This was a long process from the moment the axles broke on the trailer back in September when we attempted to move it due to Hurricane Helene’s approach.  The undercarriage of the trailer had been sitting on the beach since 2010 and the salty air and water were very unkind to it even though we did our best to protect it.  Beach erosion and high tides started lapping at the wheels.  Since then the trailer has resided at the end of a cul-de-sac in Snug Harbor, our usual storage location for hurricane evacuation.

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Many options were discussed on what to do about our presence on the beach and getting that trailer or some facsimile down there.  The Wakulla County parks Department shot down one idea (skids), and others were bantered about until we settled on getting a trailer to slide under the existing training building, heretofore referred to as the “box”!  Brand new aluminum trailers, used steel trailers, and all kinds of trailers were looked at.  Sandy was browsing Facebook marketplace and spotted one up around Cottondale FL that she thought might fit the bill and told Wright about it at which point Wright drove out west to the boonies to look at it and thought it might fit the bill.  Therefore, a week later he took Stan, Vaughan, and BobA with him to get some second opinions, they made an offer which the owner took, and they hauled the trailer back with Baab’s Expedition, thus beginning the transformation.

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Though many people in the Club wanted to help with the transformation, it was decided to do most of the work during the week and enlist the ROADies to get it done, working mostly on Wednesdays.  ROADies stands for Retired Old Ass Dudes/Dudettes and those that helped were Quartermaster, Limey, Suds, Fractions, Tools, Huh?, Polack, Sledgehammer, Cracker, Shutterfly, Bill Olson (a ROADie intern), and one that is always in our memories when something may not be perfect but still good, Lee Chapin, the one and only Close Enough.

Several things we had to do first was to get the new used trailer in shape to slide under the Box, which required removing attached railings and toolboxes, painting the underside and topside with rust proofing paint and getting the top ready for its new occupant.  The Box had to be elevated to safely work underneath it and, in the future, slide the new trailer underneath.  With the Box elevated all the rusted steel suspension and framing underneath it was removed by Cracker with his weapon of choice, an acetylene torch, and his sidekick, Fractions.  They made short work of it without catching it on fire, cutting the long beams up into small enough parts for us to haul to the dump. These steps were taken on the first two work Wednesdays in preparation for the insertion.

Lumber (14’ – 4’ x 6’s ) for the crossbeams had to be delivered to the beach.  Since the box had been sitting at the end of the cul-de-sac and Bob and Sandy’s vacant lot was used to stage the new trailer and other things, the lumber had to be delivered where we could get to it.  The vacant lot is in a neighborhood called The Lakes at Shell Point which went bankrupt in 2003 and has no homes, so there are no street names or addresses.  To get the wood where it needed to be, the delivery folks called Perry and met him at the entrance to Snug Harbor.  (On a side note, I wrote a great unoriginal song called “A Street with No Name” sung to the tune of "A Horse with No Name" by America).

Everything was measured three or four times before being put in place, so we picked up the lumber, held it under the Box where it needed to be, and attached nine cross beams.  Once this was done, we had to jack the trailer back up to rest it on the cross beams and to remove the concrete columns that were holding it up to make room for the trailer insertion.  Once the trailer was slid under manually, the Box was slowly lowered on to it and all the concrete blocks removed.

When looking at the pictures, you will see the wood sticking out the sides, which were originally meant to be cut, but because it was a long day, Suds broke out his cooler, and we sat down on the beams and got to talking about alternatives to cutting them off.

There are still a few things that need to be done, such as installing hurricane clips to tie the 4’ x 6’s to the box, installing some trim boards and lattice work around the box margins, and doing some touch up carpentry and painting.  We are waiting on the ground protection mats on which the trailer wheels will sit on the beach.  In the past, we have backed the trailer in over sand to sit on top of concrete blocks.  This time, we will have several paver pads that we can leapfrog so the tires never have to work their way through sand.

In short, most of the job rehabilitating the training trailer has been completed without a hitch.  Thanks to the work of the ROADies and the financial support of the SPSC, we have saved the box and attached it to a good quality used trailer.  The rig should be back on the beach in the usual location within several weeks.  FESTOONS!