Name sounds familiar. Probably know him if I saw him. There's too many darn Hudgins in this county to keep track of them all. Haha. If he lives in Cobbs Creek he probably lives near the Marina I keep my boat at. It's on Cobbs Creek Lane.

We grew up together down here at Gloucester Point. He moved up to Mathews about 20 years ago. I cant remember the name of his road....he works for Gloucester County, hangs out down at the marina on weekends...he can suck the bottom out of beer can faster than anyone!

Picked up a tandem axle trailer today. Needs some work but I only paid $200 for it. It's pretty solid other than some rust on the fenders and some of the hardware. Also needs some rollers and I'll probably replace the springs as they are pretty rusted. It's made by Calkins and seems to have a unique roller setup that I've never seen before. The guy I got it from bought it brand new and it was bought for his V-20. Unfortunately his boat got hung under a dock at low tide and sank so he has no need for the trailer any more. He said it was the easiest loading trailer he's ever owned so hopefully with just dumping a few bucks in it I'll have a nice trailer and I'll just sell Big Red. I'll post some pics soon.

I had a Calkins trailer that came with my Grady. If it has this roller setup check those u shaped frames for rust really well. The front one on mine was rotted bad from the inside out and cracked on me. Mine was also a 1980 model so it was to be expected I guess.

Had one of those once, yes the front tube was rotted out. Depends a lot on regular care.

Since he told me about it I googled them and see the U shaped bars you're talking about but this one isn't quite like that. It seems solid but I know rotting from the inside out isn't really something you can see. There's a couple brackets I may have to get fabbed up. Not sure if it was a good buy yet or not. Depends on what kind of money I have to put in it.

Well the more I inspect this thing the more I think I may have bought a $200 frame and axles. The bars that run across the trailer that pivot seem to have alot of rust on them. Most of the hardware is shot and the brackets holding the rollers seem to be FUBAR. Main problem is that you can't just buy parts for the trailer. Not sure how hard it'd be to make it a bunk trailer being that there isn't really any cross braces between the frame rails. Well we will see what happens, for now it can sit behind the shed til I figure it out.

Well looks like the powerhead will be coming off this weekend and headed to get rebuilt. It's gonna cost me around $2k for parts and labor and that's everything new (Pistons, bearings, rings, gaskets etc.). I don't think that's too bad especially with the reputation this guy has. I've asked all of my boating freinds about him and they've all said the same thing, the dude is awesome.

I do kind of wish a new 4-stroke was in the cards right now but it's just not. Right now I'm trying to make a huge business move that will set me and my family's future up and the last thing I need to do right now is put myself in more debt then I already have. But I know with this motor that this boat will absolutely fly. And with this guys reputation I shouldn't have any major issues in the future as long as I do my part in the maintenance routine. Now I'm debating on going ahead and pulling the whole motor off and getting the transom redone even though the glass man thinks it'll be fine for a couple years. It appears there is just a little moisture around the 2 bottom motor holes but I guess I may as well get it taken care of now.

I talked to TeeRoy yesterday, sounds like you finally got BB? I was in the same boat as you(see what I did there?) and have never regretted building my 2.4. Nothing like screaming around at 6000+

Sounds like you have a plan, if you have faith in the glass guy, I'd run the rebuilt motor a while before tackling the transom. That's the beauty of an outboard, only four bolts and a couple of quick disconnects holding it on.

On the trailer, looks like too many moving parts to me