Fleet trailer courtesy of Eric Finn. The trailer has seen better days. Considering it is such a wonderful (and cheap!) resource for the Tbird community, we should really take better care of it. Some how and somewhere the manual for using the trailer has gotten lost. I have tried to put up some pictures here as a temporary aid until someone else does a better job.
Below, the I-beam is mounted on the two smaller jack stands. We tried to get the I-beam as close to the keel as possible.
Stabilizers slide in on the I-beam to stabilize! (Tried to keep all the weight on the I-beam though).
An important note: The trailer comes with a third jack stand to support the rear of the Tbird while the trailer is slide in. This jack stand is not tall enough, requiring you to either block it up, which makes it quite wobbly and me nervous (from someone with one Tbird drop on his record...). Instead, we used two tall jack stands (barely visable below), which were able to support he rear end (placed under the bulk heads), but still left clearance to assemble the aft trailer beams/stands.
Removing the aft trailer beams to allow the trailer to slide below the I-beam and between the jack stands.
Below, ready to slide in. We had to dig out some soil trenches for the wheels to allow the bottom of the keel to clear the trailer. Measure twice!
The trailer slide in, and the aft beam and stands re-attached.
Slowly transferring the weight from the I-beam and jack stands to the trailer.
All ready for her adventure! (Don't forget the bolt down the keel, and strap her down when some heavy duty ratchets).
The most nerve-wrecking 25 mins of my life...
Last time we used a Gin pole to pull the mast, which worked fine. This time I splurged for the cherry picker which made it even easier.
Touch up the bottom on the keep with bottom paint (not sure how much of that actually stays on???).
And we're off! A tremendous thank you to John, Dona, Vidya, Stewart, Bill, John G., and Andrew!
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