Does anybody ever bitch that their sail box is too big? Hell no.

I haven't figured the volume, but this thing is massive. 13+ feet long, almost 8-1/2 feet wide at the top of the "T". Front section is 40" tall, the back is 28" tall, and 42" wide. Spin pole is a non issue, hell the cat-trax will fit inside. The cat-trax is like throwing a hotdog down a hallway, (something I'm way too familiar with....), going into that box.

Just the bottom made up and sized:



putting the sides on:





I've got nine hours into it to get it to this point. I'm going to have to finish a few things up tomorrow. Bondo screw holes, and make a lid and a couple of doors, then she'll be ready for paint.








I know plywood isn't going to last very long, but I wasn't ready to shell out probably $4k to have this thing built from diamond plate. Plus it'd be nice to try it out before making the jump to a really expensive box. As is, there's about $600 in material there. My last one was made out of wood and really poorly finished, and severely neglected and I probably could've gone through all of next season before it started to really disintegrate. It survived three full seasons of sitting outside.

Cover it with glass cloth and cheap resin, it will last a long time and you can sleep in it instead of paying for a motel, so you've got that going for you!

All you need is an air mattress and your inflatable date.

"If the toy box is a rock'n, don't bother knock'n!"

Nice workshop!

Any concept sketch to see how it is planned to turn out?

Epoxy resin and paint on cheap ply makes it last "forever"

Throw in your sleeping bag and you're good for the winter.

Its my work, kinda why I need to get it outta here this weekend. The shop is nice, but it's seriously short on space. I need another 5000 sq/ft (465sq/m) to get comfortable again. The building I'm in is for sale, (I rent this space), if and when it does sell my business might be homeless and it'll be time to put up a new building. Though I'm not sure I'll be able to afford to put up much more than 5000 sq/ft to start with. But if I lay it out with the intention of adding on, it won't be that big of a deal to do so.


I didn't really have a plan going into it. Just to maximize the available space that's on the trailer. I'll sort out where everything is going to go inside once I have it finished up, and I try to load it up with everything.

I need to have it painted and ready to travel for next weekend.

I've got a gallon of the bed liner stuff, I think I'm going to do the front of the box with that. Should help protect it from the pickup a little bit. All terrain tires, doesn't really matter too much. They throw up some sh!t.

Looks good.
Whatever you cover it with, take the advice and epoxy it first, especially end grain. Been there and it works. Only place I had problems was where screws were put in for hardware, the rest held up for about 15 years.

I am sure this is common knowlegde but I mention it anyway.
Where fittings are to be secured with screws drill the holes oversize. Fill with thickened epoxy. Then re-drill once hardened and mount the fittings. This stops water from getting inside the ply ruining it with swelling etc. Works for both screws and through bolts.

I ain't got time for epoxy right now. Seriously one more step would mean it wouldn't be hitting the road in a week. I've got just enough time to slap some paint on it, anchor it, and hit the road.

Why not skip the paint for now then and just cover it in a quick setting epoxy. You can always paint it later but you can not add epoxy over the paint.

Well.... Just slid it on the trailer. Fooked up a little bit. Just realized that my center mast cradle is pretty much useless now because I made the front section of the box too tall. Pisser. Not the end of the world though, I've got four others.










There's just enough room for a F18 on there too.


I really wish my new enclosed was done. Would've been nice to pull that down, but it won't be done until after Thanksgiving.

I would get a mudflap that goes from one side of your car to the other because any rocks you flick up are going to hit the back of your car including the rear window (Don't ask me how I know). You could thin the epoxy and brush it on, it will soak in and dry overnight. A big advantage is it will fill any gaps making the box waterproof, at the moment you cant wash your boat on that trailer without wrecking the box.

I made a (much smaller) box like that out of door-skin on a 1 x 2 frame (cut down 2x4) and coated inside/outside in cheap polyester resin and glassed the edges.

Did what Rolf said and cut larger hole for screws, filled them in with epoxy/cabosil and re-drilled them. Learned that from mounting winches on my dad's boat.

Thing went 3 seasons (at least) without noticable rotting before I sold the thing. Stored outside and washed the boat on the trailer occasionally...

Probably would have lasted longer if I'd designed it better. Could stand on most parts of the box, too.

Well, I epoxied the whole thing inside and out. I pretty much wholesale murdered some brain cells sitting inside that thing. The first cost of paint should go well though.

I thinned out the epoxy with about 12% acetone, went on pretty nicely that way. It's thin, but it can be. I'll post some more pics in a bit.

Just out of curiosity, does that box weigh more than your boat?

It's not to bad. More than 200#'s, but not a heck of a lot more. Two of us picked it up and set it on the trailer. I'm fine with weight. Truck is got plenty of snort, brakes, and suspension. The trailer has a pair of 2500# axles, but I'm only tagged for 3k#'s, it'll be close with three boats and gear. Really I'm adding more tongue weight than anything.

is that "instead of" the pop up camper you were looking at?

Karl, what are you using to secure the box to the trailer? U bolts or...?

The reason I ask is, one of my biggest problems is ants getting into my box through the little bit of space around the bolt holes, then 'nesting' in my sails and stuff! I have learned to spray ant killer all around the U bolt holes to keep the little bastads out...but some still manage to find a way in.

I use self-tapping screws

Screwed directly down into the trailer beams, from the inside of the box?

yes