Thanks guys,
It must be the angle of the photo, because the truck doesn't move more than an inch when I put the trailer on. The rig rides very level.
No photoshop here, thats Ebay'd DOT tape. 150' for $75. I pulled the middle stripe off the Loadmaster and replaced it with Grote DOT tape. I did the rear cross member and 2 wraps on each upright. Can't say you don't see me at night. It's too long between the trucks tail lights and the marker light on the trailer, and if that goes out
. You should see it at night with headlights on it
it glows!!
Total time on the rig:
Planning, thinking and drawing stuff up est. 25 hours
Shopping and researching est. 40 hours
Fabrication of the 2 boxes around 8-10 hours
Install and cleanup around 60 hours
Calibrating electronics etc around 4 hours
Total about 140 hours or 3.5 weeks. However it was done over several months. I had all the major items ordered and at the house waiting on the boat to arrive. I even had all the stainless hardware and electrical connectors (the pricey little shrinkwrap ones) all purchased and ready to go. I made life much easier than buying as I went along.
I was also fortunate that the dealer let me pull the electronics box out prior to getting the boat. We were waiting for the trailer to arrive so we could close. They let me pull the E box out of the boat and take it home to get started. When the boat came home the lower box was already done and waiting to go in. That saved 4-5 hours easy.
At $75 per hour the job would have cost me around 6K to have it installed for the time it took me. Of course a pro would have cut my time by at least half, but the fabrication still would have taken allot of time. I figure it would have cost me $3500-$5000 realisticly to have the amount and quality of work done that I did myself.
Every connection is soldered and shrinkwrapped. All the factory wiring to the upper box was removed and replaced so that the fusing was done in the console via a Blueseas box (access to the upper box is poor, so I didn't want any fuses up there) All the wires are loomed and secured every 6" with tape under the loom and every 6-10" with rubber lined loom holders on the outside. Every nut, bolt, screw and washer are stainless and nylock. (THAT LITTLE STUFF GETS REALLY PRICEY!)
If I was to do it again (thank God I don't have to) I bet I could cut 1/3 of the time off the install. I learned allot and on some things I would do something only to have to undo it for another project. I tried to think out the order of operation before hand, but sometimes you run into stuff you just didn't plan on (access to the bolts to the radar mount was a big one in that dept.) I bet I laced and unlaced that T top 5 times if IU did it once. Got pretty good at it by the end
I have rigged smaller boats in the past, but NOTHING like this. All the NMEA stuff was new to me. A huge thanks to THT for the help with the NMEA stuff. I built a black box just like one of the members posted with the Euro bar inside (Radio shack stuff) It worked super.
If anyone is planning to do a rigging job like this I say try it. If you take your time and think it out it's not that bad. Taking your time is the whole key to the job. I'm not the calmest person, but since there were no fish around to temp me I was able to work at a good pace and stop when I was getting cranky. I would set daily goals and if they got done, I'd stop. If they took longer I'd work late. I tried to do a little every day to keep from being overwhelmed. As the pile of gear in the living room got smaller even the wife commented on the progress I was making :D
The best part is I saved $$$ and I know where every wire goes and how it gets there. I understand how the factory stuff runs and I should be able to deal with any fixable issues that should arrise OTW.
Every little thing is FINALLY done. (Here is my finished boat & tow vehicle) 
Go give em hell 
photob
ucket.com 
