Nice work ... for a guy with "Zero Patience" ;-)

Looks great as always ZP

Needed some measurements, went to Ft Lauderdale, Ron ( Double Rigged) picked us up at Executive airport, took the measurements from his beautiful boat. He has a excellent toy building. Came back home, started building again😊

Nice. What kind of plane?

2017, Piper, Malibu, mirage, M350.

Awesome airplane! - and boat to be!

Wholly **** I'm in love!!

Not my airplane, a best friends, I just travel in it a lot:drink:

lucky you

Getting close here, braces on, bunk pads on, drive gaurd rails on, making the rear bumper next.

That trailer looks fantastic!! I'm curious about your extension off the back and how it will be mounted. I would like to do something like that on our trailer. I love how your "helper" in the second pic seems to be doing the same as my 2 helpers with projects.

well, I don't have to worry about welding flash burning their eyes, their eyes are always shut. But they are great company, and protect me from the UPS delivery man. :)

The Drive guard is just welded on. I allowed room to remove a 400 lower, without tilting it up. The top will be .125 plate. Welded on, then sprayed with black bed liner. I'm not a diamond plate fan.

What do you think your trailer is going to weigh finished? Or better yet, do you remember what the trailer you made for your 28 weighed?

Thanx, NP

The 28 trailer weighed 1450 lbs. this one has more cross members, bigger axles, tires, 10" side rails, would guess 1800 lbs

Tunnel support bunks built, and setting in place. Drive guard completed, winch stand added. Waiting on the Axles.

Built the fender steps/mounts. I do not have a brake, so they are cut pieces welded together.

Axles on, fender mounts and fenders mounted, brakes mounted, Spare tire mount built and installed. Brake lines and wiring next.

The engines are ordered, jack plates arrived, meeting tomorrow at PPI, sarasota, for interior color selection, and embroidery layout. Also going to Kinetic Anamation to get some trailer decorations. The jackplates will have to be dismantled and the internals rotated 180 degrees to allow adjustments from the bottom. The 400 R steering cylinder prevents access from the top.

Boat is progressing. Tony sent a few pictures.

Awesome job buddy. Can anyone see a hint of color to come on the boat🤔:party-smiley-004:

"Very Cool"

Thanks guys, its been fun building the trailer. Should be fun on the Boat build.

Let me take a wild guess..........bright orange? :D

Your 30 will be lighter than all the 318s, so it should be faster. As busy as they are back at the factory, I wouldn't expect the build to move too quickly. I don't think they've been this busy with new boat orders since the early 2000s. Looking forward to seeing your project progress!

We hope to see it progressing as well. We have tubs full of parts here and ready. Kinetic Anamation came thru with the decals, mainly just wiring and trailer brake lines left to do. We need a boat...

What Jack Plates are you using?

Skater recommended, R&R slidemaste, 3” setback. They wanted the weight as close to the transom as possible. I am following their advise on the weight distribution and CG. The R&R’s have to be dismantled and the internals flipped 180 degrees to make the adjustment nut on the bottom, the Verado steering cylinder is in the way with the nut on top. We would always be adjusting during setup on the trailer anyway. I like how the side rails lock into each other.

About complete on the trailer, we added lumashore boat underwater lights to it. I had a tough time backing the 28 trailer into tight spots at night when traveling, these should light the way to back up.

Trailer looks fantastic, love the lights. When do we get to see a rendering of the boat? Congrats, what a great build.

thats an awesome idea!

Al though i'm sure you know, installing a backup camera on the trailer works great. Trailer looks great btw.

Skater said to use the smallest setback jack plates available. I got 3”. However on a Skater, the adjuster nut is not accessable at the top, because of the 400R steering ram. Just turn over the jack bolt Pete said. Well it was not that easy. Now it is adjustable from the bottom, which is where we will adjust it on the trailer. Will repaint with awlgrip super jet black, or maybe?

Not to bust your balls but, have you seen the 1.75" set backs that Shaun Torrente is making now?

https://scontent.fphx1-2.fna.fbcdn.n...b4&oe=5A66FF12

Yes i have seen the STR, very beautiful, very cool, the wider mounting holes get into some boat transom knees. I will run 8 mounting bolts in the heavy 400R. On Shauns jackplates, you must loosen all the engine bolts to make an adjustment. Thats a lot of loosening, leveling, and retightening. We make adjustments quite often so thats to much wrenching for me. I wanted Porta lifts for raceboats, but did not want the weight of the twin pumps, hoses, cylinder, etc. Everyone has thier own taste in equipment.

Jim I just installed BMS pump kit on my jackplates. One pump with a diverter to both jackplates. They run together synchronized.

Sounds cool, how would you trim individually if they were to get out of sync?

Source for kit?

Thanx, NP

They re-synch when you bottom them out or up. I did not originally do hydraulics when I installed the 400Rs.

Bobs sells a very nice complete upgrade kit with hoses pump diverter and switches. We had to pull the motors to install the kit. We pulled one at a time and added the hydraulics. It was very simple half day project.

I reinstalled my heads up indicators from the 300XS’s and they stay synced pretty well.Bobs does not have a mechanical indicator kit for the Stainless Marine heads up indicators and Stainless doesn’t have a kit for Bobs. So a little southern engineering was required to adapt cables to the jackplates.

Just a personal preference I like to adjust the height on the fly. I don’t move them much but it is nice to bump them on the fly with changing conditions speed and load.

I have yet to modify my water ramps to see real benefits. That is my winter project.

Sounds way cool, the first thing that popped into my head was putting that system on my motor trim as I have fixed height. But then you reminded me, I pretty much leave my motors alone @ -0- trim ( parallel with bottom) and adjust trim for different conditions.

back to regular programming > pics of the new boat? ;-)