Hey everybody, This is my first post and I'm looking for some advice from boat owners.

I purchased my dad's 12' Jon boat 3 years ago and I've been taking it all over North Texas fishing and Hunting. I load it in and out of the back of my truck (some of you may have even seen me at your lakes.)

I need a trailer and could care less what it looks like as long as it is legal and can carry a boat.

I've had a few dead ends on craigslist, and have thought about buying a trailer to assemble from Harbour Freight. I don't want to put a bunch of money into this because I'm about a year or two away from buying a full sized boat.

Anybody have any ideas of places to look or cheap ideas to hack a regular trailer or any comments about whether buying a trailer in a box and putting it together is a good idea and will last long enough.

I'll post this in different forums so you may see this post again. Thanks.

if you want to Build your own, not too hard, I have an axle and 3 tires. tires have great tread, but one has a slow leak. the are 12" tires. PM me and I will gab some pictures of the axle. I live just off of Lewisville lake by the 35E New bridge..

Iv got a 14x48 hull with a good trailer for $500. Northeast Texas...and I have a title to the hull..

Chiprat, I thought about building my own and a guy I talked to said I would end up spending almost as much on the material and I should just buy one.

I spent $250 on the boat and want to stay around that price range. I've heard of people using flat trailers as jon boat trailers. Harbour Freight has a flat trailer for $200ish. I wonder if I put that together if it would be legal for hauling a boat. The boat might be slightly larger than the trailer, but as long as its secure I wonder if Hypo would ticket me?

Yetiguy, You can just about get any trailer to be legal for your boat but the problem with alot of those budget trailers is the axle rating and tires that are small and not safe for full highway speeds. Look at the speed rating of the tires on the trailer you are considering and Ill bet you will be disappointed in that choice. My 2 cents worth...

Wish I could help; I did just about the same thing. I found a trailer on craigslist for 50.00 and put new hubs and bearings, tires etc. because they were all rusted and tires were shot. Keep looking on craigslist, something will come along. Check out the Lawn and Garden section also. I thought about the Harbor Freight route, but I didn't think they were the way to go, just too light weight for me.