Com-Fab Trailer Restoration

Trailer Restoration, the sequel, is now in your local social media feed 🙂 If you saw the project I completed earlier this year on the 2000 Sea-Doo XP and trailer restore, this followed the same path. Once I had the XP running, I realized just how much of a 1-person watercraft it is. Unless you weigh under 100 pounds or have ninja-like focus, it’s designed for one normal adult. This meant anytime I took it to the lake, I better have someone with a boat or another ski to accompany me, unless I just wanted to ride around by myself, which is not only dangerous, but just no where near as fun. Lastly, after seeing how well the XP turned out, I wanted to try and find another fixer-upper to make #2. …and so the story goes…

I’ll be posting about the second ski once i’m further along in the process; however, this post is all about the trailer.

The trailer turned out to be a very integral part of this plan. For starters, ALWAYS measure before you make a purchase lol. I learned the hard way that apparently, my baby-ass garage doors, are not only super narrow (it’s very close parking a normal vehicle, 93″ wide), but aren’t wide enough to hold the typical/modern dual-ski trailer (even though my 16′ ProCraft Bass Boat fit perfectly fine). I came across a really nice deal where a guy had a 2003 Yamaha 1200 XLT and a dual-ski galvanized trailer that looked to be the perfect opportunity to pickup ski #2 and a trailer to boot. As it turned out, I was able to negotiate a deal by trading my restored single-ski trailer (blog post on that here) plus $200! This was one heck-of-a-deal considering many dual-ski galvanized trailers go for $600-$800 by themselves. I had valued my single-ski trailer around $800 (what I had it listed for sale), but planned on accepting $700. So, by that valuation, to get a running 2003 Yamaha 1200 XLT wave runner plus a great condition dual-ski trailer for $900 total (only $200 out of pocket) was as steal!…… that is, until I tried to get it into the garage…..

Here is a pic of the new trailer plus Yamaha and a pic of the guy who I traded my single-ski trailer to.

As you can see, he has an awesome Wake edition ski that looks sexy on that restored trailer. The trailer I picked up was in excellent condition, just 6″ too damn wide. Long story short, I wound up selling that trailer for $700 to a guy from Alabama. This meant, at this point, I got my money back out of my single trailer (assuming I would have accepted $700) and paid $200 for a running jet ski lol.. Hard to pass up.

So, now the dilemma was finding a dual-ski trailer that WOULD fit in the garage. After doing some digging and measuring, I found that Com-Fab did, indeed, make a “skinnier” trailer back in the day, so I set out to find a clean version of it. Luckily, that didn’t take long, and found a guy who was selling a galvanized version of this Com-Fab dual-ski trailer for $600. This DID fit in the garage, with some fine adjusting of the ski’s (had to actually slant them a little so they would clear, easy to re-adjust before hauling them anywhere.. I did say baby-ass garage doors lol). Here is what it looked like inside the garage, before the restoration.

Now time for some TLC…

First off, the previous owner was using this trailer to haul around two 1200 jet ski’s, which is well over this trailer’s rating of 1,500 pounds. This caused one of the hubs to be slightly bent due to the weight, so my first order of business was to get this axle replaced. I could have ordered a replacement from a local distributor like Mountain Motorsports, but instead, I set out on a mission going directly to the manufacturer (Com-Fab) with intentions of having a 2,500 pound axle added instead of a replacement 1,500, which would enable me to carry any two ski’s I ever decided to own, within reason. I met a super nice guy by the name of Lawrence who was willing to help me out with this project. In order to make any modern axle fit under this trailer, width-wise, the axle would have to be reduced in width by splicing out a section. Remember, most modern dual-ski trailers are wider than this trailer, so no axles were laying around that would fit the dimensions. After we got this new axle installed, the trailer can now safely carry 2,500 max payload.

The rest was easy… Just like before, I removed all the hardware, applied some self-etching primer, cherry red paint (LOVE this color!), new hardware, new lights (including reverse lights, 4 smoked side-markers, new black light boxes & smoked rear tails, smoked 3-LED center strip, etc), 7-way junction box mounted underneath for wire management, all new bunks & center beam, new wheels & radial tires (including spare), etc.. Trailer came out looking like a million bucks IMO.

I now need a week for my body to recover, SO sore lol.. But, that’s part of the drive of DIY’ing, you get to see your before and after and be proud that you gave new life to something that was in need of TLC.

Before & After Pics!

Parts List

WINCH:

X-Bull Wireless Winch: https://amzn.to/2LrIL9R
Winch Stopper: https://amzn.to/2Q99AUz
Concrete Drill Bit: https://amzn.to/303KD0M
Concrete Anchors: https://amzn.to/2NWLfyE

WHEELS:

Wheels: https://amzn.to/2Nc9xVY
Tires: https://tinyurl.com/KendraKarriers
Valve Stems: https://tinyurl.com/BoltInValveStems
Center Caps: https://tinyurl.com/MatteBlackCenterCaps
Spare Tire Carrier: https://amzn.to/2NZXuKW
Lug Nuts: https://amzn.to/302ICTn

HARDWARE:

Trailer Tongue Jack: https://amzn.to/2ZSADat
Trailer Winch: https://amzn.to/2Lrrs8M
Trailer Safety Cables: https://amzn.to/2ZT3dt0
Trailer Bunk Carpet: https://amzn.to/2Q7OcPK
Trailer Y-Style Bow Stops: https://amzn.to/2ZU7hZe

LIGHTING:

7-way Plug Junction Box: https://amzn.to/2NZZtyE
Trailer Light Boxes + Smoked LEDs: https://amzn.to/2QnhmdR
Smoked 3-Lamp Center LED: https://amzn.to/2LMr18b
Reverse Lights (2 LED Pods): https://amzn.to/2ZTtAhQ
Smoked Amber+Red Side Marker LEDs: https://amzn.to/2Q6xWOE
Black Steel License Plate Bracket: https://amzn.to/2LwfKdg
Ring Terminals: https://amzn.to/2ZU8KyI
Wire: https://amzn.to/2NYZ3Zi

…now, I need to get this second ski tuned up and restored to make the pair i’m after…

…stay tuned…