Jan 15. Trailer Fenders

I thought this was a really clever idea -- to put steps on either side of the fenders. I thought this was cool for two reasons: 1) step up anywhere and reach down easily into the boat while it is on the trailer, and 2) the gentle sweep out from the team to the fender and back in again prevent sucking your knee bad on the fender. 

A third benefit I later moticed was that the angled step gave the round taillight a an angry-looking brow when viewed from slightly above. Cool. You'll see it in tomorrow's pics. 

Well, in hindsight the steps were not really all that great. The boat on the trailer is already low enough to easily reach into the middle, and the steps just make that a little harder by pushing you away or raising you up too high. 

Plus there were a couple other issues I didn't think about until I tried to implement. The extra steel I got from some quarter inch plate I salvaged from a house remodel. Eighth inch steel plate cuts like butter with a sawzall, but it's very hard to cut a straight line. Lots of filing necessary after. Quarter inch plate cuts very slowly with the sawzall and is also impossible to cut straight. So I talked to the tool guy down at Moscow Building. There were a couple options. 1) They sell a metal-cutting blade for a circular saw for $45. It looks exactly like a wood blade. I was skeptical because i learned a while ago that the secret to cutting metal without burning up the blade is to slow the rpm down to keep the heat down, and you can't slow down a circular saw. Option 2) was a $4 grinder blade for the circular saw. I chose two of those. Options 3, 4, and 5 were expensive new tools so I won't go into them. Maybe someday I should get a plasma cutter ($1200). Or better yet, a CNC plasma cutter $50k). 

I got 2/3 of the way though cutting out the first two steps when the grinder blade was already worn down to half its original size. I had to finish the cut crooked and slow with the sawzall. 

The other dumb thing I did on the fenders was that I failed to notice that they are not perfect half circles but have a flat-ish tail on the last two inches of one side. They're directional. I put the right fender on backward. Maybe nobody will notice.