tongue and an axle that was scrap metal, with the axle seal surface shot and one spindle bent badly.

I straightened the tongue, and since it was for a ‘special’ boat I was building, gave it a new oil bath hub axle, then had to space the fenders out a tad further to accommodate the new wider axle. Trying to work smart rather than hard as I get older, I took it and had it sandblasted, and when they said for $400.00 they could powder coat too I said done"

Ran all newwiring and LED tail lights, and replaced event bolt and nut, even the bushings for the leaf springs, and I was able to dump the rusty 8" rims and upgraded to 12" rims.

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[gdcarpenter]

I used an unorthodox method to fit the trailer to the boat, placing the trailer upside down on the upside down frame of the boat. Thus allowed me to locate the bow eye in the stem of the boat to align with the trailer winch.

It also allowed me to fit custom cradles and battens for the trailer to perfectly fit the shape and position of the frames and floor battens in my boat. Rollers are not appropriate for wood hulled boats.

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[gdcarpenter]

The trailer has a tilt feature that has come in handy at shallow ramps. She has over 5,000 miles of towing and all’s well. I did add a spare tire carrier onto the side, though the spare is not mounted to it in this photo. Keep those oldie Goldie’s going!

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[Buccaneer]

Gd, beautiful job on the trailer and the boat!
Don’t think I’ll have to do much for customizing my trailer.
What kind of paint did you use? Enamel, Alkyd, Urethane?
Any idea where the model numbers are stamped in the
frames? Maybe I’ll find it when I start removing paint.

Prepare to be boarded!

[Author]

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