Having fun refurbishing an Albin 25, was “Catching up on a few years lost maintenance on Driftless”

[tribologist]

After we took our new to us Driftless out last weekend for a short trip on Connecticut river I have been trying to catch up on the maintenance. The previous owner only put a few hours on her for the last 3+ years and it was mostly sitting on a trailer in his yard.

This last week we were cleaning out the tank. I was amazed that it was running with so much water in the tank. I later found that the return tube and the lift tube had been swapped so it was sucking fuel about 1/2 way up. The old lift tube was pretty corroded so I drilled out the fitting and brazed in a 1/2 stainless tube instead of the old 12mm steel tube. Sorry for the rotated images.
Other than that the tank looks pretty good. Baffle is in place and seems fine.

We used a Walmart brass spray nozzle with the outer sleeve removed. We also did a slot in the front. The result was a pretty agressive spray in all direction. To get the water out we used a wet-vac through the fuel gauge hole.

The fittings are 3/8 BSP.

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[tribologist]

Saturday was spent on getting the trailer up to snuff. I was a bit concerned pulling it the 50 miles home. The brake actuator seemed quite loose and clunky and it rode a bit stiff. Today I put on a new brake coupler/surge brake and rebuilt the suspension with new hardware and decent used springs. One of the springs had even cracked. Pretty nasty job. I could not imagine doing it without a torch. Every single bolt had to be cut.

The old couple was a 12500# rated behemoth. I purchased a 6600# rated actuator from Tiedown engineering (model 660) to replace it with. Seems decent and I love the way the coupler is designed. The locking shoe is hidden under a plate so that out can slide it down on the ball without being perfectly centered.

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[DesertAlbin736]

Whoa! That is some nasty gunk in that tank! RE trailer: Rust never sleeps! We have never done anything with our fuel tank other than change filters, but we've also put over 500 hours on the engine over the last 4 1/2 years Pulling & inspecting the tank might be an item for this year's overhaul schedule. Right now it's 3/4 full with fresh fuel, about 15 or 16 gallons more or less. According to records that came with the boat the previous owners put about that same amount of time on the engine over a 11 year period, running at least half the time on fresh water lakes, and mostly stored the boat in a pole barn in rural Idaho. And since we've owned of course it's stored in this dry desert climate where we average 6 inches of rain per year. But I'm also having some serious structural issues with my 20 year old aluminum trailer this year, having put 16,000 road miles on it since 2014. Rust & brakes aren't our problem, and the suspension system is torsion bar axles, although I did have to replace the master cylinder on the brake coupler this year. Our problems is more with metal fatigue and "hogging" of the aluminum frame. Our trailer is 6,000 lb GVW, which is probably marginal for our boat, which with boat+trailer tips the scales at 6,500 lbs.

[tribologist]

Ouch, sorry to hear about trailer issue. Send me some images on where you are getting cracks. The solution to cracking is never welding the crack and go on but to use doublers and other ways to reduce the stress in that area. My trailer is basically two aluminum I beams with steel cross bars hanging under them. The keel rest on a heavy plank. The frame see very little bending. What is failing on mine is fenders and their supports that are welded to the frame. Common 6082 aluminum has about 40 ksi ultimate strength and maybe a third of that as fatigue limit at a billion cycles, maybe 20ksi at a few thousand cycles. In salt water... around 3 ksi... corrosion is terrible for aluminum fatigue. Welding sucks to. There is a reason why aircrafts are riveted, bonded or bolted together.... it cuts the fatigue stress in half.

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[tribologist]

We did not take the tank out. I made a spray nozzle from a walmart brass nozzle by cutting a slit in it with a hack saw. That nozzle was put in the 3/8 bsp holes and we stuck the hose from a $20 bucket head wet-vac from home depot in the fuel sender hole. We dropped the tounge as far as it got to make it drain in the front.

Dirt was very easy to remove. I was thinking of using some germ killing detergent but decided not to due to introducing corrosion risks.

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[tribologist]

Here is the next task..

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[tribologist]

The other thing that my wife is working on is painting the rear cabin. What bothers us is a brown, oil like substance that seem to have crept under the paint and stained the fiberglass. Its mainly around screw holes so im thinking linseed oil. Any experience with this??? Im taking a sample to my favorite analytical chemist tomorrow...

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[dkirsop]

Looks to me like water has found its way into the fibreglass layup, probably through the screws that hold the grab rails in place. Best solution is to cover the cabin on the outside with a tarp, remove all the hardware on the roof and dry out the cabin with a dehumidifier. Then re-seal all the through roof fasteners. You should allow about a week for the drying process.

[DesertAlbin736]

RE wiring: Been there, done that.

Before: You tell me which are 12V (+) & which are 12V (-). At far left was the 110 V AC circuit entrance. Had a screw in fuse which I'd swapped for a screw in circuit breaker, but no galvanic isolator, no neutral side breaker or reverse polarity indicator

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After: 12V ground bus bars to the left, positive terminals to right. Where possible red wires for (+), black, yellow, or in case of OEM wires, blue for 12V (-). Everything labled. Green wire at upper left is 110 AC safety ground tied it 12V ground, downstream of galvanic isolator series installed in the AC safety immediately down stream of service entrance. All newly installed wiring is tinned boat cable, except where OEM wiring was left in place.

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Close up of revised shore power entrance & galvanic isolator at far left.

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AC shore power breaker panel (dual 30 amp main breaker) & battery charger on the wall under the dashboard & map shelf. SI-ACR relay & solar panel charge controller under the panel & battery charger.

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[DesertAlbin736]

For tribologist...

Weld failures on forward most AL crossmember & flat stock braces. Main trailer frame is I-beam. Similar cracked welds on both ends of crossmember. This was pre-existing when we bought the boat.

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Initial 2014 repairs & reinforcements, professionally done at weld shop, at cost of $800

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I don't have any current photos, but those repair welds have all cracked worse than before. The photo below shows the trailer layout. Keel rests on rollers at each cross member, and it's the front one that gives all the trouble. I had lowered the front roller to take some of the strain off, but 1,000's upon 1,000s of miles of trailering over sometimes rough interstate highways has taken its toll.

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This shows how the boat rests on the trailer.

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Knowing what I know now I would have sold this trailer right off & replaced it with a galvanized steel one. Obviously the Achilles heel is where the I-Beam curves inward toward the tongue.

[tribologist]

That is likely very fixable and can be done with a hand drill and a 3-wheel craftsman wood bandsaw for $35 on a tag sale and maybe $150 worth of aluminum plate.... ( wood band saws cuts aluminum like nothing...)

The problem is not the vertical load on the forward beam by the boat. That joint would crack even if the boat would not touch it. The problem is when the trailer flexes/rocks forward-aft it causes a wringing/twisting of the main beams due to the curve of the beams. The cross member tries to stop that rotation since it is firmly welded to the web of the beam. This generates tremendous stress on those welds cracking them very quickly. The large gaps in the cracks indicate that it is not a fatigue problem caused by your driving distance but a overload problem.

There is absolutely nothing you can do to make this go away by stiffening that joint unless you put a cross member that is of the same dimension as the I-beam and attach it with bolted or riveted doublers on top and bottom... (not the path to go down...)

I would go in the opposite direction and allow the I-beams to rotate without causing high stresses. If it was my trailer, I would cut the cross member flush to the inner edge of the beam, then I would move it away from the old repair. Forward or aft.

To attach it if I moved it aft I would bolt a "triangular" 3/8" 6061-T6 plate under the cross member, on top of the lower flange,. I would use 1/2" Grade 5 bolts with heavy washers about centered on the flange and close to the side walls on the rectangular tube cross member. If I could move it forward, I cut it slightly shorter than the space between the webs and I would rest it on top of the flange and bolt it down with two bolts. (big thick washers, Grade 5 bolts...)

I included some images of my trailer. All my cross members are C-channel or rectangular steel. What I hate with my trailer is that the keel is supported on the full length by a plank. It will make it much harder to get it off to do the bottom. I would love to have rollers.

Disclaimer....
The above is just what I would have done personally and is off course not a recommendation or endorsements on what you need to do. You need to take advice of a structural engineer that has all the facts and is properly licenced in the state of Arizona.

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Here is another way to see it...

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[tribologist]

Took care of the one wheel that had bearing issues. Turned out to be a damaged Bearing buddy seal. I decided to fix the shaft using a Speedi-Sleeve from SKF. The shaft was rotted pretty good so i filled it with evinrude sealer and drove the sleave over the goop. Speedi sleeves are more expensive than the bearing buddy repair sleeve but it allow you to use standard seals after. The Bearing buddy has a special seal.

SKF 99171 is the right one for 1-3/8 bearings. It goes over 1.719”

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I usec an aluminum tube to drive the sleave up on the shaft. Its so thin so it goes easily.

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This is what was on there... leaked like a white house staffer

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This is how corroded the shaft was...

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[tribologist]

Lifted out the fuel tank since it was clean and empty I figured it was a good time for bilge cleaning....

I also had the fill neck pressing against the hull inner structure so i took the opportunity to grind that out to fit better.

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[tribologist]

Im going backwards while my wife is going forward.... aft cabin with fresh paint!

Ulf[

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[dkirsop]

Yep. Fresh paint really brightens up the cabins!