New Trailer

[Ozzie]

Once again Peter, a work of art. Great and utterly professional setup.

I could go on and on about the sins of Government Departments. The light bar rule has no doubt been inspired by some minor incidents or knee jerk reaction to a complaint. These rules are never retrospective, which is often why they are truly ridiculous. If light bars or whatever were actually that dangerous the rule would be applied retrospectively. If you need any example of the stupidly of governments, my original mooring was far enough from shore that I legally needed full ‘enclosed waters’ safety gear to go out to my boat. I could however paddle a surfboard to New Zealand if I wanted wearing only a pair of Speedos. Still the case.

Anyway hanging to see the final ‘galled up” finish and see how your 3 speed winch goes. All the best.

[Peter T]

Yes Ozzie, Thanks for your kind words. I can tell you that in total, I used nearly 3 rolls of welding wire on the thing. Every weld was at least double welded. When I got to the galvanisers, the chap who took it off the transport trailer asked if I had built it. Said he had worked in engineering and that he loved things built strong and heavy and he was very impressed with my build.
With the govt, total stupidity. Anyway, we just play their games. My light bar will have the middle cut out of it and the number plate with its light will be bolted on on one side and the other light will be bolted to the other side exactly the same as the light bar bolted on using the same bolts and all. I will have to twist the cable between the lights around the back cross member. It will be in effect, a light bar without the middle of the bar, just each end of it. Just more buggering about to fit and remove it and it won’t be seen as clearly from following traffic because it will be 2 metres forward of the back of the boat and I will have to fit and remove it on my hands and knees under the boat ! Go figure ! But I will be a good boy, Ha ha, OR, I could forget to do it and be safer ?
Regards Peter T

[Peter T]

Is there no end to the marvellous ( not so) decisions that stupid governments idiots make from behind their desks. ?
So, the next step in this trailer process obviously was to actually register the thing. SO, I roll up to service Tas this morning at 10.00am to do just that. The first question I get asked is “ where are all your receipts for everything you purchased to build this trailer? “
You must be joking, I say, oh no, they were serious. Luckily, I use my credit card to purchase everything , so back home I go, print out 5 months of credit card statements and go through all transactions and note the ones relating to the build. Then produce an XL spread sheet for all entries and total it. By this time, it is 2.30 . Yes, 4 1/2 hours later. Then they tell me that that’s not good enough, so I will now need to fill out a stat dec. why in the hell could they not have done that 4 1/2 hours ago I ask. She just glared at me
Anyway, the trailer is registered and I am $170 lighter in the pocket for it, so it’s value must have increased by $170 I tell her. Not impressed !
Boy am I glad that’s over
Regards Peter T

[Peter T]

Fair dinkum David, they just keep getting worse and worse. I had all the credit card statements with me, but I refused to give then to these idiots, but I did show them where I had put an asterisk beside the entries for the trailer. She wanted to have them but I said no way, they have my private info and she wasn't getting them. That's why I did the XL spread sheet. That's all I would let them have. It just makes me wonder what they will try next ? Besides, they wouldn't have a clue what parts I used off the old trailer. As it turned out, there was only two things worth using, the light bar and the wheels.

Regards Peter

[Peter T]

Well, I got the phone call this afternoon, my new galvanised trailer is ready to be picked up so I am off to Launceston tomorrow around lunch time to pick it up. Will post a photo. Galvanising cost $665.50. They had advised me that the cost depends on the weight of the gal and estimated between $400 and $800. Gotta be happy with that ( hopefully)

Regards Peter T

[Peter T]

Ah David, a day for us both to remember mate
Regards Peter

[Peter T]

Well, I now have a galvanised trailer. Got home with it from Launceston late this afternoon and for the most part it’s a fairly good job. There are a couple of spots where they left a spot is slag from welding which gal does not stick to so will need to touch these up with cold gal. I didn’t mind that but just a while ago I was out in the shed looking at all the bits and pieces and you would never guess what they did. Why are people so stupid ? Every one of the roller pins that I made with a hole in each end to be able to insert split pins, well one end of all of them is fine but the other end they ran a wire through all of them to hold them while being galvanised. They then cut the wire off each side of the pin with a grinder, leaving the wire galvanised into the hole for the split pin and you can’t get it out with a pin punch so I reckon they have stuffed all the roller pins. I will be on the telling bone first thing in the morning ! WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT !
Grrrrrrr. I hate incompetence. I take pride in what I do and I expect the same from professionals especially well paid ones.
Peter T

[Peter T]

Hi David, thanks for that, very interesting. What I have done is to re tap the nuts with a standard 16 mm tap because you can’t buy them any other size. The galvanised bolts will then screw into them but they are snug. Not too tight but they are in need of using a spammer on the bolts. That means that there is still some gal inside the nuts but the re tapping process may have broken through it in places but with using that anti seize compound you told me about and what it says in this article you sent me, I reckon it will be quite ok.
In relation to the 8 20 mm roller brackets in my last post here, I rang galvaline this morning and they are going to have a courier pick them up today, re do them and have them back to me by next Tuesday. He explained that they need to use the wire to hold them and he is going to weld a small nut to the end of them for that purpose. Very happy with their response although they could and should have called me and talked about that before they did what they did.

Regards Peter T

[Peter T]

And even better now, the courier was going to be too late picking them up so the boss of Galvaline is coming down this way over the weekend and he is going to pick them up himself so that they can fix them Monday and get them back to me Tuesday, so I must say, they are bending over backwards to sort it out for me and I very much appreciate their efforts. Well and truely redeemed themselves I must say, so good on them and as you say, that’s excellent customer service
Regards Peter T

[Peter T]

Well everyone, I knew that if I stuck to it and worked hard, that this day would come. The new trailer is finished !
This is where the old trailer deserves to be

On the way to the tip !

And this is where the new trailer deserves to be, Under the boat.

Note the folded up extension draw bar, very happy with how this turned out

Its been a long hard road to get here, but I am sure it will be worth it in the fullness of time.
Regards Peter T