SCUBA trailer revisited

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jbd

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I went through this thread http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=23688&page=1&pp=10 to see what kind of ideas people had for their scuba trailers. I now have a trailer and would like to set it up for my scuba diving.

What I'm wondering is, what would you do differently if you were to build another trailer?
 
Assuming you wanna haul lots of tanks and stuff, I'd highly suggest getting one with a heavier axel than you think you'll need. I'm assuming you're looking for a 6x10 foot Haulmark style. Go ahead and get a 3500 pound axel instead of a 2,000 pound one. Once you get tanks, coolers, etc, maybe a BBQ grill it'll get heavy and you want the extra axel. Also get heavier duty tires. One thing that trailer companies do is buy "old" tires from tire stores that only have a 5,000 miles or so left on them in order to keep costs down and be competitive. If you're hauling a lot of weight, you'll want new tires as they are stronger, etc. (Old tires can easily dry rot quicker).

Also consider crank-down jack-stands on the rear of the trailer. That way you can walk into it when it's not hooked to the trailer hitch of your town vehicle without it "tipping" backwards. A real nice feature, especially for loading in the garage the night before.....

A front "side door" is also a nice feature to getting to stuff in the front. Also consider adding bright reflective strips on the back as trailer lights don't always work like they are supposed to. Also pay the extra to get the LED trailer lights. Much brighter and less prone to failure.

One last thing.... A friend put slotted track in the floor of his trailer and then plywood the same thickness (of the tracks) on either sides (of the tracks). This way he had a flat/flush trailer bed but tie-down points in the floor to secure large loads such as his motorcycles.

Whatever you do, it's always nice to have the ability to use it for other stuff, so being able to remove any racks or mounts easily is a nice thing. Or install them on removeable mounts.

Hope that helps.

Mike
 
one more thing..... If you are going to tow it on trips and leave it overnight with all your gear in it at a hotel/motel/condo, etc. Since you are thinking about a 12v battery for lights, I'd also invest in a car-alarm with remote (key fob), entry door protection and motion proctection and a nice siren.

Be a real shame for someone to clean out your dive gear as easy as cutting a pad-lock.

You could always run a wire up through your trailer hitch or tow vehicle frame with a disconnect on it also hooked to the alarm. If thieves in the middle of the night un-hooked it to try to steal the entire trailer, the disconnect hooked to the alarm would set it off.

I this case a $59 to $99 el-cheapo car alarm would most likely be protecting thousands worth of hard to easily replace scuba gear.

Trailer wheel "chock locks" are also always a good thing.

-mike
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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