I spent a few minutes the other day looking at the old boat trailer again. The suspension has two coil springs, shock absorbers, a panhard bar to keep the axle centered and two control arms that the axle pivots on for its up and down movement. The control arms and the panhard bar have rubber bushings in the ends of them. Those would need to be replaced as would the tires and lights. It might be a little tough to find the correct bushings but the rest of the fab work would be pretty straight forward.
The crossmember that the top of the shocks and springs mount to sits on top of the frame rails. It's 2" thick. If I cut the other crossmembers loose and raise them up 2", I'd have an even surface to mount the decking to. Trim the back off even with the rear crossmember, take about 42" out of the tongue, weld some tie-down hooks and Bob's your uncle.
The trailer is equipped with a tilt top now. It would be easy enough to keep that function by just adding a bit of length to the ears the tongue bolts to after raising the cross member up. One piece of 5/8" or 3/4" treated plywood would take care of the deck. An 8' sheet would extend beyond the front crossmember about 16", so the sheet would need to be cut at the angle of the side rails where they taper in. Bolt a motorcycle chock in the triangular nose section, maybe wrap the nose with a short wall to protect a bike or other cargo from rocks being thrown up from the truck. I could probably bring the finished project in somewhere in the $250 - $300 range if I don't wait too long to start buying materials.
I got a little bit more done on the jitney. I'm working on getting all the engine parts mounted up so I can start building the header. Not exactly burning it up, but getting things done just the same.
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