A couple of us here in the Northwest are seting up our cat trailors for double stacking.
The cost of travel is getting high and some of the trips are going to be long this year.

I build stuff for living so i am competant with tools. I plan on fabing out the square tube and flat bar, then abuddy will do the welding since i am not the geatest at welding, (I don't do it every day like he does).
I am kind of a 'git er done' kind of guy, and it doesn't always look pretty.

What i am looking for is good ideas to add to the prject and stuff to 'not overlook'.

I will be stacking a Tiger and a FX One and or H16. One of those combinations of boats.

Thanks for any input and especially pictures.

The guys here are building one. Basically a frame that bolts onto the trailer frame and can come off. When they get it all put together I will post photos for you.

I built one - will be glad to take some photos tonight.

Rob Jerry (Boat Works, Syracuse NY) had a triple built a few years back. That thing could probably hold a tank.

If you're using steel, it will be heavy. Aluminum is lighter, but you need to beef if up. Didn't John W. have an aluminum double built recently?

Of course, you could just buy one from Trailex...

Hope this helps.

Mike

Check this out:
http://www.acatsnw.com/trailer/trailers.html
Look at "Ken's and Mike's Trailer"

Trailer is local, so you can look at it anytime. Made the trip to Florida (3,500 miles) and back for A Cat Worlds.

Ken

Thanks ken for info.
I saw your trailor at the Alter Cup Qualifier in Skamokawa last year. Very Nice trailor.

Oh by the way who makes those covers for the hulls you have?

Thanks
Mike Hensel

Greg Goodall at AHPC. Jill Nickerson in Florida is the US rep.

Ken

I was told that a cheap set of sleeping bags works well for hull covers.

Hey Mike -

I went to a trailer manufacturer in Jacksonville with some pretty crude drawings - I'm pretty happy with what I got; 2,500-pound capacity aluminum I-beam frame with 3"x3" aluminum x-bars and 2"x2" aluminum mast stands and Trax stand. Lessons learned:

The Good: I don't particularly like the double-stacks I've seen where the top boat rests on the bottom boat. I had the x-beams on the trailer placed slightly fore and aft of the x-beams on the boat and added a "second story" to the trailer with stands that support another pair of x-beams. The pics here are just for reference - I don't have the cradles on and it's just resting on the beam for illustration. The stands bolt on with U-bolts.



The Bad: I didn't take into account the height of the hull cradles and attaching hardware when doing the fore and aft mast stands. As a result, they aren't quite tall enough to get over both boats. What I discovered, however, is that the masts ride very well between the two boats. I'm cutting the current stands down to that height sometime in the next few weeks or so. This requires, however, that you have a long trailer - mine's 25-feet. I built it long to go on the back of a motorhome.



The Ugly: See how tall that mast stand is? What is the truism about welded aluminum? After one year, I found that the weld at the base of the forward mast stand had cracked. I took it to a shop in Jax that specializes in welding aluminum and they re-did the weld - looked great. Last year as I was driving across the continent, the weld cracked again - in fact the whole base plate cracked... fortunately I saw the failure developing and was able to jury-rig it well enough to get me to Nationals in Texas, where Kirk Newkirk shipped me a new galvanized mast stand to get me the rest of the way to California. I think the stand was just too tall (wide sway-arc) for the base it had. As I said, I plan to shorten it and give it another go with a different sort of attachment to the frame.

Jake says it best - aluminum will break at stress points. It is just a matter of time.

Also, I made the Cat-Trax stand a wee bit too tall - it could be shorter and still not be in the way of anything.

Good luck - you won't be dissapointed with a purpose-built double-stack trailer. But you will get a lot of phone calls before big events. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

By the way - none of the features on this trailer were my original ideas. I looked around a long time before deciding what I wanted in a trailer. Thanks go principally to Alex Shafer and Jake Kohl.

this is what we use in sunny Queensland, Australia
similar to ladder racks that you use on your utes
basicly outer and inner rhs

G'day John I modify my own trailers and had the same problem with my mast stand as it had to get over my Landcruiser. To stop the sway I welded some heavy angle under the trailer beneath the mast stand sticking out about 9 inches either side, then welded light flat from the angle up to about two thirds of the mast stand, that makes a rigid triangle and stops the wobble without going to heavy steel and it looks okay without too much windage.
regards

Thanks John,
What method did you use to make the stands removable so you could get the lower boat off easily?

Hey Mike -

Look at the pic of the back of the trailer - the rear mast stand is an "L" shape that plugs into a bracket on the back beam. Two U-bolts tighten the bracket. Rear stand has held up very well over the last two years.

To make my trailer a double stacker, I used four pieces of 2X2 inch steel tubing and a 2X6 inch wood for the top. My trailer has cross supports larger than the for and aft of my boats beam placement. I use U-bolts to attach everything. I take the whole thing apart for storage. I do have to take the back bracket off to remove the bottom boat but it only takes a couple of minutes. I also have two catbox on the trailer for getting everything loaded.

Sorry I cannot find any of the pictures I took of it. It is cheap and it works. If you have the time and money go with John W's trailer. It is at the yard next to mine right now so I have seen it up close a personal...very nice.

Dan

Jeff - can you take a pic of the base of your mast stand? I think I understand what you mean, but want to make sure I'm getting it.

Thanks - <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I like the receiver/ post method. Here are a few pics of one I had laying around:


As several people said, I like using u-bolts to attach the receiver to the frame rail. Then I use bolts to tighten the stacker into the receiver. I like bolts instead of pins because it keeps everything from rattling around. Make sure to keep the bottoms of the uprights open so that water can drain. The receiver system is nice because it is so versatile. You can move the parts around as needed, and all parts and components are interchangeable. If you need a mast support for example, it all uses the same hardware.


The upright with the flat plate on top can accept a single roller, hull cradle, mast cradle, or a crossbar. And it all can be assembled with standard u-bolts. Make sure that your frame rails or x-bars are solid and heavy enough duty to survive the loads. I've found that if you talk to a trailer guy, they will waaay over-engineer the parts, as they don't really understand the 'boats' that we trailer that well.

Karl's right, 2 $10 sleeping bags work well for temporary bow covers.

Hope that helps!

Don't forget to beef up the axle and suspension to support the extra weight. I had a friend who double stacked and was pulling out of the driveway on his way to Mexico when the axle failed. Better there then somewhere south o' the border.

and tires.

Dual axles might be the way to go.

When I had my built trailer last year I put really wide tires on it. Seems to work well for snowmobile trailers despite the small diameter they last a long time. I was also hoping that it would float across sand better than the skinny tires.

18.5x8.5x8