Driving 650 miles to inspect a possible 2004 Nautique 216 purchase.

[MN Ryan]

bionaraq Nice! I have an '07 Eagle trailer that looks quite similar aside from the swing tongue.

[Skidave]

I have a 2003 Eagle trailer. Crash pads were optional. I like the trailer, but have had some rust repairs over the years. I also replaced my bunk carpet twice in it's lifetime and the wood for the bunks once. I told my wife prepare to buy a new trailer in 8-10 years (which will be aluminum).

I'm on my 3rd set of tires, 2nd set of pads, 2nd set of bearings and seals and 2nd set of lights. Overall, not too bad. I wish I had one of those hub odometers like big trailers have. I'd be curious to see how many miles I racked up over the years.

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

[Scooter G]

bionaraq, 3am? That's some detication and git'er done there!
Why does that sound like a Dad thing, lol, our best to him.
Thanks for sharing. Great posts!

[bionaraq]

Dad was with me the entire way. On our test drive today “this was my dream when I bought my Supra in 1991 I just could not afford it.”

I’ll do a full summary tomorrow. Took the wife out and kids got some good photos. Going to take a while to teach them to sit on their butts underway. They are too used to the high sides.

[jjackkrash]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I love a good boat-buying success story.

[Scooter G]

Agreed jjackkrash, great story, thanks for sharing. I can relate to Dad's dream.
Much better than anything I read in the news this morning, we need a few good stories to start the day...

[srock]

Problems with lights...The first thing and often the problem is the ground to the trailer. An easy fix.

[bionaraq]

Quote removed by Admin for not following the Guidelines for Quoting Previous Posts in a Thread.

This was more a comedy of errors. We were tired, we went into tractor supply, grabed an extension that was long enough (with 4 pin each side), and a "clip in" end piece because the factory one was falling apart. THen the extension had a weird self ground with a screw rather than using the truck ground pin. the clip in style did not work. I went back and bought a longer single add on kit. Only for it to be truck side. The trailer side only had 12" of line. so we ended up using the clip on style and cut the weird extension end off so we had a proper 4 wire and then connected the short trailer side to the trailer. If we had been thinking clearly it would not have taken long. Or if we'd brought a harness as had been suggested.

Also the trailer brake reservoir is completely empty and i see some signs of corrosion, also the trailer is actually supposed to have a 5 pin connector because we found the blue line for the brake solenoid...

[MN Ryan]

When you said 4-pin, my immediate thought was "doesn't it have brakes?" Sounds like it's been neglected a bit. Good luck with it!

[bionaraq]

Quote removed by Admin for not following the Guidelines for Quoting Previous Posts in a Thread.

It was only used 2x a year. put boat in water, pull boat out of water. stored in a heated garage. Most likely a mile each way max.

I'm going to start a "restoration" thread to show progress of the boat.

[Scooter G]

I was with MN Ryan, I had to go back & look at pics of the boat as I thought I had remembered.
Brakes are fun, 13 ways to skin a cat, a lot of posts and videos out there on the process. Word to the wise, can't remember the exact words, but I don't think my wife will be helping me bleed brakes again, ever, lol. Those brake resevoirs are way to small in my opinion, check for leaks, check the level often.
I was very disapointed to hear the trailer clunk as I drove our new to us boat off the lot of the dealer (that did a prior "thorough inspection" of the boat). Checked the resevoir when we got home to find probably the same lovely discoloration and corrosion you are seeing. There was even rust on all 4 disks, there's a sign for ya.

[MN Ryan]

I had a master cylinder that had a slow drip last summer (as in a few drips per week). Fluid was also pretty gross. I hired it out--cost me like $500, but I'm more confident that it was done correctly. It stops well, now!

[bionaraq]

it's all adding up. i'm busy at work which is a good thing.
Wayne at New Dimension Towers got back to me on pricing for bimini, tower, pre wired, nav light, and install. I like the roswell towers more (more modern) but my wife prefers the classic look. Decisions decisions.

I made a post in the maintenance area but it appears that it was too many things at once and I should have made multiple posts. Steering cables being super loose is one i'm wonder on. Do i just have a ton of slack? or is that how they are supposed to be (pinky steering at any speed).

Boat did not come with bow speakers, something i'd like to remedy but i see that for the 216 there was an optional "pod" that had cupholder and speakers together.

[MN Ryan]

bionaraq If you have the model # off your trailer, this PDF lists part numbers for all your bearings, races, and seals.

Eagle bearing #s: http://hltlimitedtrailers.com/wp-con...-size-only.pdf

[jjackkrash]

Make sure to grease the rudder and repack it if necessary. If the rudder has an adjustable wing to add steering torque adjust the wing so that it points a bit to the drivers side.