Rebuild/Refit of 2004 Lowe 1860 Roughneck VPT and Lowe (Yacht Club) Trailer

[Tuleman]

I thought about that but short of welding it on, I couldn’t come up with a reasonable solution.

Use bolts (that hold the mount on the tongue) that protrude an inch past the nuts. After bolting the mount on, put a tack weld on the end threads. The nuts now cannot be removed without cutting the weld off the end of the bolt. You can do this easily in your shop, but thieves will be dissuaded. You can also reuse the (nuts and) bolts, since they are long enough to weld/cut/reuse three or four times.

 

[Tuleman]

My solution is pic 2. I covered the V with a piece of aluminum, drilled a lot of holes in it and removed the floor foam between the drain cover and the bilge (pic 3) so the water can flow more quickly to the pump. I could have just made the V hole bigger but I don’t want everything that falls on the floor to wind up in the bilge.

An elegant solution to a simple problem.

 

[Iammichael6499]

Use bolts (that hold the mount on the tongue) that protrude an inch past the nuts. After bolting the mount on, put a tack weld on the end threads. The nuts now cannot be removed without cutting the weld off the end of the bolt. You can do this easily in your shop, but thieves will be dissuaded. You can also reuse the (nuts and) bolts, since they are long enough to weld/cut/reuse three or four times.

Dhoa! Why didn’t I think of that! Thank you Tuleman. I have a very underused Miller 130 sitting in the back of the garage that could do that in a heart beat. I’m the world’s 2nd worst welder but even I can mange a few tacks. It’ll get it done this week along with new longer bolts on the coupler too.

 

[Iammichael6499]

Minor detail #4 (and the last one I’ll post for now) … Dealing with two stress cracks in the aluminum console. The first crack (see pic 1) recently split into 2 cracks. I drilled 1/4” holes at the end of each crack and one where the crack split into 2 to try and stop them from getting bigger. I didn’t take a pic of the holes I drilled but pic 2 shows the locations. Next step was to cut a piece of aluminum (recycled from a hatch cutout) to reinforce the area around the cracks. The fix (pic 3) looks a bit redneck/Frankenstein but it was a lot less trouble than going to an aluminum welder. Opposite these cracks on the same side of the console is an additional stress crack (pic 4). I decided to leave this crack alone for now since the only way to fix it would be welding. If the crack gets larger over the next year then I’ll have it welded but if it doesn’t then I’ll fill it with Bondo or a similar product to make it disappear. I realize most people wouldn’t have bothered with these minor details but obviously that’s not me.

 

[Holesinthesky]

^^^
you could of aluminum braised that, then grind smooth and paint.

 

[Tuleman]

Minor detail #4 (and the last one I’ll post for now) … Dealing with two stress cracks in the aluminum console. The first crack (see pic 1) recently split into 2 cracks. I drilled 1/4” holes at the end of each crack and one where the crack split into 2 to try and stop them from getting bigger. I didn’t take a pic of the holes I drilled but pic 2 shows the locations. Next step was to cut a piece of aluminum (recycled from a hatch cutout) to reinforce the area around the cracks. The fix (pic 3) looks a bit redneck/Frankenstein but it was a lot less trouble than going to an aluminum welder. Opposite these cracks on the same side of the console is an additional stress crack (pic 4). I decided to leave this crack alone for now since the only way to fix it would be welding. If the crack gets larger over the next year then I’ll have it welded but if it doesn’t then I’ll fill it with Bondo or a similar product to make it disappear. I realize most people wouldn’t have bothered with these minor details but obviously that’s not me.

That will most likely take care of it.

I wouldn't bondo the crack(s), that would make it much more difficult to weld in the future if you decide to do that.

 

[Iammichael6499]

^^^
you could of aluminum braised that, then grind smooth and paint.

I do have aluminum brazing rods/mapp gas that I’ll use to fill a small few holes here and there in the boat but I was afraid there was too much stress on that particular area for my amateur brazing to hold up.

 

[Iammichael6499]

That will most likely take care of it.

I wouldn't bondo the crack(s), that would make it much more difficult to weld in the future if you decide to do that.

Good point.

 

[techfowl]

Just a suggestion, have a way to drain or pump old gas out of fuel cell. I cannot on mine unless I manually pump fuel line into gas can, which takes forever.

 

[Iammichael6499]

Just a suggestion, have a way to drain or pump old gas out of fuel cell. I cannot on mine unless I manually pump fuel line into gas can, which takes forever.

It’s a good suggestion but I couldn’t find a stock fuel cell with a bottom drain that fit the dimensions of my stern space. I would have had to go custom and spend an extra $200+ to get a bottom drain. Hence, I decided to use the same solution for this tank that I used with my Fisher SV2 tank (fuel cell). The solution was a “hand pump“ siphon (Farm & Fleet $35) which drained it fairly quickly. With luck my fuel stabilizer will do it’s job and I won’t ever need it drain the tank.